Metauniverse is essentially a virtual and digital process of the real world, which needs a lot of transformation in content production, economic system, user experience, physical world content and so on. However, the development of metauniverse is gradual, supported by shared infrastructure, standards and protocols, and finally formed by the continuous integration and evolution of many tools and platforms. It provides immersive experience based on augmented reality technology, generates a mirror image of the real world based on digital twin technology, builds an economic system based on blockchain technology, closely combines the virtual world with the real world in economic system, social system and identity system, and allows each user to produce content and edit the world.
Metauniverse was born in 1992' s science fiction Avalanche, which depicts a huge virtual reality world. People use digital avatars to control and compete with each other to improve their status. Until now, it still describes the advanced future world. As for the "hyperuniverse", the recognized source of thought is Professor Vernor Vinge, an American mathematician and computer expert. In his novel Real Name published by 198 1, he creatively conceived a virtual world that entered through the brain-computer interface and gained sensory experience.
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Nominal definition
Professor Shenyang of Tsinghua University School of Journalism defines the meta-universe as follows: "The meta-universe is a new type of Internet application and social form that combines many new technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on augmented reality technology, and digital twin technology generates a mirror image of the real world. It builds an economic system through blockchain technology, closely integrates the virtual world with the real world in the economic system, social system and identity system, and allows each user to produce and edit content. " "Metauniverse is still an evolving concept, and different participants are constantly enriching its meaning in their own ways."
Professor Chen Gang of Peking University and Dr. Dong Haoyu define the metauniverse as: "Metauniverse is a virtual world with digital living space and new social system, which is linked and created by scientific and technological means, mapped and interacted with the real world."
Some scholars can define the metauniverse from four aspects: time and space, authenticity, independence and connectivity through the "archaeology" of the conception and concept of the metauniverse.
From the point of view of time and space, the metauniverse is a virtual digital world in the space dimension and real in the time dimension; From the perspective of authenticity, there are both digital copies of the real world and the creation of the virtual world in the meta-universe; From the perspective of independence, the metauniverse is a parallel space closely connected with the external real world and highly independent; From the perspective of connectivity, Metauniverse is a permanent and large-scale virtual reality system, which includes networks, hardware terminals and users.
Accurately speaking, the metauniverse is not a new concept, it is more like the rebirth of a classic concept, materialized under new technologies such as Extended Reality (XR), blockchain, cloud computing and digital twinning.
In the original work, the metauniverse consists of two words, Meta stands for transcendence and universe stands for the universe, which together is the concept of "transcendence": an artificial space running parallel to the real world, which is the next stage of the Internet and a virtual reality network world supported by technologies such as AR, VR and 3D.
Development history
Hyperuniverse began with the concepts of "Hyperuniverse" and "Avatar" mentioned in foreign sci-fi work Avalanche 65438-0992. People can have their own virtual body double in the meta-universe, which is called the hyper-universe.
From 1970s to 1990s, a large number of open multiplayer games appeared, which means that the open world of the game itself formed the early foundation of the meta-universe. Later, in 2003, a game named Second Life was released, which broke down the difficulties faced by the real world in the upper part of the concept. How to understand this sentence? The most painful thing is that we can't adjust our identity quickly in the real world, but in the virtual world, we can do it by having our own doppelganger, so Second Life gives us the possibility of living a new life. .
In 2020, human society reached the critical point of virtualization, and the epidemic situation accelerated the development of new technologies and the formation of non-contact culture.
202 1 is the first year of the meta-universe. At the beginning of 20021,Soul App proposed to build a "social metauniverse" for the first time in the industry. In March, 20021year, Roblox, known as the first stock in the hyperuniverse, was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company is working hard to build an "enterprise metauniverse"; In August, NVIDIA announced the launch of the world's first simulation and collaboration platform, providing a foundation for the establishment of the meta-universe; In August, ByteDance invested heavily in the acquisition of VR startup Pico 10/0. On October 28th, American social media giant Facebook announced that it had changed its name to "Meta", which originated from "Meta Universe". 165438+1October, Virtual World Platform Decentralized Company announced that Barbados will set up the world's first embassy in Metauniverse, tentatively scheduled to open in 65438+20221October.