Meta – denoting something of a higher or second-order kind.
There has been a lot of talk about the metaverse lately.
The word “metaverse” is often traced to Neal Stephenson’s 1992 dystopic, cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, and many see a more recent inspiration in the dazzling warren of experiences at the heart of Earnest Cline’s 2011 novel Ready Player One.
Although details are yet a bit fuzzy, the metaverse is generally thought of the immersive virtual world where virtual reality and augmented reality meet, powered by Web3 and Blockchain technology.
Confused? Ok here it is in English.
It’s virtual. It does not exist. Not real. Something on the internet that will now be ten times as addictive:)
If you remember, back in the day, Google had something called Second Life. It was a virtual world where you could make an avatar and live a err…second life. Complete with friends, families, pets, houses etc. of course, those would be virtual too – people like you on computers, with avatars totally distanced from their actualities.
Second Life didn’t take off as much as it should have, maybe because it was ahead of it’s time.
Come 2020, and the pandemic, and all of a sudden people turned to the virtual world for work, play and entertainment. This has resulted in accelerated development of technologies that will help us create, live in and immerse ourselves in 3d worlds – all on the net.
You would be able to buy digital avatars, land (??), pets (???), shoes (oh common), clothes and much much more. If you think I’m joking, Adidas has just bought a plot in the metaverse for it’s virtual store and Nike has already designed running shoes (that will not exist and in which you cannot run).
As Salman said in Kick – too much fun.
My take on it? Like the internet has so many silly things (Facebook), the Metaverse will too. But people have to live an actual life and earn some actual money, so there is hope. But seriously, there are many applications for such technologies that can make life more seamless, much like technology has improved our lives manifold today.
You just have to figure out what you will do with it.
For those who wish to poof their money away – https://metaverse.properties
Enjoy!