By Manas Gupta, Augustman.

What exactly is the Metaverse?

Ever since Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, discussions and debates on what Metaverse is has been doing the rounds.

A few days ago, an NFT-based metaverse real estate company named Metaverse Group bought a parcel of land on a virtual real estate platform known as Decentraland for USD 2.43 million. It was the highest ever amount spent so far for virtual real estate.

Metaverse has suddenly become a major trending topic, even though the concept has been around for close to three decades.

However, the answer to “what is metaverse?” is not simple. This is because there is no metaverse as of now, and no one knows what it will be in the future.

“The Metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments,” defines venture capitalist Matthew Ball in the foreword of his outstanding nine-part essay on metaverse — The Metaverse Primer.

Calling the metaverse a “quasi-successor state to the mobile internet”, he writes, “the Metaverse will not fundamentally replace the internet, but instead build upon and iteratively transform it.”

Because Metaverse is constantly developing, there is every possibility that it will be much grander and more immersive by the time it becomes a reality than how it is being imagined today.

The origin of Metaverse

The word “metaverse” is a portmanteau of two words “meta-” and “verse”. The word “meta” is a prefix of Greek-origin meaning “beyond” while “verse” comes from the word “universe”.

It was first used in literature by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 dystopian novel Snow Crash. In the book, the metaverse is presented as the ultimate evolution of the internet — a kind of virtual reality where any virtual interaction can have a direct impact on the real world too.

The book pretty much sums up what the metaverse is. It’s a physically persistent virtual space where there are virtual avatars, digital social interactions, and gaming among many unique things that we associate with metaverse today.

What is Facebook’s idea of metaverse?

On 28 October 2021, Facebook announced that it has rebranded itself as Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short — a name it carefully picked to capitalise early on what will be the inevitable future of human connectivity and, perhaps, of life itself.

“The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in his Founder’s Letter following the announcement.

Zuckerberg went a step further to give millions around the world a peek into what the metaverse can be expected to look and feel like in a 77-minute video.

Zuckerberg showed a world that can be defined as a much higher level of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). In the virtual space of the metaverse, everything people do in the real world is replicated.

A VR headset, or any other wearable gadget specifically designed for the purpose, will function as a gateway into this world.

Facebook’s idea of metaverse includes virtual avatars of people playing games, holding meetings, attending workshops, exercising, studying and socialising besides all kinds of activities that can be done in reality.

A larger and much grander metaverse can be extrapolated from this idea. It is, however, noteworthy that Zuckerberg believes it could take around 10 years for the metaverse to become mainstream. To think about it, that’s a short time.

Anyone else on it?

Microsoft is another major Big Tech player trying to build a metaverse. Its idea is called Mesh. One of its most interesting features is what the company calls “Holoportation”. Simply put, its users will be able to project their holographic selves to other users.

Its virtual and augmented realities can be best experienced with HoloLens devices — a unique gadget which can make the experience of ‘Holoportation’ altogether different. However, Mesh can also be accessed via VR headsets, mobile phones, tablets or PCs.

Initially, the projections will be in the form of animated avatars. Eventually, it will become a photorealistic lifelike projection. Something like how characters in Star Wars interact with each other via hologram projection.