In the future, could your commute to work be just a simple walk to pick up your VR headset?
When we look back 50 years from now, it’s likely that the 2D internet we all use today will seem ridiculously archaic.
Not only will the internet probably no longer exist behind a screen, but we’ll likely interact with it differently.
We will manipulate objects using augmented reality (AR), explore virtual reality (VR) worlds, and merge the real and the digital in ways we cannot currently imagine.
And what does this mean for the world of work? We are already moving away from the home-to-work commute and turning our backs on the traditional office. And that’s thanks to two years of pandemic lockdowns and a new love, or tolerance, for virtual meetings.
Will the next logical step be to work in the metaverse, the intended virtual universe where cartoon-like 3D representations of everyone will walk around, talk and interact with each other?
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In the various virtual worlds that could one day merge to form a metaverse, you can walk around in avatar form.
Metaverse has become a buzz term, so it’s important to note that it doesn’t exist yet. And even those invested in the concept disagree on exactly what it will be.
Will rival virtual worlds interconnect in a way that currently does not exist between competing technologies? Will we spend more time there than in the real world? Will we need entirely new rules to govern these new spaces?
None of these questions have an answer yet, but that hasn’t stopped a growing amount of interest and hyperbole as companies see it as a new way to make money.
We’ve seen businesses open in fledgling metaverses, from Meta’s Horizon Worlds to games like Roblox and Fortnite, to newly created territories like Sandbox and Decentraland.
Nike now sells virtual sneakers, HSBC has land in Sandbox, and Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton and Sotheby’s have a presence in Decentraland.
The term “metaverse” was coined nearly 30 years ago by author Neal Stephenson. In his book Snow Crash, the hero finds a better life in a virtual reality world.
Perhaps the boldest move to turn this fiction into real technology took place in October 2021. That’s when Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta and started to invest billions of dollars to transform into a metaverse-focused company – a vision very much championed by its founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg.
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Mark Zuckerberg has been criticized for his interest in the metaverse.
Still, this huge investment has raised eyebrows among shareholders, some of whom have recently expressed concern that the company is spending too much money on VR.
And a report from The Verge last October, which claimed to have reviewed internal Meta memos, suggested that the Horizon Worlds platform had numerous bugs and was not being used well by employees.
Herman Narula, CEO of Improbable, a company that makes software for creating metaverses, and author of a book called Virtual Society, isn’t convinced by Zuckerberg’s vision.
Photo credit, Herman Narula
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Herman Narula wants the metaverse to be radically different from the real world.
“Why would we want an office in the metaverse that looks like our real office?” he said. “The goal of creative spaces in new realities is to expand our experiences, not replicate what we have already experienced in the real world.
“But I think there will be a lot of jobs in the metaverse – for example, we will need moderators.”
The moderator – or police – aspect of the metaverse is controversial, not only because it is technically difficult to monitor potentially billions of avatars having live chats across a virtual world, but also because of the enormous amount of data that these avatars can create along the way.
A Stanford University study found that spending just 20 minutes in virtual reality provided more than two million unique body motion records, a rich new data stream for businesses.
Alex Rice, co-founder of online security firm HackerOne, thinks the design of the metaverse needs careful consideration before a company can consider leaving its employees there.
“Imagine something harmless, like a casual conversation in an office,” he explains. “Imagine it takes place in a fully guarded metaverse environment: it will certainly have life-changing consequences.
“People could be fired outright for saying something they believe is in a private, informal conversation with a colleague who is now under massive corporate surveillance.”
Tom Ffiske, editor of technology newsletter Immersive Wire, thinks it’s far too early to start thinking about working in the metaverse.
Photo credit, Tom Ffiske
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Tom Ffiske, who is playing a game of VR football here, believes that working in the metaverse is still far from a reality for most of us.
“Discussing the metaverse is still mired in difficulty, and the definition is still tenuous and debatable,” he says. “While the term itself is under discussion and poorly defined, it is unclear whether we will be working in the metaverse in the future.”
Although no one is able to define what the metaverse is, there are optimistic market forecasts of what it could be worth. McKinsey suggests a market value of $5 billion by 2030, while Gartner, another management consultancy, predicts that a quarter of the world’s population will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse by 2026.
Matthew Ball, chief analyst at research firm Canalys, disagrees: He predicts that most current commercial projects in the metaverse will be closed by 2025.
He thinks companies need to ask themselves if a presence in the metaverse is really necessary, or if they are using technology for technology’s sake.
“Not every company needs a VR headset to remotely host co-worker avatars or view virtual models,” says Ball. “Not every business needs VR headsets for meetings, either. As powerful and compelling as VR is, Zoom calling and Teams offer nearly frictionless alternatives that can be less cumbersome.”
Tiffany Rolfe is Creative Director at RGA, a digital branding company. She and some members of her team have worked in the metaverse before.
Photo credit, Tiffany Rolfe
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Tiffany Rolfe is among the minority of people who have ever worked in a virtual world.
The firm created a virtual football stadium in Fortnite for phone giant Verizon during the pandemic, and it also worked with Meta to build a music world in Horizon Worlds.
“People who were usually on a computer designing things had to put on headsets and work with builders around the world,” says Rolfe.
And who says new working methods means new considerations, such as the length of time employees must wear a helmet. “My team wore it for two-hour periods,” she says.
The fact that people are already working in virtual reality worlds suggests that the Metaverse may well have a future as a workplace, but the jobs that will exist there will likely be very different from those we do in the real world.
And anyone hoping to swap their daily commute for a helmet will likely have to wait many years before that becomes a (virtual) reality.
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