Think about how the LiDAR scanner on newer iPhones can take a 3D scan of your surroundings. Think about how Netflix gauges what you’ve watched before to make suggestions. These two worlds are already interwoven, no headset required: Think about the Uber app telling you via location data how far away the car is. Whether in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or simply on a screen, the promise of the metaverse is to allow a greater overlap of our digital and physical lives in wealth, socialization, productivity, shopping and entertainment. Today, logging onto Fortnite, joining a chat with friends over a console platform and launching into a game with them is, especially to younger generations, just as social an experience as most other physical interactions. The game World of Warcraft became a persistent social scene for millions in the early 2000s, and communities have continued to sprout up within and around games. Online communities have existed since at least the mid-1980s, and grew in the 1990s with chatrooms, AOL instant messenger and the first social media sites. However, the metaverse is far from the stuff of sci-fi. The word “metaverse” is often traced to Neal Stephenson’s 1992 dystopic, cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, and many see a more recent inspiration in the dazzling warren of experiences at the heart of Earnest Cline’s 2011 novel Ready Player One. It might be time for the rest of us to get on board-whether we like it or not. Today she says she’s known as the “godmother of the metaverse.”įor many younger people, like her son, such a pivot isn’t even necessary: they’re growing up with the expectation that a large part of their future will exist in the metaverse. She reoriented her media career toward cinematic virtual reality work and then moved onto work with headset manufacturers, eventually serving as a “VR evangelist” for the HTC Vive headset. People like Hackl have already been heading in that direction for years.Īfter she was introduced to VR in the late 2000s, Hackl says she “pivoted really hard” into it. Hybrid offices, video-based education and online social communities are just a few of the ways in which more of our lives-for better or worse-is spent in digital spaces. Nike is even, analysts say, preparing to sell virtual sneakers. Virtual productivity platforms are growing too, with Facebook and Microsoft announcing new ways to collaborate online. Interest in purely digital ownership-and the technology that proponents believe can ensure the security of persistent virtual experiences-has spiked dramatically, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies making headlines. Millions of people are spending hours a day in virtual social spaces like Roblox and Fortnite.
It’s also part of the “metaverse.” Once a niche concept beloved of tech enthusiasts, the idea of a centralized virtual world, a “place” parallel to the physical world, has careened into the mainstream landscape this year, as epitomized by Facebook’s decision in October to rebrand as Meta.
Available on most desktop and mobile platforms, it is simultaneously a venue for free games, a creation engine that allows users to generate new activities of their own, and a marketplace to sell those experiences, as well as side products like outfits for a personalized avatar. Roblox might be unknown to many over the age of, say, 25, but the 13-year-old platform is booming. The futility of throwing an outdoor pandemic-friendly event in January wasn’t the only reason Hackl’s son lobbied for a digital event.