Will the metaverse change our understanding of humans? Will the metaverse ultimately enhance human perception? Will it become the assembly of our dreams (and, of course, our nightmares), revolutionizing human perception? Has it all started yet?
The answer to the latter is yes. The metaverse has laid the groundwork to revolutionize human perception. Sensors from smartphones, social media, digital devices, and digital data-driven companies from Fortune 500 companies form new spaces of churches, religions, and human tribes. These technologies, combined with the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and AI-driven Society 5.0, have seen more changes in humanity in the past 50 years than in the previous 30,000 years combined - and that's just It's a start!
In 1974, in a thought experiment by philosopher Robert Nozick,
He imagined a hypothetical machine capable of providing every imaginable pleasure and experience. Nozick poses a provocative question: Would we choose this hypothetical machine over reality, if we could? Nozick's conclusion is that we may not choose machines. He believes that experiencing the highs and lows of the real world is far better than experiencing the artificial, never-ending highs of a simulated world.
But in 50 years, things could have changed dramatically. In 1990, 16 years after Nozick's experiment and a year after Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the concept of the World Wide Web, Steve Jobs called the personal computer "the " Bicycle for the mind ", the human artificial intelligence race has begun.
If we had to choose between the limited physical world and the infinite virtual digital world powered by AI, which would we choose? In fact, we have all made choices. We are now all digital magicians, scientists, and subjects in a giant virtual social experiment, interacting and stimulating each other's brains and bodies through multiple experiences and feelings that are completely indistinguishable from those in the "real" physical world. This is all happening on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, crypto-powered NFTs, Fortnite, Second Life, Decentraland, and countless other online social media platforms. The Metaverse simply represents the ultimate enhanced form of Dream and the decisions that have been made. Because our technology is advancing so fast, and driven by AI and the metaverse, we are indeed on our way to the digitization of humanity - a future that looks a lot more like Ernest Cline's Ready Player One , digital reality allows us to experience almost everything!
While the Metaverse represents the pinnacle of technology of the past 50 years, it will also welcome new and entirely unique thinking and imagination—humanity's growing obsession with grander narratives. This will include new ways of interacting, communicating, and storytelling, marking a new chapter in our socioeconomically centralized and decentralized 4IR, Web3, Society 5.0 cultural history.
Thousands of years of human culture and civilization have been sustained by stories. These stories teach us to speak, read, and write, understand the Civil Code, create Magna Carta, and shape who we are. Through these stories, we learn language and psychology, a sense of belonging, ownership and right and wrong. They define our lives and our communities, and by extension, our circular socioeconomic models, financial norms, and ethical norms. Like Homer's or Milton's epics, today's metaverse will go down in history as a force that shaped the course of civilization, an island in the complex archipelago of epics, comedies, and tragedies. On this island, fire and the wheel were invented first, then computers and the Internet, and finally the Metaverse was born!
From virtual real estate to digital twin cities, we have implanted all aspects of "real society" in the metaverse. We firmly believe that experiences in the metaverse can bridge the real and virtual worlds and reshape our narratives in the real world, just as the Internet and social media have changed not only the way we collect information, but also the way we perceive information, and integrate it into our personal narratives. Beyond that, the Metaverse presents us with a new opportunity to reshape these narratives, dreams (and nightmares), enhancing the possibilities of the Internet's existing model and correcting its shortcomings.
Forerunner of the metaverse revolution, will undoubtedly continue to bridge real-world and virtual-world experiences: from the creation of new cities, new properties, tours and art, to everyday experiences, which will continue to be expanded and expanded through entirely new social media and gaming experiences. Augment our social reality. Right now, this is all happening on the platforms with the massive user bases, creator marketplaces, live digital event experiences, and cutting-edge hardware that are building the foundations of this new medium. The companies and people behind these platforms were not publicly known in the early days of the Internet, and Web3, AI, blockchain, and other decentralized technologies will scrutinize them to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated as this foundation is built.
Over the past 20 years, we have created countless unique moments across digital, social and gaming platforms, enjoyed various interactive experiences, and gradually began to transition to the metaverse. These platforms have been known to commodify individuals by collecting their data and recording their activities, exploiting their desires and frustrations. To address this, we need to create an AI digital ethic, aware of the risks inherent in augmenting our perception of reality and, in this case, the false narratives that can become entrenched, and adopt Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and de- Centralized digital identity, allowing credentials to be presented and verified in digital interactions.
New Metaverse AI technologies can allow us and any user to self-manage and enhance our digital identities without relying on third-party providers to store and centrally manage data. But if mismanaged, it could also be fundamentally disruptive, more revolutionary and devastating than anything humans have experienced in the past 30,000 years.
The use of blockchain technology and NFTs, as well as AI tools, VR and AR – even holograms like in Star Wars – are in their infancy, but this vision of expanding the concept and future of the metaverse is still very important. important. We need to collectively imagine and build the present and future of the Metaverse, recognizing that building the Metaverse in an ethical and secure way empowers us and creates trust.
In order for the Metaverse to succeed, we need to make sure we all realize that the Metaverse is all around us! It is a part of our life now, not in the distant future! The metaverse needs to be created by everyone, and we need to uphold conscience, trust each other, and collaborate seamlessly. Just like the invention of fire in ancient times, in the face of new technologies and new tools in the Metaverse, each of us must master and utilize these platforms and technologies instead of becoming their slaves.
Therefore, we must realize that we need to build the metaverse and make it an extended AI platform for human beings, and give full play to the positive role of the metaverse instead of making it a dystopian prison. Only then can we ensure that the metaverse we are currently building becomes the ultimate tool and platform to help us realize our bigger dreams and unlock stronger narratives, rather than trap us in a prison built from our greatest fears and nightmares .
Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.
