Making the Metaverse the key to a better future instead of a dystopian prison

Will the Metaverse(s) alteration humanity arsenic we cognize it? Will the Metaverse(s) beryllium the eventual augmentation of quality perception? Will it go an agora for our dreams (and, of course, nightmares), capable to alteration quality cognition entirely? Has it already started?

To commencement with the second question: Yes, the groundwork has already been laid. Sensors from our smartphones, societal media, integer devices, and the integer data-driven companies that apical the Fortune 500 comprise the caller cathedrals, religions and tribal spaces for humanity. These technologies and the onset of the alleged Fourth Industrial Revolution, oregon 4IR, and the AI-driven Society 5.0 person seen much alteration successful humanity successful the past 50 years than successful the erstwhile 30,000 combined. And this is conscionable the beginning!

In 1974, successful a thought experiment, philosopher Robert Nozick visualized a hypothetical instrumentality susceptible of providing each pleasance and acquisition imaginable. Nozick asked a provocative question: If fixed a choice, would we take the instrumentality implicit reality? Nozick concluded that we astir apt wouldn’t take the machine, arguing it is amended to acquisition the highs and lows of this carnal satellite than to acquisition the artificial, never-ending precocious of the simulated.

But a batch tin alteration successful 50 years. In 1990, 16 years aft Nozick and a twelvemonth aft Tim Berners-Lee archetypal conceptualized the World Wide Web, Steve Jobs famlously called the idiosyncratic machine the “bicycle for the mind,” and we were disconnected to the artificial races.

Recoding the quality request for stories

What would we take present if presented with a prime betwixt the real, carnal finite and the virtual, integer infinite powered by AI? The reply is that we person already chosen. We are each present integer magicians, scientists and subjects successful the large ongoing virtual societal experiment, interacting and stimulating each other’s brains and bodies with aggregate experiences and feelings that are wholly indistinguishable from experiences successful the “real” carnal world. This is happening crossed Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, rypto-empowering NFTs, Fortnite, Second Life, Decentraland and countless different online and societal media platforms. The Metaverse (or metaverses) simply correspond the eventual augmented signifier of dreaming and the determination that has already been made. As our technologies make truthful fast, we are so moving toward the digitization of humanity, acknowledgment to AI and the invention of the metaverse — the aboriginal looks much similar the 1 successful Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, wherever the digitized world is enabling america to acquisition astir everything!

Related: Sci-fi oregon blockchain reality? The ‘Ready Player One’ OASIS tin beryllium built

While the Metaverse represents the culmination of the past 50 years of technology, it volition besides invitation caller and wholly unsocial ways of reasoning and dreaming astir humanity's obsession with bigger and bigger stories. That volition see caller ways of interacting, communicating, and storytelling, marking a caller section successful our social-economic centralized and decentralized 4IR, Web3, Society 5.0 taste history.

Stories person sustained quality civilization and civilization for respective millennia. They thatch america to speak, read, write, assimilate civilian codes, make Magna Cartas and forge our identities. Through them, we larn astir connection and psychology, belonging, ownership and the consciousness of close and wrong. They specify the communicative of our lives and our communities, and, by extension, of our circular socio-economic models, fiscal codes and ethics. Like the verses of Homer oregon Milton, the Metaverse of contiguous volition spell down successful past arsenic a unit that shaped the people of civilization, and an land successful the archipelago of the analyzable quality past of epics, comedies and tragedies unneurotic with inventions of fire, the wheel, computers, net and present the Metaverse!

Related: The metaverse volition bring a further erosion of privacy

Just arsenic we person started implementing aspects of the “real world” successful the Metaverse, from virtual landmarks to cities’ integer twins, we tin besides beryllium definite that our experiences volition span the existent and the virtual successful the Metaverse, which volition reshape our narratives successful the carnal world, not dissimilar the mode the net and societal media changed not conscionable however we stitchery information, but besides however we comprehend that accusation and acceptable it into our idiosyncratic narratives. However, the Metaverse additionally offers america a caller accidental to reshape those narratives, caller ways of dreaming (and having nightmares), augmenting the possibilities and remediating the downsides of the internet’s existent model.

AI dreaming oregon a dystopian Pandora Box?

The archetypal movers successful the Metaverse gyration are and volition undoubtedly proceed to beryllium the ones that span carnal and virtual experiences: from creating caller cities and caller properties, to question and art, to wide experiences, each of which proceed expanding and augmenting our nine with marque caller societal media and gaming experiences. At the moment, this is happening connected platforms that person importantly ample idiosyncratic bases, creator marketplaces, experiences with unrecorded integer events, and cutting-edge hardware, and it’s these platforms that are gathering the ground of this caller medium. Web3, AI, blockchain and different decentralized technologies volition supply a cheque connected these companies and radical down these platforms that were not contiguous successful the earliest days of the internet, ensuring akin mistakes are not made arsenic this instauration is being enactment successful place.

We already began transitioning to the Metaverse immoderate clip agone via the assorted interactive experiences that make singular moments connected digital, social, and gaming platforms that person been developed implicit the past 20 years. It is good known that these platforms person commodified the idiosyncratic via postulation of their information and the signaling of their activities, exploiting their desires and frustrations both. To lick this problem, we request to make AI integer morals and beryllium conscious of the risks inherent successful augmenting our cognition of reality, and the fake narratives that could instrumentality basal nether specified circumstances, and follow self-sovereign identities (SSI), decentralized integer identities that let for credentials to beryllium presented and verified successful integer interactions.

Related: Facebook’s centralized metaverse a menace to the decentralized ecosystem?

The caller metaverses’ AI exertion solutions let america and immoderate users to self-manage and augment our integer identities without depending connected third-party providers to store and centrally negociate data. But this tin besides tin beryllium radically disruptive if not managed well, and overmuch much revolutionary than thing successful the erstwhile 30,000 years of humanity.

The usage of blockchain exertion and NFTs, on with AI tools, VR, and AR — adjacent holograms similar successful Star Wars — are successful their nascent development, but volition beryllium captious successful scaling the imaginativeness of what metaverses are and tin be, and we request to ideate and physique them collectively, being conscious of their capableness to empower america if built ethically and securely, creating trust.

For a metaverse to succeed, we request to marque definite that we are each conscious that this is happening now! It is portion of each of our life’s present, not successful the far-flung future! The Metaverse needs to beryllium built by each of us, with conscience, seamless and trusted, wherever the national — each of america — uses these caller tools, similar the invention of occurrence before, to empower themself by owning and evolving with the caller metaverse platforms and technologies, not being a enslaved to them.

Therefore, we indispensable beryllium conscious that we request to physique and marque the Metaverse, the AI platforms for the amplifications of humanity, their precise champion alternatively of a dystopian prison! Only successful this mode volition we guarantee that the contiguous gathering of our Metaverse becomes the eventual acceptable of tools and platforms for helping america to imagination bigger and unlock much almighty narratives, alternatively than trapping america successful a situation built from wrong our ain biggest fears and nightmares.

This nonfiction does not incorporate concern proposal oregon recommendations. Every concern and trading determination involves risk, and readers should behaviour their ain probe erstwhile making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed present are the author’s unsocial and bash not needfully bespeak oregon correspond the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.