Post-universe: “The future is already here” experts say, but what is this future? (vids) |

Metaverse. “The future is already here,” experts say, but what is this future?

It was a few days ago when Mark Zuckerberg, announcing the renaming of his company to Meta, described a world where people would communicate through their avatars in virtual rooms that would represent with complete fidelity their workplaces or other activities. . He also described an “augmented reality” world where, for example, students’ avatars would touch Saturn’s rings to feel the ice particles on their fingers.

Is this a possible world? First of all, it is not new. As Giannis Delligiannis, associate professor at the Department of Arts, Sound and Vision of the Ionian University, tells APE-MPE, Meta is a field of research that has existed for many years at the level of vision. The term metaverse first appears in Neil Stevenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, which describes how the use of the Internet and virtual reality may evolve in the future. And today; “My opinion is that the conditions have matured for the start of testing and the provision of products that can really be used in practice by everyone,” replies Mr. Deligiannis.

The founder of Facebook announced the “successor of the mobile Internet”. And there is, according to Mr. Deligiannis, the big bet: “These systems are not fully open. “What has been done with the Internet must be done: give these technologies to universities so that they can be used to the fullest extent possible by the many,” he insists.

He speaks of “technologies that give superhuman potential to man”. He adds, however, that “if you use technology without thinking about what you need to do to use it, then this is a successful technology.” What does this mean; “I will describe it to you with an example,” he replies. “It’s like a garden pruner. When you learn the tool, it is important to focus on the work and not on how the tool works “.

The next remark of the Greek professor is that Zuckerberg described the “post-universe” in today’s terms. And to explain what he means, he gives another example: “When television was first introduced to the public, that is, when there was only radio, the advertisers described it as a medium in which you will see the orchestra while playing music. “As we know it today, television was much bigger than that.” His prediction is that the technology that comes will have similar power and therefore there will be a lot of competition and various areas of life and sectors of economic activity.

Zuckerberg himself said that people “will live their lives in it” – they will work, watch shows, travel. Never; According to experts, this future is not so far away. “At the Berlin Tourism Fair there was also a booth for the tourism of the future,” says Mr. Deligiannis. “The prediction is that in thirty years we will have virtual tourism. You will not leave your home, you will just take a tourist package and you will “travel”.

On the other hand, the future is already here. It was last April when NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a wide range of visualization and interaction applications. As it was revealed later, part of his interview was done through a digital avatar of himself, something that was not realized during the presentation. Apple, on the other hand, is about to launch augmented and virtual reality glasses.

At the same time, the post-universe, according to Zuckerberg, means another breakthrough, the unification of all virtual reality platforms (Facebook, Steam, Amazon, etc.) for the interaction of their users.