Internet, Ready Player Two

We are to the Metaverse what an astronaut is to space.

The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series.

These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse.

If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here.

HackerNoon Interviewer: So let’s start! First, tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

Valerias Bangert. Content writer specialized in tech more specifically AI, crypto, blockchain, development (JS/Python) and computers (quantum).

Please sum up what the metaverse is in 1 to two paragraphs.

Since its inception in the 1980s, the internet has had us spend our time staring at rectangles and app roasters. This 2D webspace is now transforming into a 3D digital multiverse where we move and act, command and conquer our thoughts and experiences digitally. 

In this new space, the Metaverse, we do not simply watch a video; we experience a lifelike simulation.

Virtuix, a multi-directional treadmill

Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse?

A bit, through content creation and my ties to NFTs and blockchain projects. I've been in the NFT space for a few years as a collector, but I've taken a liking to NFT and Metaverse content as of late.

In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype?

In all seriousness, the hype won't last. It will take a dive before returning and stabilizing. Like a pendulum.

Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept?

It isn't. We have had all kinds of versions of a cyberspace vision since the birth of the first computers. Tron was one of my favorites. Both the movie and operating system.

What's new is that our technology has reached a level where the Metaverse can be actualized.

It will still take some time, but there is a reason Facebook is hiring tens of thousands of employees solely dedicated to building the Metaverse and even changing the company's name in the transition.

What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet, or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from?

Depends on how far into the future we are talking. Right now it's a glorified version of VR and AR. In a few years or decades, we are talking Ready Player One.

Further down the line, after the say 10th iteration of Neuralink chips, the lines between cyberspace or Metaverse and reality will become blurry at best.

One may or may not be able to tell what reality is at this point. "There is a billion to one chance we are living in base reality," said Elon Musk in an event. Don't forget, right now we are only putting on headsets and moving with joysticks, but later our other senses will be integrated as well both from the inside and outside of our bodies.

Identity is defined as a person's qualities, beliefs, personality, and looks, but what makes up a person? Arguably only two components: experience and DNA. For digital beings, both of these parts are code. This raises chaos and all the questions one could ever have. After all, how will you prove your memory wasn't created or copied? At this point technology is more than capable of reading, interpreting and executing upon brain signals and memories.

"Forgetting extermination is part of extermination." ― Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology?

Yes, but we might not want that. Also, it's likely that blockchain technology will be utilized from the start of the Metaverses integration making any pivots later on unlikely. For now, the Metaverse is more akin to an extra layer to our world, rather than a completely separate multiverse based on our mental compute.

There are many reasons blockchains might be utilized, one being immutability. Let's take death in the Metaverse as an example.

When someone dies on the internet, their data slowly fades into the background, but most of it remains there for an unknown period. For example, when you die, your Facebook page is turned into either a memorial page or gets erased.

This is a relatively straightforward process of deleting a few rows in a database. This cannot be done with NFTs due to the design of blockchains. You can 'burn' an NFT by sending it to an address in nobody's possession, making it inaccessible, but you cannot delete it. It is on the blockchain forever.

How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years?

I would estimate less. Maybe 3 years. That's because what makes up the Metaverse is loosely defined as a sort of interactive and immersive 3D cyberspace. A very advanced Metaverse will take longer.

There could be a number of events that would act like a catalyst accelerating progress. With the tipping points of climate change being reached any moment now, natural disasters may turn entire cities into rubble, but not necessarily into a completely hostile environment. This would make for a good place to take remote work to the next level.

What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats?

[Add every dystopian Sci-Fi novel here]. Certainly, there are! If you are reading this, you have probably come across the infamous Elon Musk quote 'AI is more dangerous than nukes' dozens of times by now. The same applies to the Metaverse.

Thanks for your time! Any final words?

We are to the Metaverse what an astronaut is to space. Without a rocket and a spacesuit, space is but a reflection of stars in the night sky—lights on a screen. Sound familiar?

This article is part of The Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with The Sandbox.

Submit your #gaming-metaverse story today for your chance to win up to $2000.