Does Metaverse Future Sometimes Make You Feel Stupid?

In 1992, when the Internet was still new, American novelist Neil Stevenson spoke about virtual reality, a virtual world where people would use digital avatars to live, work, and play online. He called it the Meta. The word meta means beyond and verse is taken from the word universe. He said this world, the Meta Verse would be the successor of the Internet, an escape of sorts from a Dystopian reality.

What kind of Dystopian reality? i.e.the global economy has collapsed, federal governments have lost their power, and a handful of giant corporations controlled the world. That was his projection three decades ago.

Today, big tech is working on building the same future minus the Dystopia. As we speak tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are racing to claim the metaverse— a virtual universe that will co-exist with a physical one. Facebook has even changed its name to Meta to stay on top of the curve. To a lot of their users, metaverse may sound like an idyllic place to spend time, especially now when the pandemic has locked us down. For two years now, human contact has been the casualty. Enter Metaverse with a promise to revolutionize our lives, to become an extension of the physical world. But the question is, do we really need it? Do we really need an imaginary world controlled by tech Giants? Will it really make our lives better on the Internet? or will it manipulate our perception of reality?

"2022 is poised, to be the years of MetaVerse, a technology based augmented reality space"

2022 is poised, to be the year of the MetaVerse, a technology based augmented reality space that could change how we live and interact forever. Think of it as an internet that you're not just looking at, but also living in. Your digital avatar will inhabit the Metavorse. Instead of watching or reading about a topic, you'll be experiencing it. Doing those actions yourself digitally, along with other people who want to be part of your experience.

Let me simplify it further. Imagine you're under lockdown, stuck far away from your family. How do you stay in touch with them? First of all, through video calls. That's the closest you can be today, and it's not close enough. As your family sits together, plays your favourite card game, or digs into a meal you feel left out. Methodist promises to change that. While here you can meet your family in a virtual space. You can play that game in your digital avatar. Actual movements and conversations can take place. This is what the Meta Verse offers experience? not just sight and sound. The concept is not really new. Video games have had it for a while now. Ask your cousin or niece, she may already be a digital land Baroness or the owner of a giant doll Corporation. Some of the biggest gaming companies in the world, like Roblox, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto, have already built their own virtual worlds with their own virtual economies, their own virtual currencies storylines, and characters. The Meta Verse too may have some of these gaming elements, but it's not going to be some kind of a video game. It will be cyberspace where reality meets imagination. The characters will be real human beings, but their world will be entirely fictional, made up of virtual elements that parallel real life.  At least that's what the proponents of the Metaverse say.  Like Mark Zuckerberg. According to him, the Metaverse will be like a teleportation device where you can explore a virtual world while being physically present at home. This brings us to another question.

 How many virtual worlds are there going to be? Will there be one metaverse or different metaverses going by the kind of investments being made? It's safe to say that we'll be spoiled for choice. There are different virtual worlds in the making. Facebook wants to be the biggest one, but it's not the only one in pursuit. A number of tech heavyweights are added. Apple, for instance, they're currently working on an advanced virtual reality gadget. Reports say it could revolutionize the Metaverse experience. Google is said to be working on an innovative augmented reality device. This, we are told, will create a separate and unique metadata platform. Microsoft has also joined the race. It's creating a digital world called Mesh. This will incorporate virtual experiences directly into Microsoft teams. Then we have Disney's apparently creating a Disney theme Meta Verse. It would be an extension of Disney's films and streaming service.

Even governments are betting on it. In 2021, the South Korean government announced the creation of a National Meta Verse Alliance. What will they do? Bring different virtual worlds under one umbrella? Barbados is one step ahead. It plans to set up an embassy in the Meta Verse. Believe it or not, last year, they signed an agreement. They tied up with a crypto-backed virtual world to set up a digital diplomatic mission. In the United States, the city of Santa Monica did something similar. It partnered with a Metaverse company to launch a digital version of Santa Monica, a version where players can win rewards by collecting items hidden at various locations in the city. Of course, the digital version of it. So almost everything everywhere is becoming the Metaverse. It's no more just an experiment by a few tech geeks. It's becoming an inevitable alternative to reality. So resisting it or being in denial is a bad idea. We say asking questions about how it will operate is a good one. Questions like these. Do the Meta workers ensure Privacy? Is it an equitable space? How Democratic and open source will it be? What lines do we need to draw? And above everything else, will it be safe? I ask because there are already reports of crimes in the Metaverse.

 In December, last year, a woman in San Francisco trapped Meta's Oculus headset to play her favorite shooter game. When she entered the game. Her digital avatar was approached by another, a stranger who groped and harassed her avatar digitally. When asked to stop the perpetrator is said to have told the victim, it's the metaverse, I'll do what I want, it's horrid, and it's not a one-off incident.  According to the center for Countering Digital Hate, a violent incident occurs every seven minutes on a popular virtual reality world, VR chat, and this makes the concept problematic. You see virtual reality plunges you into a digital environment. The slightest of touch or sensory experience is heightened. It's exaggerated to give you an immersive experience. So every crime that is committed can feel much more real and much more intense. And these issues are likely to get magnified once the meta verse expands. How do tech companies plan to address these concerns? How do they plan to ensure the privacy and safety of digital avatars? Well, they say they can't.

In March last year, Meta executive Andrew Bosworth, who will become Meta's chief technology officer this year, said that moderating what people say and how they act in the metaverse is and I'm quoting at any meaningful scale practically impossible.  That's what he said. Which brings us back to the question, how safe is the metaverse going to be? Especially for children? For most tech companies, the target audience is children teenagers who are almost always on the Internet. Studies have proven that metaverse is not safe for children. Several crimes have been reported, like children being exposed to graphic sexual content, children being groomed to repeat racist slurs, children adopting extremist views from strangers, and children being subjected to sexual harassment, all of which is already happening, by the way, and it's apparently practically impossible to stop it.

My point is quite simple. Meta worse can change the world for the better, potentially, but it can also overstep its purpose. It can become a tool for predators to commit crimes online and get away with it. It can become a dangerous and unhealthy escape from reality. As it is, we are living in strange times, our need for social interaction is being denied to stop a deadly virus. We are relying on technologies to fill the void. The metaverse promises to give people a second life of sorts— an online world where they can interact, meet, shop, party, even build a house if they want to. But remember, none of it will be real. It's all made to make you forget reality. To escape the uniquely human elements of life, like hugging a child, having lunch with friends, walking your dog, buying your first car, stepping into a new house. These are all staples of life, and they cannot be replicated online. Holograms cannot replace human relationships. Sensory experiences cannot replace real emotions. The meta verse cannot become a second life. It's at best going to be an imprisoned reality.