"Rebranding of virtual space": a Russian IT specialist on the future of the metaverse

- Now many people talk about the metaverse, but what is it?

Social network, workspace?

- In my opinion, the metaverse is just a rebranding of what was previously called a virtual space, a world where our avatars can perform some actions.

Such virtual worlds have been created before.

Another thing is that today technologies have noticeably developed and improved.

When the first markup language for virtual worlds appeared in the early 2000s, the avatars created were very angular, awkward.

Now they can be made more realistic.

And within the virtual world, the interaction of avatars has become more understandable and simple.

The interfaces with which the user interacts while wearing a virtual reality helmet or VR glasses have become clearer.

So the development of the metaverse will be associated with the fact that new technological chips are being introduced into the existing developments in the field of world virtualization. Let me give you an example: there is a well-known game Minecraft, where each user can create some kind of world.

I personally use it in an experimental format as part of my project to create digital human twins.

In Minecraft, you can design, draw those places that are familiar to you from childhood and with which you have nostalgic memories.

Interestingly, although the images in this game are far from real, this is just a constructor made of blocks, when you see a virtual reconstruction of objects, buildings from your childhood, you get a feeling of nostalgia, a feeling that you really returned to the past.

And this despite the fact that Minecraft is played without virtual reality glasses.

So such a virtual space can be used to experience some intimate, childhood memories.

It is possible that this can even be somehow used in psychotherapy.

• Roman Dushkin

• © Press Service

- Is it true that the idea of ​​the metaverse originates from computer games, where VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies have been used for a long time?

- Yes, that is right.

In computer games, especially dynamic “shooters”, where the action takes place in the first person, 3D immersion technologies have long been used.

This was used in the very first games like DOOM, Wolfenstein 3D, etc.

Modern games have reached such a level of immersion that, playing in virtual reality glasses or a helmet, you can grab a heart attack, how realistic everything is.

Therefore, I would not even advise people with cardiac or mental illness to play such games.

And yes, it is the computer games industry that drives all technological developments for the metaverse.

Games are created in such a way as to evoke emotions in us, to induce a surge of dopamine, so that we would like to play them more and more.

- WHO even recognized addiction to computer games as a disease ...

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Of course, this is a drug that is induced by an external manifestation in the form of a game, but is generated in the user's head.

- At the same time, the metaverse is planned to be used for work, for the performance of some ordinary functions.

But is there any point in transferring working communications into virtual reality, because here we are not talking about entertainment, but about purely pragmatic issues?

Do you need augmented reality to discuss company profits, say?

- You can dream up. For example, we will create some three-dimensional place inside the metaverse using virtual reality glasses. And a person will be able to feel as if he himself is there, only devoid of motor muscular function, this can be compared to a dream. At the same time, he will be able to virtually move his arms, legs ... So, you can see your colleagues no longer in the form of an image in Zoom, but in the form of voluminous people who can be touched. Wave at him, send him a text message directly inside the metaverse. In a word, to do everything that we usually do in objective reality.

- What is a digital twin, an avatar? What data would people need to transfer to such a system to create it? And what are the threats in terms of the preservation of personal data? Probably, to create an avatar from a person, much more information is required than we are now transferring to social networks and other services?

- Certainly. And all companies that are involved in the creation of metaverse will try to collect the maximum amount of information about users. However, companies are doing it now. I think the topic of threats to personal data is a bit overblown. We transfer our personal data almost from childhood to the state, various authorities, etc. And they did it back in the pre-digital era. Another question is that, for example, in European countries, laws on the protection of personal data have been in force for a very long time. And our law on the protection of personal data was adopted relatively recently. Many associate it precisely with the protection of digital data, but this is not the case. We are talking about the protection of data on any media. This can be a photograph taken by a security camera, etc. In this case, personal data is not the photograph itself,a photograph with a signature that identifies you.

But, despite all the talk about the protection of personal data, every day we pass it on to IT corporations such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, creating our own digital footprint.

We transfer data to transnational corporations by ticking the boxes in agreements that we don't even read.

• Man tests Sony PlayStation Virtual Reality headset at Gamescom, Germany

• AP

• © Martin Meissner

- Let's say that personal data is a personal matter.

But if the metauniverses are to be used to create working communities, then one might ask: will commercial companies, not to mention government agencies, agree to transfer their data to someone else's infrastructure?

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How is this done now?

Now, too, most applications run in the clouds.

This is either Google Cloud Platform or Amazon, and we have Yandex.Cloud, etc.

Already now, someone else's infrastructure is actively used to host their services and applications.

Protection measures have already been invented.

For example, encryption on the user's end device, when the data is encrypted with the service provider, and he does not know how to decrypt it.

In this case, encryption schemes are used that cannot be cracked.

- Is it cryptography?

- Yes, I'm talking about cryptography, there are cryptographic schemes that, in principle, cannot be opened.

Mathematically, it looks like this: all information is a stream of bits, interleaving 0 and 1. With the help of encoding, this bit stream can be converted into a picture, video, voice, audio, text.

But if we do not know the encoding method, if the bit stream is encrypted by the method of cryptographic protection, then we will not be able to transform this data.

- And these solutions can be used in the case of the metauniverses?

- Of course, this is either a cryptographic solution, or the transfer of the metaverse engine to the circuit of your company.

Using hardware and technical methods, the company can create its own version of the metaverse on its own closed circuit.

In this case, the company can use the metaverse by paying royalties or a license fee to the copyright holders.

This method is now used for software.

Let's say we take our server and put it in our closed circuit, which is under our physical protection.

At the hardware level, we use special means for protection, such as a demilitarized zone, a firewall.

Everything can be organized in such a way that no hacker will ever penetrate unless the "moles" deliberately leave "holes" in the protection.

- Foreign

- I haven’t heard about such projects yet.

Of course, most likely, our large IT companies will also start doing this - they will run after everyone.

At least because they already have a large amount of user data, which will allow them to create digital twins for the metaverse.

- At the same time, almost all attempts to launch new social networks fail, unable to withstand competition with major players.

Suffice it to recall the example of the sensational Clubhouse last year - now almost everyone has forgotten about this project.

- When everyone started talking about the Clubhouse, I immediately thought that it would not live more than a couple of months.

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg avatar

• Reuters

• © Facebook

- How will the market be distributed between the metauniverses?

Will it be two or three projects that will divide the whole world among themselves?

Or will there be more pluralism and competition?

- I think there will be an organic transition to the social media metauniverses.

For example, this is already happening with Facebook.

They have even changed the name, keep their nose to the wind.

And the rest of the social networks will also smoothly move into the field of virtual and augmented reality.

Plus, messengers will merge with social networks at the same time, as is again the case with Facebook.

Messengers will turn into a means of visual communication - this is also already there.

Indeed, there will be a couple of decisions that will capture and divide the whole world among themselves.

But at the same time, there will be niche industry projects, as now there are niche social networks.

For example, the social network for scientists ResearchGate, where you can only get to by proving that you are really a scientist, affiliated with a scientific organization, having scientific publications.

This is a closed social network that works very successfully, where all scientists from all countries are present and where all scientific publications are uploaded.

There you can directly from the author get the opportunity to read the necessary scientific article for free.

Plus, you can very quickly create scientific collaborations and receive advice from colleagues.

Most likely, the metaverse will be somewhat reminiscent of such niche social networks.

“However, both this social network for scientists and ordinary social networks are already operating successfully, no one has an urgent need for glasses and virtual reality helmets to communicate in them.

Is there an inflated bubble of artificial excitement around the topic of the metauniverses?

- Yes, there is such a bubble.

Virtual reality has not yet taken off, has not become popular, although technologies have been known for a long time.

But I think that in the pursuit of profits, multinational corporations will spur interest in this topic.

And new generations of people will already get used to such technologies.

For example, I still remember what a world without the Internet is, but my oldest child no longer.

For children, the Internet is a natural habitat.

And the metauniverses can become such an environment.

- That is, companies will specifically train people to do this?

- Naturally.

And my children will already be telling my grandchildren: "Why are you hanging out there in your metaverse, if you could just stretch your fingers on the keyboard."

- As you already mentioned, computer games can be addictive.

Is there a risk that after the emergence of the metaverse we will finally become dependent on such technologies?

- Yes, we are already completely dependent.

Let me take your smartphone away from you, and in a day you will tell me about your digital “withdrawal”.

• Reuters

• © Dado Ruvic

- There is one more aspect: in social networks people often embellish themselves, for this there are many filters, etc.

Live communication is already fading into the background.

And if everyone also sits down in the metaverse, then the need for real communication will disappear altogether.

What social consequences can this turn out to be?

- It is hard to say. Retrogrades like to talk about social atomization, but I always answer that people will still communicate, albeit in the metaverse. I can give you an example. Our company was somehow engaged in an educational project in a Moscow school for children with cerebral palsy, we taught classes on artificial intelligence, taught how to create chat bots. For such children, the body does not obey, but the brain is all right. And so one of our students made a chatbot that won the Moscow project competition. And about another example it is difficult even to speak without tears. In our group there was also a boy with autism, he did not speak to people. And during class, he finally spoke - with a digital interlocutor.

- Why do people perceive such technologies with fear?

The very term "metaverse" appeared in Neil Stevenson's dystopian novel, and you can recall the film "The Matrix".

Do people associate such things with total control, with the loss of a full-fledged real life?

- People are always afraid of novelty, this quality has been brought up in us by natural selection.

Those ancient people who were not afraid of the new often died and did not leave offspring.

Therefore, conservatism, conformism and fear of novelty are reflexes stitched into our heads at the hardware level.

However, it is in our power to suppress this beginning in ourselves.

- Considering how much time the average person spends on the Internet every day, given the emergence of digital cryptocurrencies, NFT tokens, can we say that in a

- Certainly.

This transition has already happened, in fact.

Already now we cannot imagine life without gadgets, the Internet, although 20 years ago we did just fine without them.