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 can see it now...children out to eat with their parents (and maybe the parents too) not interacting with each other, but wearing those stupid headsets, interacting with another virtual world. Personally, I think Metaverse is sad and scary. Give children just one more thing to check out of reality. That being said, I'm not a gamer, so I don't get the whole ordeal. Also, I don't trust Zuckerberg. He knows exactly what he's doing, and I don't think it's for the common good.
I've had 2 iterations of VR. It can be a great gaming platform as one of the games is indeed Star Wars!
But as a human meeting device? Sorry, I want your handshake! One of the foremost ways to create a stone cold killer? Is to deny human interactions, especially to a child! We humans need touching! Called "my personal space" we protect ourselves from unwanted interaction, but at some point our personal space breaks down, sometimes all the way..into intimacy! Children seek each other out to play! Watch even brothers start wrestling with each other! It's not to see who's got the testosterone in the family, it generally ends wrapped up with the other in sleep! They need each other's touch! VR can only be good for games, storytelling, the latest headlines,, oh and don't forget "big screen" viewing of your photos! (Of your kids interacting with each other, that you took at the beach last summer)🤭 Also that roller coaster ride that you'd never get on for real? With this thing you can sit right beside your 12 year old, and go with him!
Your point in all this? Everything has good...and bad...uses!