Into the Metaverse
On June 23, 2003, Linden Labs unveiled a website called Second Life. It is a website wherein individuals can interact and live a second life as an online character, called an avatar. In 2004, several politicians held virtual press conferences in Second Life. The Maldives and Sweden opened virtual embassies. Second life is still around, but used primarily by those without a life.
Now, tech companies are rushing towards the future internet. One approach is augmented reality, or AR. In AR, a headset that shows you the world around you, but also augments that reality with other information placed in your field of view. For example, you can see a piece of furniture and fit it into your real room. Or you can play a game that appears to exist on your carpet, but is only generated on the screen in front of your eyes.
The alternative is virtual reality, or VR. In VR, you put a headset on your head and suddenly exist in a three dimensional world. Turn your head in any direction and you are in that world. Carefully placed speakers let you hear the world and submerse yourself in it.
Facebook, or Meta, sent me a new Oculus 2 headset to explore their version of what is being called the “Metaverse,” a VR world. I chose not to participate in the meetings explaining what Metaverse. I and my twelve year old son dove right in. If you are familiar with Ready Player One, you have a sense of the Metaverse. Facebook has a sense of its future. I am impressed with what Facebook already has in its Metaverse.
First, you should really get an Oculus. It is going to be the gaming platform of the future. My son, who has a Nintendo Switch and an Xbox, tells me the Oculus is the coolest gaming platform ever. He claims it is even cooler than the Nintendo Classic Edition my wife and I have. We have to set timers to pull him out of the Metaverse. His only lament is none of his friends have one so he plays alone. But my gosh does he play. Unlike other gaming consoles, he plays on his feet and works up a sweat in sword fights, lightsaber battles, and more.
The Oculus and Metaverse are all consuming. I got the Oculus and deleted the demo account Facebook set up for me and put in my own credentials. I set out to explore, meet people, and interact. I can see the potential because of our post-COVID world. I could attend meetings. I felt like I was really there and interacting with people. It felt more real, more engaging, and more life like even as cartoon avatars than a Zoom call. I can see the potential to attend a Pearl Jam concert with friends across America. Watching a YouTube stream is more sterile. Being at the concert, fully consumed in three dimensions, allows for the energy of crowds even though I am really alone at home.
At a time people are increasingly isolated, I see the potential of Mark Zuckerberg’s vision. My friend in Dubai and I can experience the same concert, conference call, or landscape at the same time without ever being together in reality. But I could feel presence in ways a Zoom call or FaceTime do not have. I did not expect that. I dismissed its possibility, but there it was. Meaningful interaction is possible. It is hard to explain, but very real, not abstract.
I have a real concern though. I take scripture to heart that we are to seek the welfare of our community and pray for it. The virtual world is neither the real world nor our real community. The real world has people in need of real help. The danger of the Multiverse is the danger of Aldous Huxley more than George Orwell, of a societal disconnect fueled by a desire to be entertained. Meta’s Metaverse has the potential to connect us at the time of the greatest societal disconnect with a pandemic. It also has the very real potential to disconnect us from the real world around us.
I went into the Metaverse convinced it was impossible to have a meaningful interaction. I came out of it troubled by just how real the connection and presence with others could be. I did not expect that. I hope as Facebook/Meta moves forward that it contemplates the very real dangers to the real world that pulling so many people into a consuming virtual world could bring. Science fiction is creeping forward into non-fiction. It has given me so much to think about. I am really, positively impressed and did not expect to be. Also, did I mention the Oculus, as a gaming platform, is amazing?
I eschew and have disdain for all of this. Remember, I am the psychiatric nurse practitioner. I make my living from human misery. I never allowed my children to have X box or any of those “toys.” I attended our parish mission for the past two nights. Deacon Ralph Poyo brought it! Just wow! Watch him on that antique you tube thingy. Here comes more money for me as more people disconnect, isolate, fantasize, serve gods. I’ll need the extra money. My Comcast basic bill just went to 174$ and some change.
I join the concerns of the psychiatric nurse practitioner. I remember Second Life well. My employer actually required everyone to have Second Life Accounts. Meetings were sometimes held in Second Life, and I hated them. Some people chose really abysmal avatars. Fortunately, those meetings were more like Zoom than like virtual reality, so we didn't get confused about the difference between Second Life and our real lives. Nevertheless, the abysmal avatars often exhibited behaviors and speech we all knew would not have come out in real life.
I am a fan of learning how to live real life. I think that is what Jesus was about. He saved us from Satan's fake life and gives us inspiration to live real life in a much more satisfying way.
It's my opinion that Virtual Reality is another satanic lure away from the real life Jesus wants us to have. I'm not saying people can't have better meetings in virtual reality, but I would not give it to children. I think Virtual Reality is just another drug people will use to try to escape the real world. And I fear it will lead to addictions just as destructive as addiction to opioids.