Contents:
- First things first, what is the metaverse? Is it different from VR and AR projects?
- Who created the metaverse and why?
- What’s it like inside the metaverse? Does it have any distinctive features?
- So there are NFTs, bitcoin, and virtual items. Anything else?
- Can the metaverse be used in research?
- What about education in the metaverse? Will we have a meta-ITMO?
First things first, what is the metaverse? Is it different from VR and AR projects?
The metaverse is a new format of communication between people and valuables, such as different purchases, goods, and services. In order to function, the metaverse requires VR and AR technologies, a broadband internet connection, wearable sensors, and more. All of these elements make up the metaverse, turning it into a new format, a virtual world linked to the real one but existing in parallel.
Who created the metaverse and why?
The term was first mentioned by writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. Since then, IT companies and developers, including Microsoft and Epic Games, have been working on their virtual realities. Over this time, the internet has passed several stages of development: while Web 1.0 had static home pages, Web 2.0 is a network with dynamic user content, Wikipedia being one of its flagmen. On Wikipedia, every user can create content and place it on the page. The metaverse is a new generation of the internet, online shopping, and ecommerce. These are only its first steps and later, as new approaches and opportunities appear, we will see more services in the metaverse.
What’s it like inside the metaverse? Does it have any distinctive features?
The metaverse’s key features are major infrastructure solutions: broadband internet, wearable devices, VR and AR headsets, and many other technologies connecting the virtual world to the real one. In other words, the virtual world becomes a digital copy of reality, while virtual processes and actions have an effect in the real world, too. If you make a transaction in the virtual world, it will be valid in the real one – this is one of the metaverse’s core principles. Life never stops in the metaverse: things happen in real time, and the metaworld can be populated by an unlimited number of participants.
So there are NFTs, bitcoin, and virtual items. Anything else?
Apart from ecommerce, we are talking about digital twins, a technology allowing people to work on actual equipment in the virtual world. For example, you can take a virtual tour of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to see the experiments conducted there. If you are more of a space geek, you will be able to witness rocket and satellite launches or landings of Mars rovers and other spaceships. This will undoubtedly have an effect on the way we perceive the world and how it works.
Can the metaverse be used in research?
Digital twins will come in handy in research, too. For instance, they will allow scientists to remotely work on the LHC or any other complex and expensive installation. The data collected this way will be invaluable for global scientific development. Moreover, in ten years, we might see research groups coming together in the metaverse to plan their experiments and assign responsibilities. In terms of the metaverse, all these technologies will gradually turn into a digital reality that will facilitate our communication and allow us to develop science faster.
What about education in the metaverse? Will we have a meta-ITMO?
It will be possible in the future, however there are certain limitations, the main one being the way we perceive information over Zoom or in chat groups. It turns out that so far the virtual world lacks many advantages of its real counterpart, such as non-verbal signals, which transmit a considerable part of information. Additionally, in order for metauniversities to function, they will need the associated economic tools in the metaverse: when students are admitted, they have to be able to own a university’s tokens. Only then will metauniversities be able to provide a full-scale educational service.
