When I first heard about Metaverse, I wasn’t sure about what it is and wasn’t into it, until this topic got really hyped up recently and the discussions are being heavily debated around us. I have to admit that I am not really a tech person and I am not into gaming either, so I am having a hard time understanding all these tech kinds of stuff but yet I forced myself to understand it as I think it’s somehow closely related to architecture field. I think the idea of the metaverse is a great approach in this Covid-19 situation, and I believe its emergence at this point of timing is because of this work-from-home and social distancing issue too. It is undeniable that the Covid-19 pandemic had accelerated the digital transformation and the advancement of technology fields such as Artificial Intelligence(AI), Virtual Reality(VR), etc. But there are yet a lot of questions lingering in my mind. As we are still living in a social-oriented society, does metaverse still applicable if everything is back to normal? Will it work in a long-term situation? Or is this just an ambitious dream of all the tech-optimists?
Worrying Impact of Metaverse
I believe many possible impacts of the metaverse are very concerning, which is the lack of reality and human communications. People benefit from technology to stay connected with others, but there are still limits in human connections as virtual connection can never replace a real-life connection and is incomparable. So, this had led to a question, is metaverse really a better way to connect people? Or it will confuse people between virtual connections and physical connections?
The tech companies are trying to improve the metaverse virtual environment to be more realistic so that we could sense, feel and touch or even smell objects in the virtual world. I think this somehow will create ironic situations in the future where we chose to live in a virtual world but the physical world and humans are actually around us and are approachable by just taking off the VR glasses.
The idea of Metaverse had reminded me of this one episode named ‘ Fifteen Million Merits’ from the TV series ‘Black Mirror’. This movie is set in a dystopian world where people have to ride on stationary bikes to earn ‘merits’, which is a substitute for currency so that they could pay for daily needs such as toothpaste or food. As part of this world, people lived in pods made up of screens and were forced to watch adverts displayed on the screen.
This 2011 tv series episode somehow predicted the use of virtual audiences, which is similar to what our life is like now since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
The two pictures above show the comparison of the scene from ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ and real-life footage of 2020 America’s Got Talent. We can see the similarities of both pictures of having a virtual crowd.
Avatar characters are also used in virtual exhibitions, where people can customize their avatar and interact with others in a virtual space.
The ‘Fifteen Million Merit’ had reflected a monotonous and miserable life in the virtual world but this is just a prediction and a negative interpretation of what it might be like if we live in a fully virtual world in the future. As a person who values physical connections, I hope when the day comes, when it is realized, it will not be as extreme as what is portrayed in this movie.
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