The science fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the concept metaverse in his novel Snow Crashpublished in 1992, which revolves around the character Hiroaki Hiro, a young pizza delivery boy in real life, but a samurai warrior in a virtual universe.
Broadly speaking, the metaverse is a fictional construction of real life, where people can socialize through immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, to name a few.
In this virtual universe, which could be a reality in the next five years, participants interact through avatars or characters created by themselves, trying to reproduce real life in a virtual 3D metaphor environment, without space and time limitations.
The topic of the metaverse has become increasingly popular among major tech companies; for example, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games - the company that developed the popular video game Fortnite - has made several points on the subject.
In particular, his positions refer to the programming code that would be necessary to create such a virtual environment, and he has also emphasized the various limitations that currently exist to make this virtual world a reality.
Facebook's vision; more than a game
For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the metaverse goes much further. It is a vision that encompasses the entire technology industry, a kind of immersive Internet where, "instead of watching content, you are in it and you feel present with other people".
Imagine you're sitting on the couch at home, you're feeling bored so you decide to use a Virtual Reality device. Suddenly, you find yourself sitting in the middle of thousands of people enjoying a concert, together with your partner and friends.
In an interview he gave to the specialized technology media outlet The VergeHe pointed out that the metaverse is being in other places, having different experiences like dancing, attending a concert or exercising, that you couldn't have in a 2D application or on a website.
The metaverse is not just virtual reality. It will be accessible on all our different computing platforms: virtual reality, augmented reality, but also for personal computers, mobile devices and video game consoles?
According to Zuckerberg, a lot of people currently think of the metaverse as being about video games, and while a big part of this virtual universe will be entertainment, "I don't think this is just a game".
Thus, the metaverse he describes looks to be much of the next chapter of the technology industry, the developer community and digital commerce, where Facebook projects like Oraculus, which have been years in the making, may soon contribute to our access to a new universe.
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