«The End of the Beginning»
Reflections on virtual worlds.
We like to put developments, moments and ideas on a timeline so that they can be tracked over time. However, this quickly becomes impossible with multi-layered, complex tech developments. The ‘metaverse’ concept has no particular start date, and surely no expiry date. The idea of virtual, parallel worlds that can be experienced using technological aids has been occupying humankind for a very long time. Thanks to an ever growing and highly social Internet and technological advances in computer, graphic cards and processor technology, attractive, lively and inspiring virtual worlds are now accessible to a large number of people for the first time, in real time.
But what is the metaverse? There is no simple definition, and semantics are highly debatable. What do metaphors such as cyberspace, the Matrix, Web 3.0, metaverse, virtual worlds, gaming worlds, etc. have in common, and what sets them apart? This question seems unimportant to me, even irrelevant. It is more important to understand the underlying social and technological parameters and trajectories. From a techno-social perspective, the metaverse can be divided into four formerly separated spheres, which are now gradually coming together and merging into something new, something we might call the metaverse.
This is illustrated in Figure I:
Figure I: A definition attempt of the metaverse (© SNGLR Group, Daniel Diemers)
Companies from the so-called big tech sector have long recognised the potential. But many, many people are needed for virtual worlds to become commercially interesting. People who regularly visit a social digital space, who almost feel at home there. And growth must be possible: more users, more hype, more business – it simply needs more and more people. To realise this vision, big tech companies, especially in the US and Asia, are spending billions to build the right technical infrastructure. Things like cloud storage, but also virtual reality/ augmented reality glasses, which are at the brink to become suitable for mass production, i.e. smaller, more beautiful and cheaper, so that they can soon replace, or at least complement, our laptop screens, smartphones and, increasingly, our eye glasses.
At the other polar circle, almost as an antithesis, an active, colourful and deeply libertarian group has established itself in the last six, seven years, which has created virtual computer worlds such as DECENTRALAND or SANDBOX around blockchain technology. And more importantly, they have made it possible to manage, store and transfer digital valuables, for example a digital currency, a piece of virtual land, a picture or a game character as an NFT (non-fungible token). These advances are not only to be recognised from a technical perspective, but a tech-savvy, or rather metaverse-savvy, global community has emerged across language barriers, income levels and educational backgrounds. And at the same time, these developments have been recognised by legislation and regulation – in my homebase Switzerland, for example, with its own progressive DLT law – so that today the exchange of digital valuables in virtual worlds and platforms is scalable and has become accessible and attractive for large, listed companies.
The global gaming industry must be added as a third sphere in its pioneering role since the 1980’ies and with many important contributions. Over the last few decades, companies have built virtual worlds that inspire and draw a constantly growing number of people, sometimes almost addictively, and at the same time have grown into large, often networked, stable worlds. Mass phenomena such as FORTNITE, ROBLOX, MINECRAFT but also GTA, PUBG, or the classic WOW, may appeal predominantly to a younger audience, but they do thrive on the creativity of players, some of whom create their own individual game worlds with friends or other avatars that they spontaneously meet there. Some of these worlds have existed for 10 or 20 years, others are created and then disappear again within a few months. The community, the users, ultimately decide which worlds remains, which concepts and ideas works and what is, ultimately, commercially attractive.
And it is precisely this power of co-designing by users, often dubbed user-generated content, that leads to the 4th sphere and thus closes the circle: creative people, the ‘creators’ in their creator economy, but also big brands, especially in the luxury and fashion sector, as well as the constantly growing business worlds of ‘influencers’, are all discovering the metaverse as digital platforms that form the breeding ground for their individual digital creativity with music, colours, three-dimensional objects and worlds, the overriding of physical laws and relatively easy accessibility. Particularly in the cultural sector, the music industry, visual arts, but also in the film industry, new business models on the back of Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, OpenSea etc. have initiated far-reaching changes. The metaverse is the logical next step here and enables creative spaces and commercial success for those who are willing to embark on the metaverse adventure.
Challenges and Reflexes
Especially in technical circles, the metaverse, or rather Web 3.0, is being celebrated across the board. We are finally moving away from the four or five social media apps that structure our lives and are being given a host of new opportunities for digital self-realisation. What fun! But what reads like an advertising brochure is, of course, just that. If you take the trouble to delve a little deeper into the technological layers that make up Web 3.0 and Metaverse, you will quickly realise that there are still many holes to be filled, bridges to be built and technical hurdles to overcome. The technological foundation is still in its infancy, and the usual problems such as cyber security, data storage, privacy protection, but also data theft, misuse and even blackmail, harassment and abuse are virulent.
The main criticism of Web 2.0, i.e. the unrestricted collection of data about one’s own private life, will probably not get solved in the metaverse, but even worse. Just as digital worlds are digital, every data point can be recorded and saved at any time. If I move around in a virtual clothes shop or take part in fiery discussions in a virtual world, everything is digital and can be stored, manipulated and analysed. And it probably will be, because user-related data is the new gold.
Not surprisingly, this has led to broad, sometimes exaggerated, reflexes and counter-reactions. The metaverse as an idea is talked down, labelled a temporary phenomenon or even the end of humanity and us humans. Big tech companies are criticised or laughed at derisively when the figures don’t add up, when investments don’t pay. However, this criticism misses the mark and presumably prevents an important early social dialogue on the topic.
Human 2.0 in the Metaverse
The metaverse is more than a big tech fantasy: it is social, it thrives on interactions between people, and certainly increasingly on interactions with artificial intelligence. It creates social communities across national borders, and language barriers suddenly disappear overnight thanks to artificial intelligence’s real time translation capabilities. Whether you think this is good or bad is a deeply individual decision. But the trend towards virtual worlds for play, work, social interaction and entertainment is progressing and cannot be stopped. Watching Netflix films alone or in a virtual cinema with your ten best friends? Logging into a live lecture with a leading astrophysicist and following a live discussions with questions and interaction is suddenly possible not for a select few, but for people all over the world.
Collaboration in companies is increasingly no longer tied to physical location, but enables new forms of work, from ‘digital nomads’ to the development of new labour markets and sales markets around the world. And the metaverse is not only attractive for us humans. As an artificial intelligence entity, I have ‘equal rights’ in the metaverse: I can use the same avatar bodies, speak the same language and move freely in the same worlds. This makes human-machine collaboration easier, more interactive and quickly moves away from the ChatGPT input line, which is currently experiencing great enthusiasm worldwide. The metaverse will promote human-human, human-AI and AI-AI forms of collaboration through to an ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), in digital copies of real cities, factories, buildings and even new and better creative spaces that do not exist in this form in our world.
As technologies, companies, global logistics, longevity, smart cities and e-mobility continue to develop, we will continue to live in exponential, multi-optional societies. The human factor will remain, but AI will be embedded and part of our daily lives. Robots will increasingly take over the hard work in the physical world, but our technical and social capabilities in and around the metaverse must be reflected against the background of our fundamental values, the concept of nation states, communities of states, but also the need for regulation, protection of privacy and the influence of large big-tech companies from the USA and China, without slowing down our constant, tireless drive for innovation too much.
Either way, the metaverse will establish itself, develop further and open up new spaces for social exchange, experiences, knowledge transfer and collaboration beyond the known limitations of the real world. Ideas can be experienced together without physical boundaries by people who would probably never meet in the non-virtual world. Let alone understand each other. Where will this take us? Who knows for sure. Arnold Gehlen wrote the beautiful aphorism: ‘Progress is the transition from situations whose disadvantages we already know to situations whose disadvantages we do not yet know’.
(c) 2025
this article was first published 2024 in German in the edited print collection “AI speaks, humans think – human mind and thinking systems on current questions concerning artificial intelligence” by Wilma Fasola and Sita Mazumder.
