The interactions with objects for the solutions of knowledge sharing, mobility, accommodation, health, and other needed elements for life brought humanity to this level of progress. Using nature as a tool eased the work of the population and increased the level of satisfaction. However, evolution did not bring only positive outcomes. Also, negative ones, from the first stone for killing someone to nuclear weapons, destroyed millions of lives. The curiosity to learn and discover grew immensely in the last 3 decades through the accessibility of the internet. Being social is one of the basic human needs that foster knowledge sharing. People loved to create their own worlds and connect with each other through the complex system called the web. Then years after networks became powerful, a new term emerged, the Metaverse, which many people talk about it today. But what is it? I do not know exactly. In my mind, there are different definitions and unclear pictures. So decided to understand it in a simple way, and let’s explore it together.
In most cases, if I do not have any information about the term. I start with etymology, how the word emerged, who used it for the first time, and how it changed through time.
The Metaverse was first time used by Neil Stephenson in 1992 in his futuristic dystopian novel Snow Crash. Stevenson’s metaverse was a virtual place where people could go to escape an anarcho-capitalist reality, similar to modern, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) through which they move with avatars. The futuristic dystopian novel.
The term is supposed to come from meta + universe. Meta has a Greek origin that means beyond, after, or across (e.g., metaphysics). Google Ngram Viewer shows how the term has been used popularly in the last decades.
(Note: some terms before 1992 are not related to the meaning of Metaverse, just word similarities)
The first Metaverse concept emerged even earlier in 1985-1986 with the development of the game called Habitat, developed by LucasArts. Basically, in this game, people could go to some places like the beach, caves, suburbs and interact with others.
It was revolutionary at that time to have virtual avatars. Avatar? What is that?!
“Avatar” comes from the Sanskrit word avatāra meaning “descent”. Within Hinduism, it means a manifestation of a deity in bodily form on earth, such as a divine teacher. It technically means “an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea”.
Years after, new games such as Active Worlds, Palace, Second Life, Habbo, and many others like those. However, probably one of the biggest steps taken by Facebook in 2021 via changing the name to Meta.
When we look at the origins of the word avatar, it looks like living in another form or transforming into another condition. Also, Meta mentions it in this way. Forbes gathered many different businessmen’s ideas on this phenomenon.
“Metaverse isn’t a thing a company builds. It’s the next chapter of the internet overall.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta platforms Chairman and CEO.
“In simplest terms, the metaverse is the internet, but in 3D.”
Ed Greigg, Chief Disruptor at Deloitte.
“The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room.”
Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO.
“It is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time, rendered, 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users, each with an individual sense of presence.”
Matthew Ball, Author, formerly Amazon executive.
“There’s not an agreement on what the metaverse is, even though one company has changed its name in anticipation of defining it.”
Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO.
“The metaverse is coming. Metaverse is not only a place to game. Future worlds will be photorealistic, obey the laws of physics, and be inhabited by human avatars and AI beings. We will create a future in these metaverses before actually downloading the blueprints to be fab’ed in the physical world.”
Jensen Huang, Nvidia Co-founder, president and CEO.
“I don’t see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day and not wanting to ever leave.”
Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX.
As I chose some quotes it shows there are many varying ideas. Some of them contradict, and others support each other. It seems Meta wants to build a metaverse based on the current technologies by extending their abilities. The social media giant does not want to lose its power in networking. For my forecast metaverse will be part of the lives of humans. However, I feel a bit close to Matthew Ball’s and Elon Musk’s points of view. You can not build new Web 3 on old Web 2. Technologically in the current situation, it seems impossible to have physically sensed and simultaneously powered by the easiness of connecting. Maybe it could be possible to have effortless to reach the point via Elon Musk’s Neurolink chips. Still not sure about its implications on impacts on humanity. Creating a virtual doppelganger, do we need it? The mirror of us. You are not the only one. There are many of you. Let’s see what the future will bring us. How do you see yourself in the digital mirror?
Congratulations! You nailed it! Thanks for reading🌻