What Is the Metaverse?

A quick explainer on a topic you'll be hearing more about.

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At one point in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster film Inception, the main character descends to a dingy basement where a dozen people are hooked to machines offering an escape to a literal dream world. Shocked that a human would rather live in a dream world than reality, one character inquires, “They come here every day to sleep?” 

“No,” the old man running the operation says. “They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, sir?”

So, is that where the “metaverse” is headed—a dream world that will entice us all to escape reality for hours on end? With the metaverse grabbing more and more headlines, here’s a breakdown of the basics.

Let’s start with what the metaverse is not: one single entity. You can’t just Google “join the metaverse,” find its website and log on. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “The company formerly known as Facebook” - I may never grow tired of hearing that - “we are no longer the knights who say Ni”

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  2. Kurt Von Fuchs

    This was an excellent article a great primer for anyone not in the tech world. He only downside with Daugherty's comments I'm really not sure he knows what the hell he's talking about that or he really really thinks people are very very stupid. Well maybe has a point

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  3. Avatar photo
    Paul Britton

    Ryan, I left a comment a couple weeks ago to the effect that I wished someone would explain the “metaverse” to me. You responded! — thanks! Very helpful.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Joe149

    "Jaron Lanier"

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    BestUsedCarSales

    I still look forward to AR. I can see so many obvious applications for having a HUD displaying additional information about what I'm working on. Like, when I'm doing wood working, or when welders are doing there thing, surgeons, pilots.

    Though I don't look forward to more annoying usages that will no doubt arise from it.

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  6. Michael Hartley

    OK, say I want to imagine myself as a major league shortstop. How can Meta work in my making a throw from second base with someone like Albert Belle barreling in to break up the double play? Will Meta make me that good?
    Imaginary fencing is one thing. Dread Pirate Roberts versus Inigo Montoya is another. ("I know something you do not know. I can imagine myself left-handed.")

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    1. Avatar photo
      Xaveria

      No one is claiming that VR alone will make you a world class fencer or baseball player. But coupled with real life practice, VR could in theory help you get there. For example, even in the case you cite, running that simulation many times could help you learn to judge speeds and distances. Given the speed of your throw, how fast the two runners going the distances they have to cover, should you try for a double or a single? That’s the kind of real-time linear algebra that a person can only learn through hundreds, if not thousands, or repetition. A VR program can get you those reps very quickly, much faster than playing that number of games or even, given human fatigue, running that many drills.

      There are all sort of potential benefits to VR that we’ve only started to explore. Imagine a program for example called Clinic. You sit and examine a bunch of patients exhibiting a range of symptoms, and you have to diagnose and treat them. Would such a program replace medical school or medical internships? Not a chance. But there is a very good chance of decreasing the number of mistakes interns make when they practice on real people.

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      1. Michael Hartley

        Thank you for your thoughtful and considerate replay. It is causing me to rethink my skepticism concerning what VR has to offer.

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    2. cb76

      Not sure about fielding, but you still may want to check this out:

      https://winreality.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA9tyQBhAIEiwA6tdCrHOfKgcJzUyjWrM1Wzdk9P-USC4IZQqv3cN6_mbQrTmCMaeWMU162xoCJyUQAvD_BwE

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  7. Avatar photo
    Campshrop

    The metaverse is where this Gen Xer gets off the progress train. I don't need to walk around with my own heads-up display, and going to work in a virtual environment is just icky. And, having lived through the intro and rapid growth of the internet, I know exactly what kind of content is gong to drive this tech. Again ... icky.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    Thanks for the explain.

    I will just play games on my PC instead and read books honestly, the Metaverse doesn’t seem to break any technological boundaries that don’t already exist.

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  9. cb76

    "The whole project is powered by the promise that it will give corporations power to prey upon people’s wallets, without returning to them anything of real value."

    LOL!

    I read MB Dougherty regularly, and I generally enjoy his writing and his perspective, but come on. This is basically a description of the American capitalist project as we've known it for more than a century now. Convince people they have to have crap they don't need, and that, if anything, actually lowers their quality of life, and keep them coming back again and again. This is as true for, say Cookie Crisp cereal as it is for video games. 50 years ago people making this critique were dismissed as lefty weirdos, or worse, outright communists. Weird to see the right now circling around to the same perspective.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Nick H

    For anyone looking for a book that features gaming in both VR and AR, and does a good job of explaining the differences, I'd recommend the forthcoming book "Into the Real" by John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer which will be out in April. (The eARC version is out now at baen.com if you can't wait.) It's set in the not too distant future - about 30 years from now.

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