The metaverse is one of the hottest topics in the technology industry in recent years, yet the scope of the metaverse is too all-encompassing for the public to grasp it fully. However, in the future, different industries must embrace the opportunities and challenges it brings, and the education sector is no exception.
Many people will interpret the metaverse as virtual reality (VR). This is primarily related to Facebook renaming itself Meta, and with a solid commitment to investing in VR hardware. Another hot technology topic related to the metaverse is non-fungible tokens (NFTs). To understand the metaverse more comprehensively, one must understand the three dimensions of the metaverse to put the pieces together with the correct perspective.
Time and space
The first one is time and space. The metaverse includes technologies like VR, augmented reality (AR), and even mixed reality (MR), which create unlimited possibilities. We are no longer constrained by physical time and space. We can reverse time, reset time, and live in any virtual scenes. Technology companies made a lot of predictions that humans will learn, live and play in virtual reality in the future. To see if the prediction is accurate, let’s look at the products on the market today. They are solving fundamental problems like reducing the weight of the headband, enhancing resolutions and response time, reducing dizziness, and preventing the user from falling or colliding with objects. Even fundamental technical problems for VR are not solved today. We cannot even find well-regarded 3D TV products today.
From an engineering perspective, it will require about a million times the current computing power to produce VR with close-to-reality experience. Contemporary products need many generations of improvement to become famous and adopted daily. It may still take one or two decades of technology development for VR to get the same level of popularity as today’s computers. However, VR is just one dimension of the metaverse.
Real humans, virtual humans, and intelligent beings
The second dimension is about the “characters” in the metaverse, which can be classified as real humans, virtual humans and intelligent beings. Virtual humans such as virtual news reporters, singers and streamers have sprung up. A Chinese company has extracted Teresa Teng Li-chun’s unique voiceprint and, through AI, created a virtual Teresa who can sing songs that the late Teresa had never sung. By extracting and modeling the characteristics of real people, a virtual human can be created and interact with others in the virtual world.
Intelligent beings are the most noteworthy development in the metaverse, but it can be somewhat bewildering. Every object in the metaverse can have intelligence as they are software programs, and they do not have to be in human form. Intelligent beings are the interface for AI software that performs the functions. For example, if you encounter an equation you cannot solve in the metaverse, you can summon an intelligent mathematics teacher to help; the same goes for driving a car or even maneuvering a space shuttle. Intelligent beings do not have to exist in VR, but they can exist in the current computing environment and impact our lives very shortly.
Ownership and power
The third dimension in the metaverse is NFT ownership and power. Based on blockchain technology, NFTs can provide identity and ownership of any digital asset. All digital assets can be minted with a unique “birth certificate” that cannot be destroyed or copied. Ownership can be determined by the public record in the blockchain rather than relying on any platform owner. In theory, NFTs can mint anything in the digital world and convert it into a unique item for trading and inheriting. While the image of Picasso’s painting can be copied, only the authorized original copy can have the “birth certificate” as an NFT, so its value is protected. With NFTs, the concept of money and power can be established in the metaverse as they are in the physical world, furnishing participants with the same sense of satisfaction as in the real world. By exercising power through ownership, one can occupy land and houses, and perhaps time as well. Owning the mentioned intelligent beings or the powerful AI software reflects one’s power to the most significant extent in the metaverse.
Make the metaverse equal and safe
We can see that the metaverse is not only a technological platform but a new universe that will significantly affect our daily lives or even subvert the values and concepts of life that mankind has built up for centuries. Before the metaverse is fully developed, we need to be well-prepared, especially in the education sector, to cultivate the digital literacy of our children from an early age. It is paramount to establish a foundation to ensure that the metaverse is a space where everyone can participate equitably and is a universe that can lead us toward a better life.
The author is immediate past executive director of EdCity.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.