Caution, today it gets philosophical; almost esoteric. After the year has recently come to an end, the “buzzword” Metaverse can certainly already be crowned as the (taboo) word of the year. Not a magazine that hasn’t brought some “far-out” cover story in the last few months; mostly featuring the image of someone wearing an VR headset, floating weightlessly in the infinite expanses of the World Wide Web.
Our general understanding of the most celebrated “Metaverse” is currently very abstract. Blurred in utopias/dystopias on the horizon of singularity. Something in “3D,” yes, definitely in “3D”! And despite these vague initial thoughts, the topic has relentlessly moved into our collective consciousness. Since Facebook rebranded itself as “Meta” and invested (dumped) billions in the exploration and conception of that very sphere where we, the users, are supposed to spend more and more of our future time, it is also a clear matter for us end consumers. We will also “do” it one day. Just like “Confirmation”, or perhaps less abstractly, like “getting married and having children.” The Metaverse will engulf us all in its universality (pun intended)! Or we fight our way through rasterized digital worlds in the old “Tron” manner to escape the Master Control Program. Either way, despite the apparent clarity of our “intravirtual” future, the attempt to concretely envision this future often fails, and it ultimately appears vague and nebulous to us.
It could be much easier, though. Less according to McKinsey’s definition: “The metaverse seems to be whatever people’s imaginations dream it to be.”¹ More according to Jon Radoff: “But the metaverse is not 3D or 2D, or even necessarily graphical; it is about the inexorable dematerialization of physical space, distance, and objects.” Still sounds quite inflated, which is why I prefer to orient myself initially to the definition of (Crypto) Punk 6529: “The internet with better visualization and persistent digital objects.” Where I would like to focus on the beginning of the sentence “The internet.”
The internet in its current state (also known as Web 2.0) already offers in various constellations the first versions of the Metaverse. Whether through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook or MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) like World Of Warcraft. Didn’t we, due to the pandemic, already have our personal awakening concerning our personal entanglement with the World Wide Web through countless Zoom/Teams/Skype meetings? As a so-called “knowledge worker,” I sit in front of a screen for 10 hours every day, which is significantly supplemented by private leisure activities on many days, especially when considering screen time on the smartphone. Does it still seem absurd to us that our lives will shift even more into the virtual space or manifest in this space?
I don’t want to take sides here, certainly not discuss the positive and negative consequences of the internet. The goal is to bring myself and all readers a “healthy understanding” of our “intra- and extravirtual” future in the form of the Metaverse through a little reflection and honesty, to take away some of the hesitation and negative connotation of this term. Of course, we should not only “connect” with smartphones but also with nature and our fellow human beings. And I also have visions of horror that if I spend another 5 years in this position in front of the screen, I will ultimately end up like Gollum (for fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and wander over this planet in a stooped position. But if we remain honest; it is already our (virtual) reality now, and it also has its positive aspects, both privately and professionally.
Despite all our experiences, we still struggle with the level of abstraction on which our virtual life takes place. This is legitimate when we consider the speed with which this innovation carries us. What certainly counteracts the current level of abstraction is the advancing improvements in visualization in the digital space. And here I would like to connect again to Punk 6529’s definition: “The internet with better visualization…”. We understand (better) what we can see. If that sense organ, on which we rely the most in “real” everyday life, undergoes an upgrade in the virtual space, it also enhances our (emotional) access to these spaces. I have boldly put forward this thesis now and ask for appropriate testing. But it doesn’t sound so foolish for now.
Now, to the last part of the Punk quote “…and persistent digital objects.” And here, we delve into the realm of blockchain technology. Just as we orient ourselves in all phases of our lives to people, things, and objects, find support or fail with them; the internet also requires “sustainable” (“durable”) objects. Even in the Genesis, they repeatedly form the context of our creation story – the creation of the world with everything that belongs to it; Adam and Eve and the apple; Cain and Abel and their offerings (fruits vs. sheep); Noah and his ark. With blockchain technology, we create these “objects,” whether in the form of “fungible” or “non-fungible” tokens, which stand as anchor points in the virtual space. And above all, we create the possibility of private ownership through the blockchain-specific consensus mechanism, a not insignificant aspect. Because if we are honest with ourselves again: We are attached to tangible things. And so the journey might actually lead us towards this utopia, where we create the democratization of the virtual space, which was already promised to us with Web 2.0.
But “in the beginning was the Word”! Because our belief is based on the words that shape our thoughts. Let’s use that as an analogy and say that the code of the consensus protocol is the belief on which we create the Metaverse. Then we are currently experiencing the Genesis… audacious, blasphemous, “philosophical”… did I promise too much?!
¹ Although I must interject, I don’t perceive the definition as particularly bad, even if it provides little support for concretizing our ideas for our purposes here. Not long ago, I heard wise words in one of my favorite chat groups: “The Metaverse has existed since people started dreaming.”
