What is the nature of the struggle that technology companies are waging over "Metaverse"? How will it change our lives?
Discussions about Metaverse technology have become more common in recent years as a major development of digital experiences, but this technology is still mysterious even for many people who own the corner of technical development.
In a report published by the site "Readers Digest", the writer Maimona Conte says that the word Metaverse does not refer to one specific thing.
But to a network of applications that facilitate online interaction by employing technologies developed in virtual reality.
And users can embody digital avatars for themselves, communicate and move through a variety of virtual spaces, as in real life.
The author added that in the nineties of the last century the Japanese gaming company "Sega" introduced Virtual Reality games to video game consoles.
Conte considered that the current versions of Metaverse can be attributed to these technologies, "but there is no single technology more important for the development of Metaverse than virtual reality glasses".
The author added that video game enthusiasts are the ones who get the most out of Metaverse, and video games may be the most appealing thing for Metaverse to deal with, but this technology is bound to add something in every area of life.
Metaverse is generally a virtual place where we will work, learn, entertain ourselves, earn and spend money, and most technology experts agree that it will radically change our lives.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asserts that the Metaverse "will not only change the way we see the world, but will also affect how we interact in it, from the factory to the boardroom" in this context.
Soon, it may become common for music and sports fans to wear VR glasses and appear live without having to leave their homes at all, and this technology may solve congestion problems, all to name a few in the Metaverse space.
Metaverse momentum
The company "Meta"led by Mark Zuckerberg currently employs about 10 thousand people in the Metaverse project, and has allocated 10 billion dollars to spend this year alone on this project.
As for the company "Fargo reality cloud", it has finally announced the completion of work on its beta version of Metaverse, and is now in the process of full release.
The "Fargo" version is significantly different from the "meta" (formerly Facebook) version of Metaverse, but now it is clear that we have two big camps fighting over the future of the Metaverse network and how it will be.
The world of Metaverse in the company "meta" focuses on the consumer and revenue, and is determined by performance constraints and the method of use; such as the need to have headphones or glasses "Oculus" as a condition for entering the Metaverse.
While the approach of the two companies "Varjo-Nvidia" focuses on performance; performance is the king, and business comes second, as the writer Rob Enderley, who specializes in technology Affairs.
Explains in a recent article published by Tech News World, in which he addressed the features of the conflict over the future of the Metaverse, and the differences between the versions of both meta and Fargo-Nvidia companies of the Metaverse.
Major global companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia are also paying unprecedented attention to preparing for the Metaverse.
Reorganizing their internal organization, writing job descriptions suitable for the "Metaverse era", and preparing to launch multi-billion dollar products suitable for this era.
Management consulting firm McKinsey estimates the volume of investments related to Metaverse during the first five months of this year alone at about 120 billion dollars.
Cons of Metaverse
There is no doubt that Metaverse will facilitate life even more in several areas, but as with all new technologies, it has negative sides.
Developers of the Metaverse face difficulties related to privacy, child protection, inequity, law, and health.
Experts believe that there are already very real concerns about personal data online; data is now the most valuable commodity, and Metaverse is likely to exacerbate data exploitation as it creates a mix between digital and physical data.
There is also no formal identity verification process in metaverse, which makes it easy to impersonate a digital identity and is just one of a host of potential crimes that may go unchecked.
It is also possible that Metaverse exacerbates the culture of desensitization and cyber addiction; however, companies invested in virtual reality do not seem to be doing much to counteract these negative effects.
One of the disadvantages of approaching everyone and integrating different world cultures into one is the loss of the beautiful cultural diversity that currently exists in the world.
if people would spend most of their time in the parallel world, they would no longer feel connected with their immediate society.
They will also not feel the need to adopt their local or regional culture, and this may eventually lead to the end of many traditions that have existed since the beginning of mankind.
And will most likely create a new society, although they may be unified and inclusive societies, they may end in failure and will be uninteresting.
Also, one of the main concerns that many people have about this technique is how easy it is to lose track of time while you are in it, since your senses are basically disabled.
In other words, they are connected to the virtual world instead of the real world, and people who are exposed to Metaverse for a long time may lose their connection with reality, and may go beyond it because they do not want to admit the existence of a world other than the virtual world.
And we are currently to some extent experiencing this kind of behavior with the use of mobile devices, as many people around the world spend almost 5 hours a day staring at the screen.