Definition
There are many definitions of the metaverse, but this serves as well as any: It is “a hypothetical single, universal, and immersive virtual world focused on social connection, existing as a parallel to, or replacement of, the physical world.”1 But what does that really mean? It depends upon who you read or listen to.
In his most recent book, entitled Reality+, David Chalmers argues: “Virtual reality is genuine reality. Or, at least, virtual realities are genuine realities.” He breaks the argument into three parts:
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Critics abound, scoffing at the idea that life lived virtually will be as “real” as the world we experience today. And if you read Chalmers closely, he basically engages in what would be called a “punt” in American football. When you can’t score and/or know with certainty in American football, the best thing to do is kick the ball downfield and hope you might have things determined in your favor later. Such is the grounding in Chalmer’s logic: because interactions with the virtual world are real, the virtual world may be real; because you could live a meaningful life inside the virtual world, the virtual world could be as good in principle as life outside of virtual worlds; and because we can’t rule out that we are not living in a virtual world, even the current world we live in might be a virtual or simulation. A great thing for philosophers and writers of science fiction to ponder upon and argue about, but not much to go on if you are a betting person.
What do we know?
Speculation of science fiction writers and philosophers aside, we know people and companies have engaged in building what they are calling the “metaverse.” And it might just be possible to use what evidence exists to speculate on what it might be and how “real” it is.
The term “metaverse” was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. Stevenson’s metaverse was a virtual place where humans, as programmable avatars, interact with each other and software agents, in a three-dimensional virtual space that provided an escape from a totalitarian reality.
But as people in the know point out: the metaverse has been in development for some time, stretching back to the first virtual reality machine built in 1956. From there, virtual reality tours developed in the 1970s, Sega introduced VR arcade machines like the SEGA VR-1 motion simulator in the 1990s, Second Life launched in 2003, Sony’s ill-fated virtual social hub for PlayStation 3 launched in 2008, Lucky Palmer created the prototype for the Oculus Rift VR headset in 2010, IKEA introduced its innovative Place app in 2017, and Apple added LIDAR to iPhones and iPads in 2020. And now, with the advent of blockchain and NFTs, developers see a great opportunity to engage in secure and transparent e-commerce.
Building upon technological advances of the past is why Mark Ball, the influential venture capitalist, describes it as “a sort of successor state to the mobile internet.”3 And this makes sense from a commerce perspective. As noted by Financial Times reporter Jemima Kelly:
Remember when smartphones revolutionized tech, the economy, and society itself? The metaverse is expected to be an equivalent watershed, and lots of businesses want to get ahead of that.4
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