The term “Metaverse” was coined in 1992, in Neal Stephenson's novel: Snow Crash.
The concept of the Metaverse is an entirely virtual universe. The best representation we have of this is Ready Player One (not a great movie, but gets the point across well).
A virtual reality you could live in, work in, spend all your time in. Something you could be in so much, that the only reason you’d leave is for real world concerns (eating etc.)
I’m not very keen on the Meta presentation. There, they spend 80 minutes showing their own visions of the Metaverse, they were pitching us our own future with Virtual Reality. Almost all of what they said was hypothetical though- and they talked about what they we’re gonna do, but not how they were gonna do any of it. It seems to me that this is why… no one cared, because they only showed their own visions of it. They already have a bad rep, and giving us well over an hour of all hypothetical talk with literally no technical information to back it… it makes the situation even worse. They’re not pulling anyone in. Even people such as myself who’s biggest dream is the Metaverse… we were unsold and honestly unsettled by everything he said.
They talk about how they want to contribute to the Metaverse, but not have full control over it because they want to ‘put people first’. They’re one of the only backers of it so far though, and no one would invest billions of dollars in to something the way they did, just to gain nothing, just to benefit the public.
The Metaverse has astronomically large potential, but as much as Facebook has contributed to VR as a whole, I honestly don’t see a perfect future where FB/Meta was that involved in the making of it.
The Metaverse-
It’s something me and others who are so passionate for VR talk about and dream of so much. We’re also frequently concerned by people like Mark Zuckerberg, who talk about the how no one person should have control over the Metaverse, instead everyone should, for Zuc to then be decided that now is the time for the Metaverse to begin/be created.
The end goal of a good Metaverse would be:
A virtual universe where you can have your own separate identity, life, job, a place where you can disconnect from the physical reality without dealing with all the concerns it already brings.
Forget about that whole fluff-filled, robotic, non-trustworthy presentation Meta just made, because it really shouldn’t be your first thought when you think of something like this.
The Metaverse will come in it’s own time. Maybe we’ll see some early stages in 5 years. If not, maybe 10 years. If not then, maybe we’ll see something notable of it in 100 years. But the Metaverse is meant to be… a true alternate, grand scale reality, with human social interaction, a sense of purpose, stability, and a sense of realism.
The Metaverse is meant to be the successor to the internet itself, taking the form of an entire universe.