The metaverse could become a reality in the next few years

The metaverse is a world where just about everything, from work and school to entertainment and basic day to day living, will happen digitally. Bill Gates, for one, predicts the metaverse will be used for work purposes within 2 to 3 years. We learned more about the metaverse from Andrew Maynard, associate-dean of ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

“It’s a little hard to pin down but essentially (it’s) a digital overlay to our lives so think about everything we do in the real tangible hard world here, there are companies and people here who now believe that most of that is going to be shunted off into cyberspace,” Maynard said.

Maynard said this could be part of the reason why Facebook rebranded themselves as Meta, essentially as the metaverse is where they see the future. In-person activities, such as interviews even, could potentially be done with avatars but Maynard said that is  along ways away.

The big question is, can an individual tune into the metaverse in the morning and stay there the entire day? According to Maynard, some companies think the answer is yes.

“We’re actually getting really close, the technology is incredible you can put on these goggles and it feels like you’re immersed in a real world, so that’s exciting but the thing is we’re human even though we can put the goggles on there’s always going to be some people that like meeting face to face,” Maynard said.

Maynard said some security issues with the metaverse may involve the potential for hackers to gain control of it, and the potential for deep fake issues of struggling to discern reality from the metaverse.