The term metaverse is being used more and more by tech companies as they describe their plans for the future. But what exactly is the metaverse? And how long will it be before the real world and the virtual one, collide?

First things first, what is the metaverse? First coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, the term itself doesn’t refer to a specific virtual space or technology, but rather a broad and often uncertain shift in how we interact with technology.

The metaverse can include virtual reality, specifically worlds that continue to exist when you aren’t playing, and augmented reality which works by combing the digital and physical worlds. However, it does not require that those spaces be exclusively accessed via VR or AR. Virtual worlds that can be accessed through PCs, game consoles, and even phones—have started referring to themselves as within “the metaverse.”

It is a place parallel to the physical world, where you spend your digital life. A place where you and other people have an avatar, and you interact with them through their avatars. Some also argue that the metaverse in the truest sense of the term doesn’t actually exist yet.

The metaverse is quickly becoming a buzzword for tech giants and smaller developers to market their new hybrid content.

So the metaverse is the next generation of the internet, But what does it look like right now?

Companies like Meta, Microsoft, and many others, have outlined their views for the metaverse and how they want to develop the many different spaces available to their end users. Meta wants to provide a way for as many creators as possible to build a business within the metaverse, using their specific metaverse location Horizon Worlds.

Microsoft on the other hand want to use their technology to aid a more Industrial Metaverse. Kawasaki are utilising this technology in the form of the mixed reality HoloLens. Factory workers are shown holographic representations of the robotics so that they can solve any issues that occur in in the most efficient way possible. They utilise digital twinning to make this happen, a process in which digital versions of real-world items are created to aid learning, or in this case, speed up repairs. Microsoft’s current endeavours are more focused on improving the business applications of metaverse technologies, also seen with such applications such as Mesh for Teams.

There are also metaverse spaces based on NFTs and Blockchain technology, such as Decentraland. Implementations such as these lead the metaverse ideology down a more marketplace style model, in which digital real estate and goods can be bought for your virtual avatar.

These two Metaverse applications, the social and the industrial, help build on one another as the industry works to build a Metaversal system that the everyday user will be able to fully utilise. However, in its current form we are far from the sci-fi future presented by these manufacturers.

Nevertheless, once the digital dust settles, we are lift unfortunate reality of the metaverse, which is that the idea of a real person interacting naturally with the virtual world is still beyond our current technological horizon.

As developers work towards defining the standards within this industry, and we see more and more applications of metaverse technology every day. We are presented with a future in which we live our lives more and more virtually. This presents the ethincal ethical question. Once we have explored the idea of “can we do something” we must as a society ask “should we”.

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