When UTA was created, most of us were learning to navigate on computers using the DOS system. We carried pagers and had accounts at the local 1Hr. Photo store and stood anxiously next to a fax machine waiting for a signed contract to arrive. Soon after, the internet started a revolution in business that literally changed the world we live in.
I had a chance to listen to futurist Ian Khan (Bitcoin Dilemma Documentary) and realized that we are at a similar historical and radical societal change that is about to happen. Something that has been brewing in the background. Something that many of our children have been playing with for a while. Something that we thought of as Sci-Fi is now here to take all of us into the most significant civil change in the history of humankind.
For the last fifty years, engineering groups around the planet have been working on the standardization and expansion of biometrics, artificial intelligence, superconductivity, nanotechnology, and cloud computing. Cyberspace is no longer a fantasy but a reality. The four major concepts of algorithmic societies, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are starting to work in conjunction, taking us into the Metarverse. This is the integration of the entire augmented reality spectrum by entering a virtual world. Millions of children have been in front of a tv screen playing online games together and simultaneously worldwide for years now. That was the start. The Metaverse brings new technologies and virtual ecosystems where computers themselves can mediate the environments so you can experience it, not just look at it, but be there and feel the ambiance of a virtual location. Think of a buyer taking a virtual test drive of a truck with all the sounds and smells and even feeling the motor’s heat while he shifts to a higher gear from 2,000 miles away.
The transition has started, and the technology includes extended reality, human-computer interaction, computer vision, mobile networks, edge computing, and artificial intelligence. Soon you will be able to “go” to work, “see” your coworkers in real-time, get “inside” an engine cylinder to observe the wear, “sign” the customer order, and “receive” your pay, never leaving your house. A “shared realm” in which we all be part of and without any frontiers. A new virtual economy will be totally acceptable, one that will include an avatar identity for you and promises of more free time for yourself. We already have access to all the knowledge of the world on our mobile devices. In this next phase, we will cease being an ordinary human beings.
Advances in technology will never stop. We have a curious mind and a deep-rooted sense of having to achieve more. But did we ask for a Metaverse?. A virtual existence could take us further apart. To really “live” well, we should study how our world (our planet) is. How do things fall into place, how is it governed, and for what cause things to happen in nature? If we look around, we will soon be thankful and perhaps see that there is a divine mind at work that has been performing for millennia providing what is needed without any tools at all.
