Metaverse - New concept, old design
Aren't you getting tired of this never ending hype of the Metaverse? We are led to believe that our current singleverse has become so boring and dangerous and old. And now we have to do something about it. We have to build the Metaverse. It is the only way forward. But before you get too excited, you come across an article like this It's Not Too Late to Save the Metaverse, where the author is already listing everything that's bad before it even exists.
Of course, the only way to save the future - according to the author - is to ban gambling, ban corporations from running it for profit and establish community moderators to keep order in paradise. In the words of the author:
We can transition to a more regulated space without losing the beauty, freedom, and creative spirit of this incarnation of virtual reality. It’s an opportunity to get it right this time. We can effect a shift to a more ethical regulatory framework that will curb the awful episodes we’ve witnessed already without snuffing out the beauty that Smith found in VRChat. In short, we need to prevent the metaverse from becoming the Planet of the Bored Apes.
The article goes on and on; and the illusion quickly transitions to delusion. I leave you with the author's final thought - The most obvious source of corruption in metaverse spaces right now is the risk posed by NFTs and cryptocurrency.
But this is not what I want to talk about. This article illustrates why the Metaverse, as discussed in the mentioned article and promoted by others, is boring. It only extends badly what we have right now with a box over your eyes. That's described as innovation.
The Internet - yes, the one residing inside Big Ben in London - was created to allow any computer to connect and participate in the communication with others. What Meta aka Facebook and others are building is a prescribed space where you are constrained by their imagination. You are allowed to create an avatar and build a house on a piece of virtual land they sell you. Yes, that's the limit of their imagination. Pathetic. No wonder that it attracts boring people with no imagination to write about how to save the Metaverse.
If there is supposed to be a new Internet, called the Metaverse, we can get more creative. The only thing which should be defined is how your own universe can connect and communicate with the other ones.
Why should you be restricted to building a house, when you could build your own universe? Why do you need to be restricted to 3 dimensions, when you can use time as another dimension and start time travel? Do you want to be alone or throw a big party? You can do whatever you want. After all, it is your universe.
In one of my previous posts, I wrote about how Apple can build the Metaverse. I also mentioned the 15th anniversary of the iPhone, which can power it. Apple has the might and resources to do that. But at the same time, there is an opportunity for a startup to define a new protocol for the Metaverse and unleash a new era of the Internet. You think it is far-fetched? Think Ethereum and what it started.
When thinking about the future, unleash your imagination to weave patterns together and create something new. Let’s make it exciting.