According to Tony Gjerlufsen, Head of Technology at Space10, the most pertinent questions are what, when, and how.

The limits of the Metaverse are still very much a changing target.

Many people now appear to believe that Metaverse has evolved into the catch-all term for Spatial Computing, the paradigm of computing that will replace smartphones and mobile computing and embrace both virtual and augmented reality as well as being fully embodied in nature.

One way to think about it is that the Metaverse is the spatial Internet. Benedict Evans points out that the way the term is used right now is reminiscent of the early days of the Internet when it was all about the Information SuperHighway being the future and how it would be built by AT&T, Disney, and Microsoft. However, that’s not at all how the Internet came to be.

The Metaverse is becoming more and more connected to advancements in blockchain technologies like Web3 and NFT. Free and open internet with incentives and economic clout shifting from businesses to consumers is what Web3 promises.

You may produce digital originals using NFT, empowering designers, collectibles communities, and artists. In a manner, it detaches individuality and self-expression from physical form and function while still supporting our innate desire for both.

The idea behind the Metaverse, essentially a cyberpunk vision of artificial parallel worlds created and maintained by technology with its own rules, aesthetics, heroes, and villains, has very little to do with Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s interesting to note that the majority of works of fiction that deal with the Metaverse, including The Matrix, Neuromancer, Ready Player One, and Snow Crash (where Neal Stephenson first used the word).

The question of the decade is, I suppose, how will we make sure we develop something better? Technology is ultimately neither good nor harmful, nor neutral.

What, when, and how are more important questions.

Nothing indicates that the idea of the Metaverse is an impossibility; rather, the questions are more about what, when, and how. Waiting will be necessary if we want a complete sensory replacement that includes taste and smell. We are currently witnessing VR develop along with those new means of socializing, meeting people, and expressing oneself. Still, it’s a far way from the widespread use of smartphones.

The AR component of the vision, which inherently has a more connection to our natural world and physical settings, is fairly on smartphones, and the design exercise is more what is currently developing as we strive to grasp this new medium and what it can do.

The medium may eventually migrate to the face in some glass-like form factor, releasing its immersive embodied potential, if we wait a little while longer.

The two form factors, AR glasses, and VR headsets converge at some point, paving the way for gadgets that can easily enable switching between various immersive experiences.

Digital technology affected the design at least since computers created a graphical user interface.

They affect what we do and how we do it since they are a designer’s tool and material. The rise of new media and dimensions to the world, as well as the ongoing technological advancements, are two major trends that merit consideration.

How can we continue to bring the tools closer to ourselves and our embodied way of being while also making them more transparent?

This is a topic that we looked into previously, both in terms of the history of architecture and in a more practical way, looking at how digital fabrication techniques unlock traditional crafts and make them accessible to many more people.

We also looked at fresh possibility, embodiment, and the independence of the designer inside Everyday Experiments, a platform that examines emerging technology in collaboration with IKEA.

Techno Carpenter investigated how you could design your next favorite chair in virtual reality using only your hands by combining machine learning, virtual reality, and hand tracking.

Nowadays, the influence is particularly noticeable when it comes to augmented reality. In essence, augmented reality is neither a feature nor a tool.

Instead, it is a novel media in which 3D content presents alongside the text, images, and videos. Its long-term effects on how we communicate, shop, produce, etc. Maybe just as extensive and far-reaching as those of these “older” media.

Will we too be in danger of having our privacy put up for auction here?

Naturally, there is a lot of discussion about privacy, which is crucial when moving from tracking clicks to watching eyeballs. The main concern is ethics, and the parallel inquiry to make is on business models.

One may argue that our massive collective hangover is caused by the ad-driven, data-extractive, manipulative economic model that has typified the “free” Web 2.0.

What will the Metaverse / Web 3 equivalent of that be, if anything? Will we likewise be in danger of having our privacy sold off here, or will there be something else entirely?

Axie Infinity serves as a compelling example of the growth of play-to-earn.

The main idea is that you play by breeding, engaging in combat, and other actions to evolve these little virtual creatures, called Axis. We can trade Axis in the game’s internal NFT-based value system.

This has developed a secondary employment market in low-income nations (now largely the Philippines) where workers are being staked by affluent foreigners to carry out the taxing task of increasing Axie value on their behalf due to the possible high payout and high economic obstacles to entry.

On the one hand, this demonstrates how fresh opportunities might appear, allowing people to support their families in ways other than, say, factory work.

Adults, on the other hand, spend their life raising virtual dragons to generate income for others. Perhaps Elon Musk wasn’t entirely wrong when he said that time is the most valuable kind of money.

The difficulty may come from having to constantly remind ourselves of what we’re missing.

Immersion has an inextricable link to a willful suspension of disbelief. The mind is highly pliable, and we sometimes tend to underestimate exactly how attuned it’s to fill in the spaces.

We allow ourselves to be duped into thinking that experiences are richer than they are in the moment. And VR in general is a massive sensory sleight of hand.

Anyone who has ever experimented with virtual objects of various weights in the Hand Physics Lab at Holonautic can attest to the immersive experience they provide.

Since we lose ourselves in constrained experiences that remove some of the friction and necessary richness from the real world. I believe the difficulty may ultimately be having to constantly remind ourselves of what it’s that we’re missing out on.

The best part of a VR experience is taking off the headset and reentering the real world. As Jaron Lanier clearly states in a talk with Lex Fridman.

“I don’t think anyone has found the Metaverse’s winner-takes-all use cases,”

Currently, the Metaverse includes both AR and VR. This is crucial to understand because of the fundamental distinction between them—one has an inextricable link to our physical world. Whilst the other allows for the construction of whole different realities.

Together, they can change how we perceive the world to go well beyond what was possible with earlier technical advancements.

With augmented reality, we may layer our reality with as many digital layers as we want. Thereby turning the entire environment into a computer interface. For instance, from the perspective of an experience, inanimate objects can be endowed with digital capabilities.

When the relationship between form and function changes in that way. What will that entail for product and industrial design practices?

Immersive versions of the worlds we already see in Fortnite, Roblox, and other games are made possible by VR. It opens up new opportunities for networking, socializing, experiencing, and displaying your (virtual) identity. How would that affect, for example, brand identity design?

Although they may exist, I don’t believe anyone has yet found the winner-takes-all use cases for the Metaverse. It’s possible that we haven’t been looking in the proper places or that we aren’t socio-technically ready for them yet.

“What I would love to see more of our technological applications for performing better,”

At least it is evident that social interaction, self-expression, entertainment, and gaming are currently blending.

And this may be where the Metaverse would begin. Between the aforementioned Axie Infinity, virtual real estate with Decentraland, concerts within Fortnite, Bored Apes, Netflix purchasing gaming companies, etc. I believe many signs lead in that way.

However, I would like to see more technological innovations that help us perform tasks more effectively.

We have a unique opportunity to consciously design the next generation of everyday technology in ways that help us in acting morally as we lay the groundwork for it (s).

By rewarding cooperative and regenerative behaviors and actions for the good of the entire. For example, Seeds, a digital currency aims to match money and value.