9 Insights into Metaverse
Virtual to Real Convergence
1️⃣ The Metaverse is a game/virtual world/gimmick, understood from an original perspective.
The term "Metaverse" originated from the science fiction novel "Snow Crash" and gained popularity with the UGC gaming platform company Roblox's wealth myth after going public. It broke through to the mainstream as Facebook rebranded as Meta. The term "Metaverse" sounds quite fantastical, and over the years, any new technological term or concept has been used by scammers to deceive people, such as internet finance, 5G, chips, blockchain, quantum communication, etc. All of this has reinforced the mainstream belief that the Metaverse is just a gimmick.
2️⃣ The Metaverse is XR/a computing platform/a collection of technology, understood from a technological perspective.
As technology professionals continue to educate the public, people gradually realize that XR is just one entry point into the Metaverse. Achieving a more immersive Metaverse requires the integration of several cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, interactive technology, game engines, digital twin technology, AI, comprehensive intelligent cloud computing, IoT, etc.
Regardless of whether the Metaverse is considered an XR or the next-generation computing platform or a convergence of various cutting-edge technologies, it is fundamentally understood from a technological perspective.
3️⃣ The Metaverse has two worlds: the virtual world + a digital twin world, understood from the perspective of the virtual and real convergence.
In this level of understanding, the fictional virtual digital world and the digital twin real world are parallel and have no significant intersection. The limitation of this understanding is that it only recognizes the two worlds corresponding to the virtual and real lines but does not realize the fusion of these two lines or the existence of a third world in the Metaverse, which is a high-energy version of the fully integrated digital and real world, omnipresent and ever-present. This will be explained in detail later.
So, the Metaverse, consisting of three worlds, is not simply a parallel world to the real world because parallel lines never intersect.
4️⃣ The Metaverse is the next generation of the Internet, understood from a network perspective.
This level of understanding is based on the third level of understanding, which recognizes that the Metaverse includes the digital twin real world. It naturally extrapolates that just as the Internet progressed from the one-dimensional text era to the two-dimensional graphics and video era, it should further evolve towards a 3D immersive Metaverse.
The 3D transformation and Metaverse of the Internet are at different stages of technological maturity in terms of infrastructure, terminal devices, platform layer, application layer, content, etc., and are still in the early stages overall.
It is predicted that within 2-3 years, the installed base of VR terminals will reach a critical turning point of 100 million units, while AR and MR terminals will take about 5 more years to achieve the same milestone. During this period, AIGC will drive the rapid development of virtual digital humans, scenes, and high-quality interactive content, further promoting the popularity of XR terminals and significantly reducing cloud rendering prices. Overall, it will take about 3-5 years for the Internet's metamorphosis into the Metaverse to enter a phase of rapid development, and the pressure for 5G to upgrade to 6G will also increase accordingly.
However, the limitation of this understanding is twofold: first, the next generation of the Internet not only involves the transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional and from online to on-site but also a critical trend towards value interconnection based on Web 3.0. Second, it fails to recognize that the Metaverse is far more than just a network attribute; it is also the next generation of economic and social forms compared to agricultural, industrial, and informational societies.
5️⃣ The Metaverse has three worlds, understood from the perspective of the convergence of digital and real scenes.
Science fiction writers and Hollywood movies prefer to portray the Metaverse as a purely fictional and virtual world with little connection to the real world. However, the real Metaverse is strongly linked to the real world, with 5/6 of it having a strong correlation. In other words, 2.5 out of the three worlds in the Metaverse are dedicated to serving the real world.
In the first world, apart from being a virtual world for leisure and entertainment, half of it is also used for imaginative and fictional work purposes, such as conceiving, designing, and simulating new buildings, factories, and products. In the future, all R&D and design planning of enterprises will be completed in the virtual digital world.
The third high-energy world of real convergence refers to the real world that we see through MR glasses, AR glasses, or other smart devices, where AI-powered one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional information can be superimposed and merged in real time. It can also integrate content from the first virtual world and the second digital twin world.
Of course, in the first and second worlds, content from the other two worlds can also be integrated and merged, representing the all-encompassing convergence of the three worlds in the Metaverse.
6️⃣ The Metaverse = three worlds + a new economic system, understanding the next-generation economic system.
The definition of the three worlds of the Metaverse mentioned above is based on space and scenes. For such a new digital and real convergence form of work and life, a matching new economic system is necessary.
Based on blockchain and Web 3.0, the new economic system relies on elements and mechanisms such as NFTs, coins, tokens, smart contracts, and DeFi to iterate support for the trading entities and objects of the digital world in the Metaverse. This new economic system is already showing greater competitiveness than the current economic system.
However, this Web 3.0 economic system is still in its early stages and is relatively incomplete, but it is expected to reach a significant inflection point around 2025. As the level of Metaverse in human society becomes higher and the degree of digital and real convergence increases, this economic system will become more refined.
In the future, the economic scale of the Metaverse's digital world may be many times larger than that of the physical real world due to the infinite nature, marginal cost approaching zero, higher consumption frequency, and higher consumption efficiency of the digital world.
In other words, when the GDP of the digital world is N times that of the physical world, most human time and activities will take place in the digital world. At that time, the new form of the Metaverse society will already be a widespread consensus.
7️⃣ The Metaverse = three worlds + a new social system, understanding the next-generation social system.
As a highly advanced stage of digital development, the Metaverse, in addition to the three worlds described above primarily based on space and scenes, must also include a complete set of social elements, such as the economy, politics, culture, governance, environment, etc.
With the continuous development of AI technology and the emergence of AGI and superintelligent entities, a series of new social issues will arise. These include issues such as the legal status of AI digital entities, the ethics of silicon-based and carbon-based beings, fairness in the distribution of computing power, the impact of social employment, and the issue of human transformation into silicon-based beings.
The comprehensive digital and real convergence of the Metaverse will bring various problems and challenges that require a new social system to support and guarantee. Society is the sum of relationships formed by living organisms and the environment. Human society is the sum of relationships formed by humans and the environment. In the Metaverse, society will be redefined as the sum of relationships among humans, AI digital beings, new intelligent beings, AI superintelligent entities, and the environment.
8️⃣ The Metaverse is an inseparable digital and real social form, understood from the perspective of the singularity of brain-computer interfaces.
When advanced brain-computer interfaces enable wireless, real-time, continuous, and barrier-free information exchange between humans and the Metaverse, the brain, which previously required various human organs to experience the real world, can directly receive relevant electrical signals provided by the Metaverse through wireless brain-computer interfaces. From then on, the human brain may no longer be able to distinguish between virtual and reality, and everything will be indistinguishable from electrical signals. However, in the future, the AI superintelligent entity managing the cloud may automatically label different signals for the real and virtual.
At this stage, the upgraded new intelligent beings, after undergoing siliconization, will be able to upload their consciousness to the cloud, achieving digital immortality and carrier switching. Before material transfer via wormholes, they can achieve light-speed transfer of human consciousness and quasi-light-speed travel of local carrier downloading. This will help humans become a multi-planetary species.
At this stage, humans will enter an advanced stage of digital and real social forms, where it is difficult to distinguish between digital and reality.
9️⃣ The Metaverse is a unified field of matter and consciousness, understood based on unified field theory.
Although the unified field theory of the material world has not yet been broken through and verified, the highly integrated development direction of the Metaverse may achieve the unification of matter and consciousness, opening a new era of humans transcending the speed of light and achieving wormhole travel.At that time, the Metaverse will no longer be a transitional solution for humans to experience a sense of presence that the physical body cannot teleport, nor a transitional solution for human consciousness and carriers to separate during travel. It will no longer be satisfied with becoming a multi-planetary species but will become a high-dimensional species living in a multi-dimensional universe.
The universe itself has no purpose or meaning, a cold scientific truth that has caused countless people to feel depressed. However, from the perspective of matter, if unified field theory is established and developed due to the Metaverse, with the key to information, matter, and energy found by humans, this might be the essence of the Metaverse!
With the development of Metaverse technology and industry, just like mature industries such as smart cities, more and more integrators and manufacturers will have such comprehensive capabilities to create more large-scale demonstration models. This year, I will also contribute to several such large-scale models to jointly promote the healthy, high-speed, and sustainable development of the Metaverse industry.
The future has arrived, with quantitative changes accelerating and qualitative changes imminent.