Although technology always presents unexpected surprises, there are sometimes some developments in the world of technology that are predicted decades before its launch.
For example, in 1945 the American inventor Vannevar Bush wrote an article about a device. The writer imagines a device called “Memex”, which is characterized by its ability to store all records, books, and correspondence, and the ability to connect them to each other mechanically.
At the time, it was pure science fiction, and it can be said that it is hard to believe. But at the moment, we all have a device similar to a Memex in our hands, and you are probably reading this article on it.
At the present time, what we see as a fantasy will turn into an embodied reality, but with a completely new term; Recently, a strange term has begun to invade the world of tech, which is Metaverse technology, which seemed to be an expression derived from one of the science fiction films and novels.
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What’s Metaverse technology?
Metaverse is an alternate digital (virtual) reality where people can live and have fun and also meet in the future, as metaverse is a virtual digital space that is completely parallel to the real world with everything in it.
The term metaverse was first coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson through his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”, which revolves around the interaction of humans with each other in a digital space with three-dimensional technology and through the use of special avatars for each person.
But Stephenson is not the first person to have imagined that digital world, since the emergence of Internet tech in the seventies, there has been a fantasy about a parallel graphic world, and it was science fiction and an aspiration for the future and characterized as the successor of the Internet.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (Meta), also stated, speaking enthusiastically about Metaverse technology and its ability to change the future and shape of the company, in addition to changing the future of the Internet and social networking. It is important to mention that Mark Zuckerberg appeared in this statement very confident and serious about his words.
Metaverse at the present time
At present, the metaverse is not fully presented as an integrated technology or a consensus concept. Therefore, there is no specific definition about how it will be, but there are perceptions that are sometimes integrated and sometimes decreasing about the form in which the metaverse technology will appear. So we have to wait for the tech development to create for us the first generation of metaverse technology first, and the way it is used, and the extent of its acceptance by society secondly.
Metaverse in the future
What was agreed upon is that the metaverse technology will be a graphic sensory space that is not similar to the Internet, as the user will not need to log in, but through the appropriate tech, the user will be able to live inside it.
Users may need heavy VR goggles or a helmet to experience metaverse. But the future should bring us light virtual reality glasses and helmets. Or we may need an electronic chip that is placed under the skin or is implanted in the head, such as the Neuralink chip announced by Elon Musk, or micro-nano cells implanted in the human body, working to blend the real world with the Metaverse technology in front of your eyes.
This may sound like science fiction, but it is true, and all that was mentioned are experiments that are now being developed.
There is also another imagination based on the ability of the development of computers to read thoughts, as it will have the ability to connect the user’s mind directly to the tool that communicates with the Metaverse technology. Where there will be no need to touch a screen, press a button, or use hand gestures, or we may not need to connect the human body to any tool directly.
We called it a “tool” because the process of speculating about what the device or the tool will consist of, which will be a means of communicating with Metaverse technology, is not possible and very difficult, as it may be a sophisticated form of virtual reality glasses or phones, or it may be in the form of a chip that is implanted in the brain, similar to an Elon Musk chip. All this may be possible, but there is nothing real and tangible for now.
In a statement to Mark Zuckerberg at a conference that took place with some journalists on the Internet, and that was reported by news agencies. Mark had stated that he would like to discuss the term metaverse at the moment so that we can see the future that we are working on, and how metaverse will change the means of communication, and added that we are now in the process of mapping this upcoming and crucial change.
Metaverse technology is very possible and maybe in the near future because all the super equipment that this tech needs from a graphics card, processor, and memory are available in the devices we have. Also, the final connection speed of the fifth generation that we will reach will be able to provide an almost instantaneous connection with cloud storage and zero latency. Also, massive graphics cards in cloud servers, as well as super powerful processors, will be able to process remotely in real-time without delay.
In another statement from Mark Zuckerberg to CBS, he made it clear that he thinks of Metaverse technology being the next generation of the Internet, as the Internet will become a part of us and we are part of it instead of just being a screen we look at through mobile phones. In conclusion, he made it clear that the Internet of the future is a technology in which we can be.
The next video from Adobe may give us a simple glimpse of what the future will be like with metaverse technology, Which merges the real world and the virtual world.
Who owns the metaverse?
In fact, no one company can own or operate metaverse technology, it needs cooperation, many companies can participate in it at the same time, and its intellectual property can be transferred very smoothly between games, applications, and movies.
So, when asking the question “Who owns the metaverse?” the answer is “Nobody,” like the Internet, which one of its advantages is decentralization, meaning that the Internet may be Facebook or Google in the point of view of non-experts, or it may be WeChat in China. But in fact, the Internet is not owned by anyone, but we can own some applications within the Internet, as will the Metaverse technology.
There are many very common perceptions that wish or imagine virtual cyberspace similar to and superior to the Internet, as it has no rules and no one owns it. There must also be a place reserved in the metaverse for independent persons, over which there is no central authority.
How to achieve decentralization metaverse?
The possibility of achieving decentralization of Metaverse technology depends on the development of the technologies, the amount of availability, and the extent of integration that the developers will provide.
For example, there are limited miniature models that may show us what the metaverse will look like in the future. These models are found in the games Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft, as each of these games provides a 3D virtual graphic space that the user can move freely through, using his own avatar freely with the ability to create his own place and content alone.
Each of these three models (games) is entirely owned by the producing company, meaning that control of this space and its laws is entirely up to the company. But what if these three companies agreed to unite their worlds, and users would be able to move freely between these three worlds, and centralization would disappear as the number of companies increased. In this way, the decentralization of Metaverse technology will be a vast space containing a large number of interconnected worlds or environments, each company will own its own world, but it will not own this space.
How will the start of metaverse?
We have talked about the decentralization of metaverse, but decentralization is difficult to achieve at the beginning of this new tech. The big companies, while building their own future virtual world of the metaverse, know very well what extent this tech can reach, and will try as much as possible to exploit this technology for their own benefit.
For example, if Apple succeeds in providing metaverse technology to users of its devices, it is unlikely that it will allow its technology to be connected with the Meta that was established by Mark Zuckerberg.
Also, given the way Facebook has followed in the last decade, we don’t think Mark Zuckerberg will accept the idea of his company being an element with several components to create Metaverse technology, as Facebook (Meta) bought smaller social media platforms from it until it became a relatively monopolistic company in this field. It may try to follow the same method with metaverse and control the metaverse space completely in order to achieve the maximum profit potential.
Also, Meta (Facebook) is not the only company in this field, as there are other companies that have started their research and started turning to the virtual world of the metaverse. For example, the CEO of Microsoft has announced the start of creating a completely new department within the company dedicated to developing metaverse under the name of the Metaverse project, according to MarketWatch in a report.
It must be clarified that technology companies view metaverse as a technical bridge that connects smart devices and the virtual world, in which millions of people are present to play, work and communicate within the digital community, so it is likely that in the near future we will see many tech companies heading towards Metaverse technology.
But if we talk from the point of view of countries, China, for example, we find that they live in a corner dedicated to them on the Internet, so we cannot expect that they may participate in a global metaverse and it is possible that they build their own metaverse.
At first, it seems that there will be a great struggle or competition between large companies or between countries to control and lead the new Metaverse technology. But the great global trend towards these technologies will make it difficult or impossible to control this tech, that is, in the end, there will be a decentralization of the metaverse.
