Let’s Ditch This Realm For The Metaverse Already

When we think of how life has been ‘virtual’ over the past two years, many of us were really inconvenienced by the drastic change in lifestyles. From not being able to do day-to-day things like going to work, to doing a grocery run. On the other hand, for those of us living the digital hermit life, nothing changed. 

We still socialized online. Whether that was gaming buddies, or in chat rooms like Discord. We worked remotely. We even ordered groceries and supplies online. So, when the rest of the world was struggling to get a hang of living in the digital realm we were already comfortably dwelling there. Maybe that’s the new normal we should be exploring. 

Is that even possible? After all we as humans do tend to crave real human connection. Like how online dating just refers to the means to meet people, to then meet people in real life. Is there a way to shift that aspect of our lives online too? 

Potentially yes. That’s what ‘Metaverse’ seems like. So yeah, the people who invented social media networking, Facebook, now go by ‘Meta’. What is this sorcery you ask? Meta is an immersive virtual reality world. Apparently founder Mark Zuckerberg wants people to become fully digital hermits and join its version of the metaverse by the end of the 2020s. The company committed some $10 billion last year alone to make that a reality.

When a corporate giant is putting that much money into something, you know they’ve weighed the odds of whether that’ll work or not. So, how many can get on board with the idea of ditching this physical plane and fully moving into a virtual world. To blur that line between reality and virtual reality. When announcing the rebranding, Zuckerberg described migrating to the Metaverse as;

“In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up,”

Is this a glimpse into the future? Much like how we first discovered the Internet of things. At some point we did expect to interact with each other in the digital realm as close to real life interactions as we can. However, some are still uncomfortable with the thought. 

If such a state, interaction, and lifestyle produced the same chemical responses in our brain as they do in the real life then what’s the problem? Can we even argue that it’s not real. With technology like virtual reality goggles and the blockchain we’re practically there already. 

All that we’re missing now is haptic technology, to even feel touch virtually. According to Cathy Hackl of Futures Intelligence Group consultancy, it’s like our digital lives are just catching up with our physical lives. 

“There are many different technologies that enable this greater vision of the metaverse as a convergence of physical and digital – or our digital lifestyles catching up to our physical lives.” 

We already heavily rely on our devices and have so much of our lives integrated with the digital realm. From saving everything on cloud to the dependence on AI assistants. Then why the apprehensiveness when it comes to making this transition fully. 

Is this just a prejudice for this technological shift? A fear of going in deep after knowing that we’ve already got our toes wet. After all, even when it comes to reality there’s the idea of created reality. Our perception and idea of reality is just that. The way we see it. There are multiples views on the same things because we all see things differently, process information differently, and think differently. 

Wouldn’t it be more interesting to even have that real interaction with our AI assistants. They have empathetic responses too. Such as responding better to please and thank you. So, why not amp that up.