[Coinlive Talk] Conquering Everest: Mankind’s Exploration into the Metaverse

• At its core, the metaverse represents a yet-unknown virtual environment that invites exploration, discovery, and learning more about the limits of our imagination
• The metaverse is also a microcosm of all that we know in society, reflecting cultural norms, beliefs, and even conflict
• Even with the challenging market, as well as ethical concerns beneath the surface, the concept of the metaverse will remain a challenge that man will strive towards conquering

First coined in 1992 by author Neal Stephenson in his science fiction novel “Snow Crash”, the term “metaverse” has drastically transitioned from serving as a mere thought experiment, to a live research area with uncountable working platforms and billions of dollars' worth of corporate funding being poured into unrelenting research and experimentation. Stephenson’s novel first introduced the concept by describing a hypothetical scenario where humans would adopt the personas of programmable virtual avatars and interact with each other in a three-dimensional virtual space, that is largely modeled after the real world.

The advent of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mobile computers that followed soon after expedited mankind’s endeavor into the metaverse, laying the foundations of the mega-projects we see today, such as the likes of Meta’s Metaverse, Roblox, and The Sandbox. Movies like Ready Player One and the commercialisation of relatively-affordable virtual reality equipment such as the Oculus VR and Google’s Cardboard device not only galvanised public interest towards the metaverse, but also served to lower significant barriers of entry and onboard more into these virtual realms.

To learn more about the metaverse, we spoke to Lim May-Ann, Director of the Fair Tech Institute at Access Partnership, and Emeritus Director at the Asia Cloud Computing Association.

“I think what we’re gunning for, with most metaverses at least, is that we may find a digital twin of ourselves within the metaverse,” she says. “The big question of interestis really how can we virtually represent ourselves, protect ourselves, and live our lives in a different world parallel to this one?”

While the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) focuses on the promotion and support of different use cases for cloud computing, the Fair Tech Institute (FTI) works on providing research and insight for questions along the intersection of technology accountability mechanisms, and governance.

Funding for metaverse projects have indeed been astronomical, particularly by larger players in the industry. Meta for instance, has put its annualised metaverse investment for the year at almost $15 billion, despite expenses that are projected to grow by 14% within the next year. US-based freight company Flexport raised $935 million in February, while India-based platform Verse Innovation raised $805 million to develop their own respective metaverse platforms. With this volume of cash being funneled into metaverse research, we ask: “What is the point in all of this? What are we really working towards?”

“The existentiality of metaverse research is a little bit akin to that of climbing Mount Everest; you climb it because it’s there, and you explore the metaverse because it is a relatively unexplored realm,” May-Ann tells us. “I view the development of the metaverse concept as an extension of where we, as humanity, as people, are dedicating ourselves to the pursuit towards exploring the limits of digital technology.”

As part of its research agenda, the FTI launched “The Metaversality Index 2022” this year, a scalable framework that measures the strength of any one particular metaverse ecosystem – essentially evaluating to what extent products are metaverse-compatible. Some examples include how well a system is able to convert audial, text, and touch input into meaningful and accurate output variables.

Coinlive's interview with Lim May-Ann

Yet the blockchain technology and the metaverse is still considered a fairly nascent industry sector, with governments desperately trying to keep up with regulations that may match the industry’s fast-paced growth trajectory. While countries like the United States may have an unparalleled ecosystem of venture capital, technology startups, and a deep capital market, ideological political debates within the realms of smart contracts and free speech have impeded regulatory clarity. On the other hand, Singapore and even Hong Kong have adopted comparatively more pragmatic approaches in bringing the public and private sectors together to investigate use cases for blockchain technology.

For instance, Singapore just launched an industry pilot for institutional Decentralised Finance (DeFi) this year, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) working with institutions such as DBS Bank and JP Morgan to explore DeFi applications on a public blockchain.

“I think there are definitely different regulations in the East as compared to the West such as attitudes towards one aspect of the metaverse, which is around privacy or personal data,” May-Ann says. “I think there are different dimensions of culture that play a part as well, such as collectivism versus individuality. As a result, you are likely to bring with yourself differing opinions, cultural backgrounds, and backdrops from different regions into the metaverse, which then becomes a reflection of life itself.”

Just as May-Ann tells us, the metaverse will indeed hold a mirror up towards the rest of society, reflecting the different attitudes, behaviors, and cultural norms that shape unique communities all over the world. Unfortunately, diversity naturally brings about undue intolerance and persecution as well. Research conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) in 2021 for instance, suggested that minors were being exposed to bullying, sexual harassment, and threats of violence on Meta’s Metaverse.

Even though Zuckerberg has committed to spending $1 billion every year on “diverse suppliers” with Black-owned businesses for instance, Jeff Nelson, the co-founder or online media company Blavity believes that radical changes have to be implemented to keep the space safe: “If we make the same mistakes that we did with social networking and Web2.0, then we’ll just be bringing those same problems into this new space. So, it absolutely is a problem.”

To this, May-Ann agrees that these are problems reflective of the real world, and necessitate further action to curtail unacceptable behavior:

“I believe that there needs to be an understanding that the platform has to be responsible for these kinds of behavior, in the same way that different countries have different rules and laws for behaviors too,” she says. “I think the platform needs to put in place mechanisms by which these can be made accountable for if there are truly breached, whether it’s in the form of service agreements or community codes of practice.”

However, with regulations come far-sounding calls for decentralisation from the left, with many swearing by the ethos and holding firm to the beliefs of keeping the metaverse and cryptocurrencies out of the hands of state authority. Trustless connections, independent control and decision-making, and better data reliability are amongst the hallmarks of decentralisation that millions around the world ardently champion for. However, May-Ann believes that there is more to it than just fancy taglines.

“You can’t really decentralise to the point of complete decentralisation,” May-Ann says. “The idea of decentralisation is actually about the verification mechanism. For example, in web3 technologies, developers on any one blockchain will program the parameters of the protocol by which users have to abide by. So, there inevitably will be some level of centralisation of these decisions, albeit with a high level of transparency for web3 technologies.”

Ultimately, the metaverse presents itself as an opportunity for exploration and ideation. It serves as a means by which we as humans are able to re-define, or at least question, our experiences as being human. Just as Mount Everest exists as not merely a breathtaking natural formation, it also doubles as a challenge towards the limits of human perseverance and fortitude. While sublime, it is also in equal parts terrifying and ominous, as per the conditions of that which is unexplored and unknown to man.

“The question at the end of the day, is whether or not our experiences in the metaverse add or subtract to our lived human experiences?” May-Ann posits as we close off the interview. “Does the metaverse add to that intangible part of being human that demands interaction on a physical level? I think it does. But will it be the next sole iteration of how we exist and interact as human beings? I certainly hope not.”

This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Readers should take the utmost precaution before making decisions in the crypto market. Coinlive is not responsible or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the article or for any damage or loss to be caused by and in connection to it.