What is the Metaverse - origins, opportunities, dangers

What is the Metaverse - origins, opportunities, dangers

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what is the metaverse it's a term that  you've probably heard quite a lot lately   we've even seen facebook change their name from  facebook to meta but like cryptocurrency or nft   it's a term that a lot of people are using but  sometimes it can be a little hard to understand   exactly what is it so in this video we're going  to take a look at the metaverse how it relates   to virtual reality augmented reality some of  the opportunities and potentials that we can   take advantage of that are going to be part of  being in the metaverse and we're going to look   at some of the very real dangers of the metaverse  and there are quite a few so by watching this   video i hope that you will get a good overview of  what the metaverse is and how you can participate   and protect yourself when you're in the metaverse  or meta verses way to describe the metaverse   is that it is a digital reality that exists  outside of but is connected to the physical   reality that we live in and we're not going to get  super philosophical in this video where we talk   about are we living in a simulation or is somebody  pulling all the strings those things are very easy   to answer when it comes to the metaverse one it  is a simulation and two there are people pulling   the strings in fact if we create content in the  metaverse we can be the ones pulling the strings   now that's one of the dangers of the metaverse  we'll talk about that a little later in the video   but what it does mean is that we are freed  from the physical world that we live in to   create completely different and completely unique  worlds in a digital realm this is pretty exciting   it can be really tempting to think of things  like digital worlds and the metaverse as being   something new and revolutionary when in fact  they're built upon existing technologies and   existing ideas it's just the time is right for  us to start participating in those digital worlds   because the technology has reached the point where  it synthesizes and it has reached the point where   the the devices used to access those worlds have  come down in price so more people can afford them   but the idea even of a digital world is not new  back in the 90s during the cyberpunk movement in   science fiction authors such as william gibson  wrote neuromancer and count zero which were   books that talked about going into cyberspace  authors such as neil stephenson wrote books like   snow crash which actually coined the phrase the  metaverse more recently books by by ernest cline   such as ready player one ready player two those  are books that take place in a dystopian future   where people are immersed in this digital world  in this digital realm and other people scientists   have actually built virtual reality solutions  before geron lanier for example is a scientist   that started a company called vpl research i think  and they actually sold virtual reality goggles   long before the metaverse came out it's just  now we have a lot of physical products that   have been digitized the ability to digitize a  lot of things the tools to build virtual worlds   and the tools and devices to access those virtual  worlds it's technology coming together and forming   new opportunities to take advantage of those  ideas that have been around for a while   let's take a look at some of the devices we  can use to access these virtual worlds and go   into the metaverse here are two headsets that i  can use to access a metaverse or a digital reality   now it is important to note i can go to different  digital realities in fact there's really quite a   lot of competition right now as to what digital  reality will be dominant in the future will it   just be one digital reality owned by one company  or will we have preferred networks that we go to   that remains to be seen this here is an hp reverb  g2 you'll notice that with this particular headset   i'm actually going to be covering my eyes there  are some cameras on the front so you can actually   get a video input of the outside world but on  here i've got audio i've got the ability to   speak and be heard i've got the ability to listen  to audio i've got the ability to immerse myself   in a three-dimensional world 360. and what i'm  able to do here is i'm able to put this on my   head immerse myself and this one in particular  will connect up to a computer through this   rather long cable and rather thick cable because  that's what we need you'll also interact with that   world by having a couple of hand controllers so  you'll use these in that digital world to point   at things to if you're playing a game to shoot at  things to grab things or whatever the case may be   some virtual reality headsets now will use the  front cameras to detect your your hands so there   is some hand motion being tracked as well but  things i won't feel here are things like heat   i won't feel things like uh you know  vibrations so there is although you   can have vibrations in the hand controllers  but you're not going to get a fully immersive   physical world experience yet that's where we'd be  looking at things like a haptic suit that you know   actually has everything there or even potentially  a neural implant now that's getting really future   futuristic here and i'm not sure that i'd  want to be a version one neural implant myself   you know could you imagine if you went to a  party oh you saw version one everyone here   is version two it would not be cool now this  here is another headset which is very popular   this is the oculus quest 2. now this particular  headset is very nice because i can attach it with   an optional cord to a computer which gives me the  bandwidth i might need but i can download content   on here and this can really act as a standalone  headset that i can sort of just wear by itself   i'll go in i'll use again my hand controllers  in order to control the environment around me   to grab things to move things and such but this  three-dimensional world will be provided to me   by a couple of lenses on here that'll create the  stereoscopic view the 360 environment and then   i can be in a fully immersive world a metaverse  let's go take a look into the metaverse for this   video i'm going to use my oculus quest 2 headset  and i'm going to go into the actual world that i   have set up for myself so you there's a lot of  slick marketing demos out there but let's have   a look at what it really looks like so i've gone  to my main control panel you can see i have like   alt space horizon venues meeting rooms these  are all places i can go in the metaverse if you   have a look there's horizon workrooms there's  some immersed here's one called the multiverse   so if i go into the multiverse now what i'm  seeing in my headset is a full 360 view but   what will happen is when i go into this multiverse  environment it'll first ask me if i'm standing or   sitting down i'm sitting down while i do this demo  and if i go through you'll notice it'll take me to   my own private lounge so i've got my own area  in the multiverse nobody else can get in here   so i'm i'm safe in this area if you would it gives  me some promo materials and such but on my wrist   i'm going to have a control center that's going  to allow me to choose rooms and such to go to   so there's some promo material here and i'll go to  my wrist and i can find people there's emojis what   i'm going to do is i'm going to go into different  rooms there is a safe mode that can prevent other   people from talking to me and such but look at  all the different rooms i have so there's a whole   bunch of different rooms including large public  rooms there's a campus that i can go to so if i   go to this campus it's basically vr in education  an area that i've created a video on before   but this is a fantastic area where i can go and  learn about astronomy and i can do all sorts   of interesting things the idea is to create an  entire environment where we can learn in this vr   world as i said earlier you know it really  is going to depend on the content we create   if it doesn't add value if it doesn't make  learning easier and better and if it's not   accessible then i'm not completely sold on this  being the solution we'll wait and see but you can   see there's some inspiring pictures and such and  we can go around and take a look there's the big   main screen down at the end here and i've silenced  the audio in this demo because there may be other   people that could you could hear but here i go  in and what's happening right now is there'd be   a big narration about the sun and would be able to  go in learn about the solar system that's really   the featured content there and i'll go back to my  wrist here let's go to a public space so this is a   public space where there could be a sort of grand  central station if you would so i can go in here   now immediately when i entered this environment i  was already starting to get harassed so i've gone   through and i've closed the audio i've silenced  the audio but people saw me enter this space and   they started uh talking to me and making jokes  they weren't particularly harmful they were like   you know are you basically said are you joe biden  are you joe biden and i'm like whatever you know   but the point is that there's no policing there's  no way to edit it out i could go into safe mode   which would make me invisible going back to  my rooms here i can go back to my main room   and i can explore different parts of the metaverse  in this case here it's the multiverse version   of the metaverse so there are many different  metaverses out there there's horizon there's   the multiverse there's different types of rooms  and such it's not just one big monolithic place   and if i use my oculus 2 headset to to visit these  different places i can have different experiences   some which are educational some which are  entertainment all sorts of cool places here   i am on my main page again now there's other value  ads in there as well for example there's youtube   so you can actually go into youtube vr and if you  go to learning and technology with frank actually   i have not only videos here on the main youtube  channel but you can see all my videos there you   can watch them in big screen but here is an  example of a 360 video that i created as well   so if you had an oculus headset or if you were  working with a g2 headset and you had a full   360. you could visit my channel on youtube vr  and you could watch me we have to ask ourselves   the question now what are the opportunities  in the metaverse and is it even worth it   first of all there could be multiple metaverses  out there different companies are going to try to   create a metaverse that will attract you to their  services because there's a purpose for that we'll   talk about that when we talk about the dangers of  the metaverse but when we talk about opportunity   or we talk about using the metaverse right now it  is fun it is fun to go into the metaverse and to   play a game or to experience uh you know speaking  with somebody from across the world or even to   wear the headset and watch a movie as if you were  in a movie theater it's a lot of fun entertainment   hands down metaverse is fun it's fun to explore  but what about uses such as work or education   work are we really going to meet with our  co-workers dressed as a wizard is our avatar   going to be reflective of who we are is it going  to be somewhat unprofessional if our avatar is   cartoonish are we going to have realistic  avatars and is that going to be off-putting   those are questions that need to be answered we  need to see how that's all going to work out now   if it's something where we're getting together to  collaborate on a simulation or a model and that   model would be very difficult to replicate in the  physical world then this could be an excellent use   for something like a metaverse environment is it  going to be something that we can use in education   years ago there was a product called second life  and in second life i could go into that world and   interact with other people and there was a lot  of talk about using second life in education and   personally i was never really sold on it because  i felt what does it benefit my students to learn   from me if i'm dressed in a toga i don't think  it adds a valuable experience for that student   if i can take that student to a model and  demonstrate something like a concept in physics   or i can demonstrate something that would require  a lot of equipment or would be challenging to   demonstrate remotely through a webcam or through  the tools we have today the things i talk about on   this channel if for some reason it was difficult  to do that then yeah maybe the metaverse would   be an excellent place to teach them that but it  also means that all of my students are going to   have to have some mechanism to participate in  that metaverse and i'm not even talking about   any type of accessibility issues which are  actually going to be a huge issue if the way that   we interact with the metaverse is simply through  vision and audio we're going to have to have other   ways to be able to interact with the metaverse  if it's going to be a tool for all people to use   now it might sound like i'm actually  getting a little negative on the metaverse   it is cool it's an emerging technology like any  emerging technology it's going to have to mature   it's going to have to have architects it's going  to have to have people that build value into the   platform and that's where we can come in that's  the opportunity of the metaverse learning how it   works learning how to build within it learning how  to create value for others within that metaverse   environment i think that is the opportunity  that could lead to a metaverse environment that   will be valuable in the future we have to ask  ourselves what are the dangers of the metaverse   and there will be and there are dangers  to the metaverse that we need to address   back in the early days when the internet was first  going i was super optimistic i even have my old   modem here that i used to use on the internet i  was super optimistic i thought what a great thing   we can communicate with people all  over the world we can exchange ideas   we can collaborate on projects does it sound  familiar that sounds a lot like the metaverse   being advertised today it was going to be a  great place where people could get together   and as the internet became more pervasive social  networks came out we thought what a great thing   i can i can connect with people that share the  same interests and hobbies as i do and this is   wonderful well we all know what's happened in  these environments they have provided all those   good things but at the same time there are bad  players there's bad actors in the environment   there are criminals there are predators there  are people that are insincere in the information   that they're providing or manipulative in the  information that they're providing and that's   the people that participate we also have who owns  the metaverse the question could be who owns the   internet well it is a distributed hierarchy there  are certain sites on the internet that clearly do   have owners so for example the googles the  microsoft's the facebook's now meta of the   world these companies exist and they control a  lot of the environments that we participate in   and for many of these companies they are a  for-profit company and there's nothing wrong   with that and for many of these companies they do  have a sense of ethical governance and that's a   good thing however the reality is that sometimes  the for-profit model and the application of your   ethics can mix and cause issues what i mean by  that is all the stuff you've heard in the news   we could have a situation where they manipulate  the information we're receiving we could have   a situation where we divulge information about  ourselves that are then used to provide us with   services or as some people would say cause us to  be exposed to a purchasing or consumer pattern   that may not ultimately be healthy for us this is  a large discussion about the value of technology   in general but we're not just talking about a  technology that we buy and use we're talking   about all of the digital lifestyle products we  use all being put together in one universe so   instead of say meta knowing what i'm doing when  i'm posting on a facebook wall or knowing what   i'm doing when i'm posting instagram posts they're  now going to know what movies i'm watching what   music i'm listening to the people i'm interacting  with on a much much more uh comprehensive level   so it's not just going to be collecting data  about me when i choose to participate with their   products they're going to be collecting data in  an entire digital world that i'm participating   in and this is one of the reasons why they're  racing to to get land in the in the meta space   so the idea is that if they build the first space  and the biggest space like they did with facebook   the first social network that really took off it  wasn't the first social network but it's the first   one that's billions of users when they grew that  network that gave them a lot of power because they   had a lot of data and this is actually an area  of my specialties what actually this is my day   job is working with data so the idea that data can  allow us to make decisions and have a lot of power   over the decisions that others make is very real  so this is the biggest danger that we're going   to have in the metaverse which meta verses do  we trust which metaverses do we participate in   but don't necessarily trust and therefore limit  the information that we share with them this is   going to be the danger zone of the metaverse and  one that i think we're going to have to look at   very seriously in my video that i also put on this  channel on using the metaverse in education i talk   about some of the great things we can do with the  metaverse to help students learn and and succeed   in the things that they're trying to do to reach  their full potential but it's also very aware that   a lot of people under the age of 13 cannot even  go legally into the metaverse at this point and   that's probably to protect them and also to make  sure that the sa checks and balances and safety   features are there before we allow younger  participants in that metaverse environment   there are those dangers if there's a  metaverse there will be a dark metaverse   and if there is crime on the internet there will  be crime in the metaverse as well now before i   go i do want to talk about one quick technology  that i think is actually pretty important and i i   want to make sure i included in this video it's  not directly related to the metaverse but it's   called augmented reality with augmented reality  i take a device such as this microsoft hololens 2   and this device is a little bit different  than the virtual headset that you saw   for the metaverse for virtual reality this  headset you wear it it's actually a little   bit lighter than the other headsets but you'll  notice that i still remain in the physical world   i can still see what's going on around me because  i have two lenses here that incorporate digital   elements and overlay them on top of the real world  one of the challenges with the metaverse is that   if i'm wearing a complete headset i can't see the  physical world around me as easily as just looking   around so i have to set up a parameter a guardian  boundary or i have to have somebody watch me or i   might get that sense of being isolated from my  physical world being just in the metaverse here   i still um see the physical world around me but  i can do digital overlays to that physical world   this is very powerful so what i can do is i  can for example go on to the flight deck of a   aircraft and i can look around the flight deck and  then this can sense where i am and it can actually   project information about the gauges and dials of  that aircraft onto my eye so i can basically see   sort of digital assets that are connected to that  physical world these are very useful in industry   today and these are very good for research as well  the challenge that we have with these is that they   are a bit of a pricier headset so it would be  nice to see some of these augmented reality   headsets come down and there is an alternative  to the headset and that is using something like   your phone so for example iphones have augmented  reality features in them the classic example of   that would be pokemon go which is the game where  you go around and then based upon a geographic   location you have little pokemon monsters that you  fight and you get points and that sort of thing   that would be an example of augmented reality that  was quite a popular game and if we start building   more solutions like that where we're overlaying  digital and combining it with the physical   i think this actually has more immediate potential  than perhaps the metaverse that being said there's   a lot of work being done to promote the metaverse  tell me what you think comment down below do you   understand the metaverse a little bit better  now do you have any more questions i'd be happy   to answer those for you are you planning on using  the metaverse are you already there what are your   thoughts comment down below like and subscribe  if you want content like this and other content   on how to learn and teach and be more productive  with technology thank you so much for watching

2022-02-25 16:30

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