The Metaverse Project: Iteration of Virtual Environments.

Technology frequently delivers unexpected outcomes that no one foresees. The most significant advances, on the other hand, are frequently predicted decades in advance. Vannevar Bush proposed the "Memex" in 1945, a single device that would hold all books, documents, and communications and automatically connect them by association. This notion was subsequently utilized to construct the concept of "hypertext" (a term invented two decades later), which aided the creation of the World Wide Web (developed another two decades later). Despite the fact that the "Streaming Wars" have just recently began, the first streaming video was broadcast more than 25 years ago. Many of the characteristics of this so-called battle, such as essentially endless supplies of material, on-demand playback, interactivity, dynamic and targeted marketing, and the benefit of combining content and delivery, have been speculated about for decades.

While many technologists envisaged a "personal computer," its characteristics and timing were so unpredictable that Microsoft, rather than IBM, dominated the PC era that began in the 1990s. While Microsoft obviously anticipated mobile, it misjudged the importance of the operating system and hardware, resulting in the global ascent of Android and iOS (and Microsoft's transition from the OS layer to the app/services layer). In a similar vein, Steve Jobs' computing objectives were always "correct," but they were set too early and on the incorrect gadget. Instant messaging and email were the two most common uses of the early Internet, but the value of social apps/networks was not recognized until the late 2000s. Similarly, all of the ingredients for developing Facebook existed before the year 2000, but Facebook didn't appear until 2005 — and even then, it was by chance.

The most popular ideas about the Metaverse come from science fiction. The Metaverse is usually shown as a kind of digital "jacked-in" internet — a depiction of true reality but one grounded in a virtual (often theme park-like) environment, similar to that depicted in Ready Player One and The Matrix. While such experiences are likely to be part of the Metaverse, they are restricted in the same way that films like Tron presented the Internet as a real digital "information superhighway" of bits.

We don't really know how to define the Metaverse, just as it was difficult to imagine what the Internet of 2020 would be in 1982 — and much more difficult to express it to people who had never even "logged" into it at the time. Core characteristics, on the other hand, may be identified.

There's also debate about how much interoperability is necessary for the Metaverse to truly be "the Metaverse," rather than merely an evolution of the Internet as it is now. Many people also question whether or not a real Metaverse can have only one operator (as is the case in Ready Player One). Some argue that a Metaverse's definition (and success) necessitates a heavily decentralized platform based primarily on community-based standards and protocols (similar to the open web) and a "open source" Metaverse OS or platform (though this does not rule out the presence of dominant closed platforms in the Metaverse).

Another concept concerns the Metaverse's core communications architecture. While today's Internet is built on individual servers "talking" to one another as needed, others believe the Metaverse needs to be "wired" and "managed" around persistent many-to-many connections.

Even if the Metaverse falls short of science fiction authors' extravagant aspirations, it is expected to generate trillions of dollars in value as a new computer platform or content medium. However, in its ultimate form, the Metaverse serves as a portal to most digital experiences, as well as a critical component of all physical ones and the next major labor platform.

The benefit of being a significant player, if not a driver, in such a system is self-evident — the Internet has no "owner," but virtually all of the largest Internet corporations are among the world's top ten most valuable public companies. And, if the Metaverse does really serve as a functioning "successor" to the web, with much more reach, time spent, and commercial activity, there will certainly be even more economic benefits.

Regardless, the Metaverse should provide the same breadth of opportunities as the web — new firms, products, and services will arise to handle everything from payment processing to identity verification, recruiting, ad distribution, content development, and security, among other things. As a result, several current incumbents are expected to lose their seats.

The Metaverse, in general, has the potential to change how we distribute and commercialize modern resources. For millennia, industrialized economies have changed as labor and real estate scarcity swelled and waned. Would-be laborers living outside of cities will be able to engage in the "high value" economy via virtual labor in the Metaverse. We'll see further alterations in where we live, the infrastructure that's created, and who performs particular duties as more consumer spending goes to virtual products, services, and experiences.

Even if the ideas, technologies, and capabilities I've detailed above become a reality, they'll be decades away. At the same time, many of the puzzle pieces are beginning to fall into place. As a result, the questions are who, why, and for what purpose. As a result, it's useful to go over the (lengthy) history of the World Wide Web. Imagine if, instead of being created by charities and technologists to exchange research files and messages, it was created to make money by selling advertisements or collecting user data.