Metaverse

The Metaverse is a collective virtual reality (VR) created by the author Neal Stephenson, in his 1992 sci-fi classic Snow Crash. In this global-spanning virtual world, billions of users could socialize (e.g. hanging out in 3D bars and nightclubs), meet people, and do business. People could also play games in the Metaverse, although this was not its main goal. The concept of the Metaverse rapidly gained popularity after the novel’s release, and has influenced various personalities in the virtual reality and gaming industries .

The novel portrays a posthuman world in which a large number of its inhabitants have a parallel existence in the Metaverse . This internet-like network is mostly populated by real people who use an avatar as a form of personal representation in the virtual space. The digital world is envisioned as a large cyber-planet containing buildings and structures that are found in reality, and others that are not. There are also synthetic characters that inhabit the Metaverse. These vary in capability and complexity, and they interact with the real people in the virtual space like they were avatars of other real characters .

The users enter the Metaverse by way of a virtual reality headset that wraps halfway around the head; the headset has small headphones that connect to the users’ ears. According to Sedore (2012), “When one is ‘goggled’ into the Metaverse, his headset will ‘throw a light, smoky haze across his eyes and reflect a distorted wide-angle view of a brilliantly lit boulevard that stretches off into an infinite blackness. This boulevard does not really exist; it is a computer-rendered view of an imaginary place.’”

The story’s main character is named Hiro Protagonist. He is a young man - a computer hacker by profession - that spends the majority of his time goggled into the Metaverse in order to escape from the harshness of reality .

Influence of the Metaverse concept

The concept of the Metaverse has had a great impact in the digital technology industry for the past decades. Indeed, Michael Abrash (Chief Scientist at Oculus VR) credits the book for the desire to bring that concept into the real world. Abrash partnered with John Carmack to develop the first online multiplayer shooter - Quake. They where trying, in a small way, to fulfill the vision of the Metaverse they had read about .

Others, like Jaron Lanier (Computer Scientist), used the concept of the Metaverse to try and popularize the VR technology of the time, which was primitive compared to today’s standards. For many years, the VR technology seemed ill-fated, but it seems to be finally reaching a developmental level that can rekindle the hopes and promises of the virtual reality dreams of technologists inspired by the Metaverse. With the release of headsets like the Oculus Rift, VR has reached the general public, and the technology seems to be a growth area as big as smartphones were in 2007 . This virtual reality renaissance is creating a lot of excitement surrounding the eventual development of a real world Metaverse. Rod Furlan, in a 2015 piece for Singularity Hub, wrote that “While the term “metaverse” was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, current usage has diverged significantly from its original meaning. In popular contemporary culture, the metaverse is often described as the VR-based successor to the web.” While there is little consensus on what a real world implementation of the Metaverse would be like, the concept is a persistent topic in discussions about the future of VR .