The Metaverse: The Meat and Potatoes Version

Inspiring articles and videos abound, extolling the amazingness of the metaverse and telling us that it's going to change our lives. If you've been nodding along, pretending to understand, you're not alone.

My goal here is to walk the line between jaw-dropping demo and technical manual. Just meat and potatoes.

Tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta (née Facebook) and Satya Nadella of Microsoft seem to be the most vocal proponents — with Facebook having completely rebranded some months ago to reflect its metaverse focus (and whitewash its many misdeeds) — but they've done little to resolve the mystery. However, there are common themes within the discourse. The metaverse isn't one specific technology that's being invented; it's the Internet we already know and love, but a shift in how we use it and how we relate to one another (and businesses) through it.

More specifically, the metaverse combines several existing technologies to allow a person to have an identity and assets in and a spectrum of experiences of a shared, persistent, simulated world. Or maybe multiple simulated worlds. And the world(s) will be decentralized amongst the public; or maybe centralized on corporate servers instead.

Wow, that's a lot. Let's unpack that definition.

Remember Second Life? World of Warcraft? About a dozen years ago, I knew people who were involved in one or the other. Today's version would be Fortnite.

The idea is that there's a corporate datacenter somewhere, running software that creates a "world". That is, when you log into your account, your computer screen and headphones are filled with sights and sounds that emulate everything from the ground to the sky, with grass, sunshine, rain, snow, birds, um, dragons, apparently, and so on. Of course, it could be a simulated indoor space instead.

When other people log into their accounts, they enter the same world you do — i.e., it's a shared world. Some of the objects in the world are avatars, representations of the other people sharing this world. And when you log out, this simulated world just keeps on going without you, which is to say that it's persistent.

So, yes, the metaverse is 1+ simulated world(s), and this has already existed for quite a while. But there's a bit more to it.

For now, we'll mostly focus on the experiences — the end results for ourselves and our audience, users, customers — rather than the Wi-Fi, 5G, processors, etc. that undergird those experiences. However, Blockchain is the technology that could enable public ownership of the metaverse. If you're not familiar with Blockchain, I'd recommend pausing to grasp the basics of this revolutionary tech; my own explainer will be coming shortly. Moreover, processors might end up being the bucket of ice water we have to pour on this white-hot buzziness, so stay tuned for that at the end.

These digital experience technologies lie on a spectrum from more immersive to less, and a big part of the vision for the metaverse is that the immersive experiences will become a far more common way of accessing the simulated world(s).

Yes, it's that same virtual reality that's been around for over half a century.

Of course, it's much more impressive now, but the concept is still the same. Just strap a set of toaster-sized goggles to your face and you can block out the real world in favor of feeding your retinas pixels, visually immersing yourself in a simulated world. You probably want to pair this with headphones for aural immersion and a mic so you can talk to others in this world. Handheld motion controllers in the real world allow you to control elements of the simulated world, but some VR goggles can track your hands on their own. Motion controllers may take the form of firearms, to simulate firing — hopefully, inside a game. You might also wear something like gloves (or even a whole body suit) that can simulate touch.

VR is probably the most high-profile aspect of the metaverse because, in blocking out the real world, it's the greatest departure from the ways we currently use the Internet. VR is capable of producing mind-blowing experiences, but, if you're thinking it could be a little dystopian, you wouldn't be alone. The 2018 film Ready Player One depicts a not-too-distant future hellscape in which we have come to value the virtual world more than the real one. From 3 Women, The Matrix, Inception, and other films all the way back to Descartes and Plato, people have long been concerned about being confused or deceived about what's real. But, hey, at least with VR, next time you're at a networking event and you're not really feeling it, you can do this:

Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality allows you to maintain awareness of your physical environment plus experience digital artifacts in that same space. You can experience AR with goggles, but you can also do so with a standard smartphone. Ever used Snapchat filters?

I even remember an AR app on my old Nokia Windows Phone 8 device in the early 2010s. Pointing the camera at the buildings around me would show them layered with information about the businesses occupying them.

Along with Snapchat filters, probably the best known AR phenomena have been Pokémon GO, which was quite popular in 2016, and Google Glass, which was talked about in the media but never widespread.

Still in their R&D phases, we may eventually have contact lenses or even a brain-computer interface (think "brain chip") that replaces the need for AR or VR glasses or goggles.

For a while now, we've been seeing AR incorporated into the sci-fi vision of the future. For instance, a character who needs to wear a helmet might have situationally-useful information displayed right in the helmet.

In fact, augmented reality got its start in the US Air Force, which has been projecting flight data into pilots' helmets for decades already.

Some sources use the terms "Augmented Reality" and "Mixed Reality" interchangeably, while others say AR is about passively viewing digital artifacts in the physical world and MR allows you to interact with those digital artifacts as if they were physical.

There are many, many more applications of AR / MR, from surgeons seeing a live 3D model of a patient's heart, to students learning about space and physics by being on an asteroid or inside a molecule, to the humble task of making sure your new sofa will look and fit right in your home before you buy it.

The strongest proponents of the metaverse want it to be synonymous with the Internet. In other words, everything you do that electronically connects to other people or devices would be folded into the simulated world.

But they know that there will be times that you won't want to wear your goggles. That means that some semblance of our current activities, such as using a 2D handheld or laptop device, will remain.

In turn, the same apps that we already install or use in browsers will also become part of the metaverse. This includes not only those that we use on our phones and laptops, but those on our gaming consoles, cars, smart TVs and other home appliances, and anything else that connects to the Internet.

As mentioned earlier, when you enter the simulated world, you encounter representations (avatars) of the other people in the same world. Of course, this means you have a representation in that world, too. Think of it like a profile pic, but a head-to-toe, or sometimes head-to-waist, 3D representation of yourself.

In the context of the metaverse, if you're on a non-immersive app on your phone, your avatar might still be a 2D representation of your 3D avatar. However, if you're in an AR or VR experience, then your avatar exists in 3D space, like other elements of the simulated world, and your avatar's movements, even facial expressions, will emulate those of your real self. And the key here is that, through avatars, you can perceive and interact with other people, not just through viewing and tapping a screen or using a mouse and keyboard, but in a natural, full-bodied way, even when you're not in the same room or even on the same continent. Per Zuckerberg, "The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology."

A double-edged sword here is that your avatar needn't replicate your physical self with complete accuracy. A person bound to a wheelchair in the real world might be able to walk and run in a VR world. But, just as easily, a scammer could pretend to be a government leader, your favorite celebrity, or an employee of a particular business, so identity and its verification is of particular importance in the metaverse.

People aren't the only elements in the metaverse, of course, and your avatar isn't the only thing that can be yours.

NFT (non-fungible token) artwork has made a big splash; that is, artwork that is purely digital (yes, ok, a JPG or video) but it's connected to your digital identity so that one and only one person can own it. Like physical artwork, it can be sold and it can be copied. But the artist who creates it only sells the original and attaches it to the buyer's digital identity, so no one else can claim that their copy is authentic — i.e., it's non-fungible, it's not replaceable or interchangeable. And, thanks to blockchain, theft is difficult because the artwork and the owner's identity are literally packaged together as a single token.

You can also buy a whole wardrobe for your avatar. Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Vans World, and Nike would like to help you express your metaverse identity and social status with their digital products. And then you're going to want some simulated "real" estate to hang your art and clothes in. Metaverse Group would love to sell you some "land", or rent to you a portion of the vast quantity of virtual land it already owns. Like artwork, these things will also be tied to your identity.

For children playing in the metaverse, their parents will want to feel confident that the others with whom they play really are children and that their activities are age-appropriate, so trustworthy identities with ages will be important.

Avatars. Asset ownership. Age. Financial transactions. Authenticity. For all these reasons, and more, identity in the metaverse is as important as identity in the physical world. Veriff, Estonia's ninth unicorn, is an identity verification service designed to safeguard children against age-inappropriate content. Twitter is allowing people to use verified NFT profile pics. PhotoChromic's goal is to capture your entire identity as an NFT that will be accepted by governmental authorities and that will include government-issued IDs, crypto wallets, documents, and more.

Perhaps there will be one and only one metaverse — a single world in which you can access a large number of private services from a common space. The metaphor that jumps out at me is a shopping mall (for those of us old enough to remember them) or a town square. We stroll through a common space, being passed by some people walking quickly to something urgent, and passing the teenagers who are there to safely congregate away from their families and schools. We stop to listen to an amateur musician accepting tips or we take the kids to sit on Santa's lap. We stop into a variety of private spaces — to interact with acquaintances via Twitter, to meet with colleagues in a virtual conference room, to shop for real world items via Target — all of which are connected to this common space.

It's also possible that the metaverse doesn't belong to any one company or group of people. Just as anyone with a computer can participate in mining bitcoin, thanks to Blockchain, the metaverse can be a decentralized place that is generated by all of us, on all of our computers, around the world.

That's probably the most democratic vision of the metaverse, and it largely parallels how we conceive of the digital world today. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web were built by governmental and academic institutions. Eventually, we were all able to claim an email address on the Internet via private businesses and private businesses were allowed to invest in their own spaces on the Web, but the Internet itself wasn't built for profit.

However, so far, it's corporations who are developing the metaverse — or, more precisely, their own metaverses.

Facebook has long wanted to replace the Web as the place where you got all of your information. Not content to be where you connect with friends and acquaintances, they wanted to eliminate your need to search Google or use other apps to get your news. After all, the more you stay on their app, the more ads they can sell. Despite whatever lip service may come, it's entirely conceivable that Zuckerberg's ultimate goal will be to squeeze out any metaverse competition, or at least starve cooperative efforts. There's simply no profit motive for Meta to build a metaverse in which Twitter, Netflix, and Toyota can also participate.

Nadella says he wants to build the metaverse of the enterprise. But why would Microsoft want to build a metaverse in which you could also use Zoom, Dropbox, and Gmail?

It's too early to tell, and these corporate giants could surprise us. But, if the metaverse ever gets here, we may be looking at multiple metaverses (a multimetaverse), each centralized in corporate data centers.

In December, Intel stepped into the conversation with what might feel to metaverse fans like a wet blanket. Raja Koduri, the SVP heading up Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group, says that the metaverse may be the next major computing platform, but that we're still a long way from feasibility.

But even Koduri says we won't be able to get there with hardware alone. In his Quartz interview, he says we should only expect 8x – 10x growth in hardware's computation capacity over the next five years, and the metaverse's requirements will be more like 1000x growth. Still, he says, if improved algorithms and architectures can make computing more efficient, then we might be able to get to 1000x computational capacity with only the 8x – 10x hardware improvement.

However, let's pause to let sink in the fact that none of that has been invented yet, which means that none of it is a sure thing. Scheduling discovery and invention can be pretty challenging — otherwise, we'd all pencil in the task of thinking up a world-changing idea in the next 24 hours. That makes it impossible to guarantee within a certain timeframe.

Koduri also brought up another issue that's been weighing on my own mind, and credit goes to him for being the only public figure I've heard address it at all: the energy requirements for the metaverse. Koduri thinks that we might get all the computational capacity the metaverse requires with only the current energy consumption, but that assumes that we do what we've just identified as impossible to guarantee.

Alternatively, Zuckerberg and others may not delay profits (or ego gratification) until the computing technology catches up to their vision. After all, there's always the option of throwing much more of our existing processors at the metaverse. Perhaps they'll build datacenters the size of a US state or a European country. Perhaps they'll have us run the metaverse on our home computers, as discussed earlier, and deeply subsidize the massively more powerful computers we'll need to buy to make that happen. The bottom line is that any way we move forward with the metaverse using today's technology would consume many times more energy than our current use of the Internet.

We already seem to be sleep walking through our climate emergency and living in denial about our entanglements with oil-rich dictatorships and damaging Western oil companies. Do we really need a metaverse so badly that we should dramatically increase our energy expenditure for it? Is this the time to raise the bar that renewable energy has to meet to displace our use of fossil fuels?

Part of me is excited about the metaverse, especially mixed reality. Part of me is skeptical that the average person will want to spend a significant portion of their day with a toaster on their face or even information-presenting contacts in their eyes. There's something to be said for being able to simply look away from a computer screen or put down a phone. But, either way, it seems to me that we need to stop the massive damage done by fossil fuels and stop funding oppressive regimes, even if it means reducing our energy consumption a little for a few years and delaying the metaverse until our processing power catches up to the vision. Our species can survive a little longer without a metaverse, but we can't yet survive without a healthy planetary ecosystem.