Homo Deus and Beyond: Changing Rules with the Metaverse

by Poskonov Kirill

The metaverse holds the potential to become a digital alternate to our actual reality — a place to collaborate and perform activities enabled by various standalone virtual technologies, brought together to function seamlessly.

Does “The Metaverse” sound like a term out of a futuristic sci-fi movie with all the glitz, glamour, and high-tech devices with capabilities beyond our current existence? Does it remind you of MCU’s “Multiverse” or even the classic The Matrix movies? Well, these references are good enough to paint a picture of the futuristic world we are headed towards.

The pandemic has pushed us towards an impending digital transformation. The tech leaders of the world have been working on separate technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs which are of limited value when used standalone. The metaverse is projected as a future where all these digital or virtual entities will come together to form a virtual world. The famous author Yuval Noah Harari in his book Homo Deus talks about the future we build for ourselves with the latest technologies. With the metaverse, we take it one step ahead to rewrite the rules of how we interact with the virtual world and with each other within that world.

How Will the Metaverse Economy Materialize?

Beyond Reality

The metaverse is a combination of two words. Meta and Universe. Meta means ‘beyond’ and ‘verse’ is taken off from the universe. So, it’s something that is beyond our current universe. One can also say that it describes the future of the internet as we see it today.

A metaverse is a place between the real and the virtual for people to come and collaborate whilst finding value in the activities they do. People through their virtual avatars will be able to interact with applications across digital technologies within the metaverse framework. Blockchain will make metaverse an open economy – one which will be owned by its people. VR design and headsets will make it operational. Your avatars will be able to experience augmented reality within the metaverse. You will be able to transact using cryptocurrencies. You could buy a car or a virtual piece of land. You could build a stadium to host a concert or build an art gallery to showcase and sell NFT art. You could win cryptocurrency at a casino and then use it to rent a movie or even buy video game weapons and power boosters.

Some of the known metaverses are Decentraland, Somnium, and Superworld. Decentraland has its cryptocurrency called MANA. You can even find MANA listed on various cryptocurrency exchange applications open for trading.

What’s Behind Facebook’s Metaverse Play?

Blurred Boundaries

One of the new entrants in the Metaverse is Facebook. After achieving success in VR with Oculus devices, it took the bull by the horns with project ARIA for AR, and now Mark Zuckerberg has also announced Facebook’s plan to enter the metaverse domain. After all, if you do own the prowess to develop all the virtual technologies, the next logical step is to bring them together to form a metaverse.

The Internet bought the world closer, blurred geographical boundaries in terms of how we connect with people. The Metaverse will bring people even closer by enabling them to come together in this virtual space to share interests, interact and collaborate.