Ahead of the mass production of HMDs I’m pleased to see the consolidation of old terms (AR, VR, AR Cloud, XR, virtual games etc.) into one — Metaverse. It was difficult to explain to third parties the differences and similarities between all these industries earlier but semantic integration into one universal sphere should now increase the capitalization of all players.
I would like to draw your attention to one aspect, ignoring which could lead the Metaverse industry to big problems in the near future.
In essence, in the Metaverse, the sphere of 3D games and virtual reality undoubtedly has the main weight, while augmented reality influence is still small.
Therefore, the development of basic standards, approaches and AI algorithms of Metaverse will be based on data from ‘fictional worlds’ that are far from the real world (in terms of physical laws, real human behaviour, laws, ethics and moral standards adopted in the real world). At the same time, the share of the AR component of Metaverse will increase over time and, in theory, will become dominant in the next 10 – 15 years.
It means that if now we don’t bring the ready infrastructure, rules and laws of Virtual Metaverse to the physical world, then in the future this may lead to big expenses for the merge of knowledge and solutions of Virtual and Real Metaverse, based on augmented reality HMDs.
I didn’t even begin to think about what systematic problems people will have in the real world if they spend more and more time in the virtual world, teaching their “neural networks” in worlds where physical and social laws of the real world do not operate. In terms of harm to society and reducing its real effectiveness will remind us of harm from religious sects and scientific teachings.
Is there a recipe for solving this problem?
I think there’s no universal decision, in any case, the virtual world will always be more dynamic and progressive compared to the real world.
The more Metaverse occupies a part of the real-life of humanity, the more it will have to correspond and correlate with the real world, physical, social and ethical laws, the requirements of educational systems.
The political responsibility of the creators of Metaverse worlds will grow as well. The Chinese restriction that limits online video game playing for young people to three hours a week is another example.
Best regards,