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?
