A lot of people what argue that internet is one of the greatest invention ever. We have all the knowledge in our fingertips.

Imagine a world where you wake up, go to the office in the morning, go to a party with friends at night, and then go to a live concert at midnight. And all while sitting in the warmth of your home or from the comfort of your bed. This could only be part of the future of humanity. A world where time and space mean nothing. Where we will all partially exist and function in a virtual world. Where we can all live, work and play in the Metaverse. The Metaverse has been widely discussed lately and it is difficult to understand or explain because it is not a place, a specific technology, nor does it exist in any static way. The Metaverse, on the other hand, is an attempt to describe the way the world will interact with technology in an ever-evolving way in the future. Right now we’re typing on screens, we’re typing on keyboards, we’re using physical input devices to interact with technology. However, these input devices have limited functionalities. They’re mostly stuck in one place, and you need to have them within physical reach at all times. In the Metaverse, interacting with technology might feel real. We’ll be able to squeeze, pinch, punch. We don’t need to learn any other input methods because we would be interacting with technology just like we would anything in the real world. The Metaverse describes an interoperable digital universe. At the moment, the internet requires you to create accounts on every platform that you want to use. Your avatars or “digital existence” on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are completely different. However, in the Metaverse, the dream is to be able to create a virtual avatar, an address, an “identity” that can be used on all platforms. From social networking apps to work meetings to school, everything could be done in one package, just like in the real world. You can also buy virtual items like clothes or art and take them with you on several different platforms. The Metaverse could potentially completely transform the entire world economy as we know it. It could change the way we perceive value, physical versus digital. You may think that the reality of this type of technology is far away, but you are wrong. The key technologies required to create the metaverse already exist, albeit in their infancy. Cryptocurrencies, virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual world building, NFTs; These are the main tools used in the metaverse, and they are all around us today. With NFTs in particular, you can now create, sell, and buy digital items that can be completely unique and whose ownership can be traced back to you. If you leave your sweater at a random party, anyone can pick it up, take it home and claim it as their own. But NFTs essentially tie that unique sweater to you. Anyone can publicly look up and see who owns this sweater and the best part is that it cannot be taken away from you. You own it and everyone can see that it is yours and there is no central authority that can voluntarily decide to take it away from you. The use cases for NFTs are quite high and can actually offer great value to people by giving a whole new meaning to what it means to actually “own” something, although it’s been quite a debated topic lately. Contrary to what you may have heard, buying NFTs doesn’t burn down entire forests. In fact, depending on how much you value decentralization, there are options to purchase NFTs on specific platforms that have near zero energy costs. But honestly, NFTs, crypto, and the arguments for and against merit a whole video in their own right, so back to the Metaverse. Even little things like Apple using AI to ensure your face is always in frame when FaceTime appears like nothing actually says where the tech is going. Face tracking will be one of the main pillars of the Metaverse. As humans, we communicate a lot through facial expressions. When we’re sad or happy, nervous or worried, it shows on our faces before we even open our mouths to speak. So, with good face tracking, digital communication becomes a lot more seamless than it used to be. You don’t have to guess a person’s tone from a text message or their mood from a phone call. They can see and say exactly how they feel. For now it’s FaceTime and Zoom calls, but ultimately imagine being in a room where you visibly feel like you’re in the same room as your classmates or colleagues, even though they’re physically on the other side of the planet could be located. The world is slowly moving towards a fully digital future. Mark Zuckerberg first bought the domain name meta.com in 2017 and only officially changed the company name from “Facebook” to “Meta” a few months ago. The brand still has the same goal as they always have, but in the public eye, the Metaverse is everywhere now. But aside from that, the pandemic has accelerated the advent of this technology. As the need to stay indoors to prevent the spread of the virus grew, so did the need for technology to find ways to do things virtually that we previously had to do in person. So everything from work meetings, school, therapy and even music concerts to the digital world. In 2019, the first concert took place on Fortnite, yes, Fortnite. Marshmello took the world by storm when he performed a 10-minute set for around ten million Fortnite players, which is pretty crazy considering the scale. In 2020, Fortnite took it a step further with their Travis Scott concert. Leading up to the event, players were able to see how the stage was set up in the Fortnite universe. As the days went by, the stage became more and more complete. This gave players the feel of a real concert brought to life days before the event. When the event took place, 27.7 million people from around the world attended this concert, making it technically the largest concert ever attended… by almost tenfold. This is far more than any physical concert the world has ever seen. People who otherwise would not have had access to hear and experience their favorite artist live have been given the opportunity to do so from the comfort and safety of their homes during a global pandemic. Funnily enough, Fortnite is currently the closest thing we can get to the Metaverse. Aside from concerts by some of the world’s greatest artists, you can also buy skins to customize your avatar and even meet historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. in a virtual environment. However, saying Fortnite is the Metaverse would be like saying Google is the Internet. Right now, this is how most people access the metaverse, but it doesn’t even come close to the scope of what the metaverse can be. VR chat is another widely used example of what the Metaverse could look like in the future. You can pretty much do anything you want in VR chat. Choose your own avatar, talk to your friends, meet new people, it’s frankly overwhelming. 100 years ago we could hardly talk to anyone in the whole world. Nowadays you can see and really learn about a virtual representation of people from all over the world in really any form of your choosing. Think back to other virtual experiences like time travel to live with the dinosaurs while learning more about them. Or go into space in a fully virtual environment to learn more about our solar system. Consider practicing an operation before the actual work is done, or meeting up with your peers to work on a specific product you’ve developed. Elon Musk, the CEO of Neuralink, recently said that the company plans to start implanting computer chips in humans this year, 2022. In a way, with this microchip, we will be able to control computers with just our minds. Again, you might think this is just a child’s dream or a dystopian nightmare depending on your point of view. But in 2021, Page, Neuralink’s test monkey, successfully played a game of pong with his mind. If a monkey could do this, think what a human can do. We may be able to control prosthetic limbs as if they were part of our body, and since the machine can also send signals back to the brain, we can also feel stimuli from those limbs. We will talk to computers with our minds, we will interact in the metaverse without a physical input device. Just think about what you want to do and you’re done. There are two things that humanity has tried to fight from the beginning, space and time. However, in one of those things, space, we’ve only been partially successful. And the Metaverse might be our biggest success yet. From camels and donkeys to horses, carts, cars, trains, ships, planes and now spaceships, we’ve always looked for ways to fundamentally warp space. To make the world feel a lot smaller than it is. Getting from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible. From writing letters to phone calls and video calls to virtual interaction, we’ve always created ways to be there even when we can’t be physically. Man is a social being and living in a social group is essential for survival. Of course, most of our inventions will simply look for new ways to communicate with each other, no matter how far apart we are. It is no wonder that many science fiction stories speak of the idea of ​​teleportation. But the truth is that physical teleportation may never be a real thing. The physics of breaking us down into our individual atoms and then reorganizing ourselves somewhere else is, uh… a stretch. Because we’re not sure what exactly makes us human. With the Metaverse, however, we never have to physically teleport. Why do something so dangerous when you can go anywhere on Earth or beyond with the internet? In no time you can see, hear and experience it all without ever having to be physically there. Would you like to see the bottom of the ocean? Finished. Want to explore Mars and see Earth from the red planet? Finished. Would you like to attend a concert without fearing for your life and safety? Finished. We will be able to travel throughout the entire universe in an instant, except it will be a universe of our creation. It’s like the simulation is repeating itself. Mankind’s struggle with time, on the other hand, was not so successful. We still can’t travel through time, and we can never get back lost time. However, the Metaverse could change that. Yes, we will not be able to physically travel through time, but we will be able to experience events, live through times, and observe the world as it was. We will be able to simulate the Ice Age to catch a glimpse of the Wooly Mammoth, for example, or perhaps go back to the Victorian era to understand life as a young adult in the 18th century with a simulated population representing the Mammoth’s language mimics time. The Metaverse also has the power to make us immortal, or at least some of us. Think about it, celebrities like Tupac and Michael Jackson still have functioning social media accounts. These accounts regularly post about their music, relevant days in their lives, and all that. Seven of Tupac’s platinum albums were released after his death. This means there is a massive amount of unreleased content left behind by these artists when they die. Imagine if we could all exist in the metaverse, where avatars could be created in the likeness of these celebrities. With the amount of information we have about them, how they look, speak, act and behave, along with all of their unpublished art, we will be able to reproduce lifelike expressions of them in the Metaverse, indistinguishable of what they were when they lived. Artists who are physically dead will hold concerts and millions of fans will sing as if they were there. Everything from interviews to shows to face-to-face communication with fans could feel as real as if they never died. With existing information about their creative process and the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, they could even create new music. Recently, we’ve seen videos of children showing their parents pictures of dead relatives with moving facial parts, thanks to the power of AI. And we’ve seen how emotional these parents are at reliving their loved ones. Now imagine how much more touching it will be not just to see a moving image, but to fully experience the digital expression of a dead relative. What is dead may never really stay dead again. If you’re like me, this all sounds very exciting, but also extremely terrifying. For like all human inventions, the metaverse will simply be a tool. And like most tools, it can be used for good or evil. And to say I’m scared of the evil the Metaverse might bring is an understatement. Think of all the problems with social media today and increase them exponentially. Such are the potential dangers of the metaverse. One of the biggest problems with social media today is misinformation. People use fake screenshots, photoshop edits, websites and deepfakes to spread lies and misinformation. If you don’t know what you’re looking for or how to identify those things, misinformation will just keep spreading. Facebook, or Meta, the largest company that is now, in a sense, leading the march into the Metaverse, has been accused multiple times of sponsoring misinformation on its platform. Now imagine how much more believable these lies would be in the metaverse, where it will be difficult to discern what is real and what is not. If it’s not misinformation, then you have the problem of confirmation bias. If the Metaverse gives us content about the algorithms that are currently in place at advanced levels on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, we’re in danger, aren’t we? The problem with these algorithms is that they keep bringing you the same content as soon as they realize you’re interested. They are really ingenious in their design. Soon the only things you see or hear are the things you already believe. No challenging ideologies, no opposing views, nothing. And for you this is perfect. But when you live in a world that you know isn’t real but feels real, is there any impact on your actions or your beliefs? If anything, you would feel most secure here, where you can truly express yourself best. It’s a double-edged sword. The irony of humanity’s desire to use technology to enhance our connections, to amplify the human experience, is that the same technology separates us. Mark Zuckerberg said during his Metaverse speech that this new technology will help “improve human connections.” the human connection. Today you can see a group of friends hanging out in real life, but none of them seem to care what the other has to say. Many of us know people who, oddly enough, seem to simply hate their friends but stay connected for social gain. And how many of us are actually looking for real connections on social media apps? Or isn’t this just a numbers game? How many followers, friends or subscribers can you collect? Are we interested in sharing our lives with others, or do we just want to prove we have the best? How will the Metaverse make us think and feel about ourselves? If you walk around with your charming prince all day, how would you feel if you took off the headset and looked at yourself in the mirror with all your imperfections that you know best? Right now people can’t post a picture to Instagram without first making 100 versions just to find the perfect shot and then adding layers of filters to make it look even better, and that’s fine if it makes you feel better feel. But little by little we become less impressed with our natural selves because technology makes us look a lot better. With the Metaverse, these standards will only continue to evolve for ourselves, those that may be worse than what currently exists. And slowly but surely we might actually start hating the human experience. But in all of this, the scariest thing of all is a fairly simple question: will the creators of the metaverse make any money? Is the Metaverse financially motivated or socially motivated? Say they do, and they do it by selling our data, as many companies do today. Most of us know this and just deal with it. This data collected in the Metaverse isn’t just about what you like to watch on YouTube or your buying habits on Amazon. It will be your most private thoughts, desires and ambitions. Your literal brainwaves. That’s just way too much information to let a centralized company do with what it wants, but at this point, do you even care? Will money still have value to you when you can fulfill every wish you ever dreamed of? Will that dopamine tie to the Green Paper still matter? The reality is that the Metaverse, whatever that means, is still a long way off. Many people still get dizzy just wearing a VR headset, and the prices of these devices are still far too expensive to make them ubiquitous just yet. As far as we know, this could only be the first step. However, we can never know for sure. Because we were all going about our lives as normal when Steve Jobs released the iPhone in 2007. Take a look around now and imagine what the next “iPhone” technology level will be in another 15 years. As exciting as this all sounds, we can only hope we don’t trade our humanity for a spot in the Metaverse. Humanity has never achieved anything without some risk, but in the end the reward could be limitless.