Have you ever been distracted at a meeting and quickly realized that you were missing something absolutely critical, and now you can hardly understand the entire discussion?

Have you ever been distracted at a meeting and quickly realized that you were missing something absolutely critical, and now you can hardly understand the entire discussion? When it comes to the so-called " meta-universe ", you will doubt whether the whole world has done something similar, which is understandable. The word

is currently a popular word for Silicon Valley . According to foreign media reports, many companies have appointed a "Chief Metaverse Officer" on their boards, and some companies are trying to connect everything they do with the "Metaverse".

Nowadays, Almost anything that is slightly related to augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) is suddenly labeled as the metaverse.

So the most obvious question is, what exactly is the metaverse? This is an important issue because firmly managed companies—not just startups—are taking this issue seriously.

Since Facebook announced that its parent company would be renamed Meta, executives from many companies, including Microsoft and Disney , have publicly stated that they want to participate.

Samsung even launched its own meta-universe product, a virtual family called "My House". Next, let’s take a look at what the metaverse is. What exactly is the meta universe of

?

In short, the metaverse does not actually exist yet—but it is an idea of ​​a lot of assumptions about what the internet might look like in the future. Annoyingly, it has not yet been defined.

Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg The metaverse envisioned may be somewhat different from the metaverse envisioned by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (Satya Nadella).

But roughly speaking, this goal is a bit like the virtual world described in Player No. 1 or The Matrix, albeit less obvious dystopian. (The name was actually created by the writer Neil Stephenson in his 1992 novel Avalanche.)

Their idea is that One day, Virtual reality and related technologies can become our main interface with the Internet, and in fact, we will spend a lot of time living in the virtual world.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a "founder's letter" announcing the company's name change: "The defining quality of the meta-universe will be a sense of existence—like you're with another person or in another place."

He envisions the future that Facebook's Horizon Workrooms suggests—in a virtual space where we can use virtual characters to interact with others.

But what is important is that the metaverse is more than just virtual reality. It has a much wider idea and scope – including more concepts and techniques, which is as important as tying a computer to your face.

The best description of this future may come from Matthew Ball, who is essentially the great prophet of the meta-universe. He is a venture capitalist who has written a lot on this topic and it seems his ideas inspired Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley people.

In a series of lengthy (but very interesting) articles, he described the metaverse as follows: " The metaverse is a large-scale, interactive, and real-time rendering of 3D virtual world network, which allows an unlimited number of users to experience this virtual world synchronously and continuously, with a sense of personal existence, and has data continuity such as identity, history, rights, objects, communications and payments. ."

In other words, his vision is a metaverse, not a single system. It does not belong to any company, nor does it look like logging into any particular 3D world. But its structure will be like the Internet today, a network that is not controlled by any single entity.Instead, a common set of standards and connections enables different companies to build their own virtual environments based on this.

In order for this place to be a reality, it requires a collection of other technical building blocks, all in place.

The most obvious requirement is better VR hardware. The existing headphones are huge and have low resolution, which is annoying to wear. But this is a problem we can expect to gradually improve to solve. Since Facebook is Meta, we may be able to better understand why Zuckerberg bought headset maker Oculus for $2 billion in 2014.

However, the hardware — including the enormous computing power required to host the entire virtual world in the background — is just a small part of the puzzle.

For example, there is also a need for a wide range of tools and standard systems that enable other companies to build for the metaverse so that everyone can exist together in the same virtual space. Consider a metapeer similar to the HTTP protocol used to transfer data and the HTML code used to write web pages. We need a way to ensure that virtual objects are compatible outside of any company's ecosystem.

A fully functioning meta universe needs to have an economy. If we want to imitate the real world, we need to be able to buy and own certain virtual goods without relying on the goodwill of any particular supplier.

Believe it or not, this is a special area where cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are expected to fill the gap, as they will enable us to have the digital currency and the permanent record we have.

This means that when you buy a new hat for your virtual character, you should be able to wear it in a virtual experience – whether it’s at a work meeting or playing an action game, you should be able to sell the hat for real, meaningful cash after you wear it.

As expected, although this is probably our ultimate goal , we are still some distance away from this scenario actually happening. But now some companies, such as Meta, are putting building modules in place.

Who will build the meta universe?

The really interesting question now is: If the metaverse is the future, which companies are most likely to win the competition to build the metaverse?

Although Mark Zuckerberg made a high-profile announcement about building the meta-universe, Matthew Ball's prediction may be more optimistic about another company: Epic Games.

Epic is the development company of Fortnite and Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is a 3D world building software that has been used in countless games and more virtual experiences - such as in the production of "The Mandalorian". Tim Sweeney, CEO of

Epic Games, is one of the most determined advocates of the metaverse. This may not be surprising given the fact that his company is in a rather unique position.

For example, if we go back to the building blocks needed for the metaverse, we will find that Epic already provides some of them: it has its own user account system with a friend list, and Unreal Engine is already a common 3D development platform, meaning objects made for one experience can be easily placed into another.

With Fortnite, we can glimpse what the metaverse might look like: In the game, you play a highly customizable character. The game is no longer just a shooting game – the company has expanded it to everything from 3D concert experiences to public movie viewing.

Real killer app

However, there is another company's main candidate most likely to win the metaverse: Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on Twitter in 2021: “The meta-universe has arrived and it has changed not only how we view the world, but how we participate.”

He had previously told investors on an earnings call that he planned to bring Microsoft into the metaverse.

Just like Epic owns Unreal Engine, he hopes that Microsoft does not fully own the metaverse, but creates tools that everyone can use to build the metaverse. This practice is a bit like selling shovels during the Gold Rush.

There is another reason to believe that Microsoft may also be a big winner. The company may already have a killer application of the metaverse. No, it is not to turn Xbox into something like Player No. 1, but Microsoft Office.

Tech analyst Ben Thompson (Ben) Thompson explains the "bull market case" of Microsoft's meta-universe, and he believes that the meta-universe will be truly shining. He paints a picture of the future, and attending VR meetings is as simple as attending a Zoom call because you have already put on a VR helmet .

He believes that many jobs nowadays don't have to be in a fixed position. In fact, many people working from home want to find a quiet, independent environment away from the disturbance of family trivialities. Therefore, it doesn't take a big leap to imagine how VR bridges this gap. What if you wear a VR helmet like going to the office?

He mentioned that he tried Facebook The experience of Horizon Studio, and the way you can bring your computer to virtual reality simulations – seeing your screen, and even your keyboard floats in front of you in the virtual space. Virtual reality means that in a moment, you’ve already sat with your colleagues, and it creates the kind of environmental connection we once found when working in the same physical room.

So why is Thompson more optimistic about Microsoft than Facebook? In Thompson’s opinion, even though Facebook creates a cool one The studio experience, but the advantage is Microsoft, because it already has other connective tissue for the office: mail is sent in Outlook, documents are prepared in Word, and communication and collaboration between offices are implemented through Teams.

So if Microsoft can build some of the building blocks it needs (it is already building the 3D world for Teams), the company is ready for the rest of the virtual office .

So forget "The Matrix", maybe the future looks more like another 1999 movie: "Office Space".

Finally, it is still to be seen whether the meta universe will really appear. But one thing we can be sure of: Since people are talking about the “metauniverse”, you will hear it endlessly.

Just like "Artificial Intelligence " and "fake news", once it becomes a popular word, you can bet that we will hear anything, anything, anything can involve "metauniverse" investment, no matter how trivial it is.

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