I recall the kick-off verse to Genesis, “Let there be light”. And God created a whole new world in 6 days.
Now, Mark Zuckerberg has plans to create another whole new world called “metaverse”. But, before I flesh out what the 35-year-old technology magnate meant, let’s flesh out what is ordinarily implied in that word - “metaverse”.
“Meta” is a Greek word for “after”, “beyond”, “comprehensive” or “transcending”. And “verse” in this case means the single or first word, which is akin to John 1:1, where it declared - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
When you put them together, you get a world beyond this world, a world created by the first word, in this case, a binary-algorithmic language with some resemblance to the word that first became flesh and lived amongst us.
And I am making this biblical reference because it felt like this is what Zuckerberg has in mind, for there is an uncanny parallel to it; if you allow your imagination boundless flight.
Rightly so, Zuckerberg sees the metaverse as a virtual world, one that is so real, so tangible and so experiential, it is really no different from the one we are living in now. In fact, the closest thing imaginable is that of mega-hit trilogy, The Matrix, where we are reduced to bodies to be plugged in, for a new experience beyond the world we once knew.
Well, Facebook is heading in that direction, and like all out-of-this-world ideas, it started with a thought, a spark, or as some would say, “let there be light.” And it will be an incredible immersive experience way beyond what our current VR goggles are able to do. Are you then ready player one to player one billionth?
Director of the Centre for Financial Regulation and Innovation, Daniel Broby, wrote the below article and here is what he said: -
“In his quest to turn Facebook into a metaverse company, Mr Zuckerberg is seeking to build a system where people move between virtual reality (VR), AR and even 2D devices, using realistic avatars of themselves where appropriate. Here they will work, socialise, share things and have other experiences, while still probably using the Internet for some tasks such as searches, which is similar to how we use it now.”
“Owning not only the Facebook platform but also WhatsApp, Instagram and VR headset maker Oculus gives Mr Zuckerberg a big head start in making this a reality. Collectively, these brands give Facebook an unbeatable number of customer relationships, and all the important knowledge for creating a desirable virtual world: how people behave online, their personalities, likes and dislikes, gait, eye movement and even emotional states.”
Mind you, this is mind-blowing. Imagine a world so real you can easily escape to with a touch of a button, without ever leaving your living room. And you will not be alone, for loved ones are all reduced to life-like avatars in the metaverse, for both general and personal interactions and engagement. (And I don’t know whether we will need to rewrite the rules of morality since you can engage in experimental screw ups in metaverse without much or any accountability/responsibility for your avatar’s actions because it is not real, as far as virtual goes).
You can also teleport to any place your mind wishes or fancies, and the environment and objects literally respond to you, that is, by sheer force of altered perception, you just can’t tell the difference between what you touch as real in this metaverse and the things/objects in the real world you have been living in for all your life up to the time you enter metaverse (and excitingly, your children’s children would have spent more time in their lifetime in the metaverse than in the real world, right?)
Daniel wrote: “To help build the metaverse, Facebook's engineers will have to make a success of immersive realism. Imagine a computer game with 2.9 billion avatars and the artificial intelligence that harvests all known information on them.”
Now, imagine your children and your children’s children and their children all sensorially teleport to such a world, such a transcendent world, fully malleable, where you can fulfill your wildest fantasy and hopes, all by a touch of a button, or a few of them. How’s that for heaven? Digital or virtual heaven? It’s Second Life 10.7 right?
But Zuckerberg and FB is not going to do all that for free. You have to pay for it, unlike uploading your photos or videos in the current flat-dimensional FB. There is no free lunch in metaverse. You pay for the meta-experiences.
In the current FB, he harvests your private data for more targeted advertising to secure astronomical profits. Now, with FB’s metaverse, he, with godlike powers, creates a world you can’t live without and therefore have to pay for it. It is a step up in the way your private data is being secretly collected and then applied to create a make-believe world that you can’t tell the difference from.
Now, just saying, he is already one of the richest man on earth. Yet, with metaverse, he may just cross a few trillion dollars threshold to be the first (multi-)trillionaire in the world.
So, Zuckerberg wants more, and metaverse is the way to go to reap in the boundless dough. Here is how he can reap it all in, as Daniel writes: -
“But users might be willing to pay for the enhanced interactivity that will be available in the metaverse, perhaps to enter certain private areas or to do certain things, like teleporting for more than a few minutes at a time or whatever.”
“Mr Zuckerberg has said he believes Facebook will make money from the sale of certain virtual goods and experiences. Will we be paying for the most stylish avatar clothes in future, for example? Or to see the latest movie in a virtual cinema?”
Well, I think I will end here. It is too much of an imagination probably coming true in the near future for one listless morning. You just have to think for yourself what an unregulated alternative world metaverse will be, and what does it mean for our future generation and the world at large. That is, a world controlled by men, if not one man.
It is truly a babelian achievement reaching beyond the skies, for a taste of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. Zuckerberg truly deserves a standing ovation.
And if you think handphone is addictive, imagine such a world, where virtual is real, and real is virtual. A world this attractive - because who wants to create a world of pain and suffering, sorrow and grief - you can expect billions to want to pay for everything they own just to get there, live there and die there (I guess the real world would be depopulated for the heavenly world that is metaverse).
It’s heaven, right? It’s the final redemptive destination we have been believing for. A Xanadu on earth, a Shangri-la forever.
And thanks to Zuckerberg, he has finally embodied the way, the truth and the life for all of us, common folks, in a coming virtual world we can savour, enjoy and find our own existential purpose in.
...can’t wait?
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