The title of this blog was inspired by me googling about the Metaverse (after watching Zuckerberg’s video about his vision on this matter) and coming across an article in Harvard Business Review with the title “Yes, the Metaverse is still happening” [1]. I do not believe that the Metaverse will ever be a thing. Sure, the article mentions the concept of a Digital Twin, which is a digital copy of a real object [2], and that enterprises are adopting Digital Twins. But I think there is a big gap between companies leveraging Digital Twins for their products or processes, and consumers spending their time in a Metaverse.
At the moment, it is just not impressive at all. Just look at Meta’s “Horizon Worlds” [3], the graphics quality is from like a videogame in the Playstation 2 era. If these companies really want people to spend their time in a virtual world, I believe it has to look and feel almost like real-life. I expect that it will take a very long time before we have the computational power that is affordable, capable of handling billions of people in a virtual world and make it not look like it was made in 2006.
Moving aside from if the Metaverse will be possible hardware wise, I have not even mentioned the usability and privacy of the Metaverse. Do we really want to sit for hours with a display mounted on our head? Surely it must get tiring. And what about our privacy? Are we willing to let companies track where and with whom we interact? Can we really trust Meta with that stuff looking at their past behavior? As you can read, there are a lot of ifs and buts about the Metaverse and I believe it will take a while before we see something like the movie ‘Ready Player One’.
References:
[1] Piscione, D. P., Drean, J.: Yes the metaverse is still happening. Harvard Business Review. (2023)
[2] Ray, P., Surianarayanan, C.: Chapter Twelve – Digital twin: The industry use cases. Advances in Computers. vol. 117. pp. 285-320. (2020)
[3] https://horizon.meta.com/
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Agree. It will take a considerable amount of time for Metavase to clarify their vision, and I am awaiting the next technological disruption that might accelerate Meta in fulfilling their dreams. Honestly, similar problems might also be encountered by GenAI.
You make a great point about the challenges and potential of the Metaverse. The current graphics in platforms such as the one shown in the video do feel underwhelming, and achieving a level of immersion that looks and feels like real life will require massive advancements in both hardware and software. Privacy is another major barrier. Plus, Meta’s track record doesn’t give much confidence. Until these issues are resolved, it’s difficult to see the Metaverse reaching the level of “Ready Player One” anytime soon.