The Facebook metaverse is Mark Zuckerberg's latest dream: a parallel world made of avatars, virtual reality and online experiences
We have already talked about the Facebook metaverse in other articles and we see that it is an ambitious project on Facebook's horizon. Mark Zuckerber, undisputed leader of the brand that begins with the letter f, has decided that it is time to change the social network and is laying the foundations to transform it in the very near future, into a true metaverse.
But what is it and what can we expect from Metaverse?
The founder explained this in a long interview in a media outlet.
Facebook Metaverse, what are we talking about?
The metaverse is a project that has taken over Zuckerberg's mind when he was practically a child, since high school. When we use this term, references go back to Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel "Snow Crash."
On the pages, it appears as a particular type of virtual reality, in which people are represented by a 3D avatar in a container that bridges the physical and digital planes. For Zuckerberg, the Facebook metaverse will have similar schemes (but with fewer cyberpunk nuances, for those who have read the book): it will be a "place" not governed by a single company but a habitat that exists thanks to the users themselves who live there. .
In it we will find an independent economy, the opportunity to carve out a space completely detached from the tangible where we can have the opportunities that are missing in reality (such as those who cannot access satisfactory levels of education, work or recreation).
All you have to do is wear Oculus Quest glasses to transport yourself to the alternative scenario with an absolutely natural step. According to the concept of the father of the famous social network, the metaverse will be the result of a combined process that potentially involves the entire IT sector in a product that, ideally, is the child of the mobile internet.
It is not just a glimpse that can be accessed through the screen, but a meeting place to interact with others on any type of device, from virtual or augmented reality viewers, to traditional computers, through smartphones, tablets and game consoles.
Facebook Metaverse, the key points
The Facebook metaverse will not appear as a two-dimensional place but as a context in which it will be possible to have a perception of the physical existence of its inhabitants. While at first glance it may seem like a futuristic vision, Zuckerberg believes the transition could already begin to be visible within the next five years.
If, currently, as soon as we wake up we feel the need to pick up our cell phone to quickly check what happened during our sleep, with the metaverse communication through the devices normally used will be even more instinctive.
The time you spend inside will be long and continuous, since the limit between both worlds will not be perceived as clearly. Contact with your neighbor will leave the rectangle of the screen and you will be able to count on a concrete presence.
You will talk to your interlocutors not with a frontal approach, looking towards a camera, but you will talk, perhaps, sitting on the sofa next to the holograms, with a perceived realistic feel similar to that experienced in a traditional live meeting, even from thousands of miles away.
Metaverse Facebook, a new form of sustainability
With a web network that is taking shape, economic and, above all, employment opportunities arise that until now were unthinkable. With the Facebook metaverse, jobs will be born that do not exist today, while the entire industry that operates in the creation of virtual reality and augmented reality systems will undergo a notable evolution for the production of tools capable of concentrating on an object of insignificant dimensions (for example , the frame of virtual reality glasses), the technology needed to be catapulted into the experience imagined by Zuckerberg.
Entering a metaverse is synonymous with practicality, concentration and greater individual productivity. Everyone can enjoy a workstation made up of multiple work areas, from which to manage multiple tasks at the same time, avoiding being forced to live in a chaotic and crowded place. If this is a solution already exploited by many (think of those who keep many windows open on the monitor or, directly, use two or three screens), in the metaverse you will have the advantage of applying the methodology in other places.
In fact, the concept will be applied to virtual meetings: the user will "feel" the space and the participants, who will be positioned similarly to how they would in reality, that is, to their right, to their left or even in circle. In addition to the avatars, which will be more detailed and realistic, spatial audio will contribute, that is, it simulates the origin of the sound around the listener.
And then there are shared tools: having a whiteboard available will result in an overall interaction with the tool, where virtually, but in a way that realistically tracks the procedure, everyone can take notes or write down thoughts. And here the web designers, those who will have the role of designing and “building” the scenarios in which everything will unfold.
To these will be added the specialists who will design the experiences in which the user will be teleported in an instant, from the office to the concert arenas, from the gyms to the places to meet friends, even if it is in the form of bytes. Always with an eye toward inclusion, a factor will have its prominent place in the metaverse, where there are no barriers or borders.
Facebook Metaverse, who will it belong to?
Certainly, an ambitious design of such dimensions cannot be in the hands of a single owner, but must be articulated in a similar way to a gigantic interoperable ecosystem, in which the public and the private interact perfectly.
From areas managed by government entities to those of technology companies, including startups, through non-profit organizations and developers who operate in the field of open source and act in favor of the common good, anyone will be called to invest in planning. , if necessary in economic terms in addition to management terms.
It is, therefore, a long and articulated path to follow that, in the years to come, will provide Mark Zuckerberg - and those who wish to follow him on this futuristic path - material on which to think about the construction of the "new world."
