A F-AR BETTER METAVERSE
Technology should be used to make the core human experiences better — not to replace them.
It feels that everyone including your grandma has a personal take on the metaverse. I personally can't fathom a world where we purposely choose online digital interactions over real physical ones. Don't get me wrong; there's no doubt that this new technology will bring a lot of incredible advantages and new and exciting ways for us to connect but to be honest, after two years of working from home, I'm ready for some old school water cooler gossip.
Away from technicalities, the are a lot of other issues surrounding Meta's metaverse. Scott Galloway, a Professor of Marketing at NYU, who took the stage at this year's SXSW conference in Austin, does not think the company formerly known as Facebook will succeed in building out its vision for the metaverse. He said, with a heavy dose of mockery, that Meta rebranded to distract from the host of issues affecting its company, has done a poor job in diversifying its revenue (which is mostly advertising) and that its major loss in market cap is a bad sign for its future endeavours.
But away from all this Meta fanfare, I believe there's a far more engaging and exciting version of the metaverse- the AR metaverse.
Most of us are familiar with AR, mainly from using filters. Some of them are cute and funny, but my personal take is that AR filters (for now) have played the role of "cherry on top". The development of an AR filter only makes sense when a solid creative campaign holds up the communication message. But that's about to change.
A few months ago, Niantic CEO John Hanke (the software development company behind the development of Pokemon) announced their version of the metaverse:
"At Niantic we believe we can use technology to lean into the 'reality' of augmented reality — encouraging everyone, ourselves included, to stand up, walk outside, and connect with people and the world around us. Technology should be used to make these core human experiences better — not to replace them."
By releasing the Lightship ARDK, developers can use the foundation of games like Ingress, Pokémon GO, and Pikmin Bloom to create new projects. This AR Developer Kit brings real-time mapping technology together with shared multiplayer experiences, semantics and depth for more realistic AR experiences.
It's probably too early to start making predictions about what will happen in the next few months/years. Still, we have to remember that the core concept of what some people define as "metaverse" or Web 3.0 is the lack of centralization. The ability for anyone and everyone to build the future of how we communicate and engage with others is what's really exciting! There's no doubt that Meta's metaverse has a substantial commercial advantage. Still, I can't help to feel more hopeful around a metaverse that aims to enhance our real-life experiences, even if this version might take longer to build.