When people talk about the future, they usually mean virtual reality. The reason is that when you say "the future", most people think of science fiction, and nearly all SF takes place in a virtual space. The word metaverse is actually an old term for cyberspace - the virtual environment that exists on computers. So, you could argue that the metaverse and cyberspace are virtually the same things.

The word metaverse originally meant just one thing: A synonym for the word universe. Now, it means a lot of things, some contradictory. Metaverse has the slick ring of the future around it, but in reality, it refers to past or present realities, not just a future vision. The term is thrown around so much that you can't trust what it means. What we call the metaverse might be better termed the internet-on-steroids or something more accurate and less sexy-sounding!

The metaverse is a little bit like virtual reality, except not quite. It's a confusing term these days. That's because, in the 90's, Neal Stephenson (of Snow Crash fame) imagined the metaverse as a network of connected 3D spaces that users could interact with using VR goggles and haptic feedback devices.

The metaverse is the general term for all digital universes being connected. We are just starting to build these worlds, and it’s easy to get sidetracked by the technologies that we’re using to build them, (which are sometimes quite new). Just as an aside, remember how every startup in 1983 used a Commodore 64 as its main computer? Even with that amazing machine, no one really predicted anything like what the internet would become.

Hey everyone, I'm doing a think piece that looks at the future of VR. I'm really interested to hear from people on this one! What would you like technology to do for you in the metaverse? What new activities and experiences do you most want developing? The main aim of this piece is to get a better understanding of what we actually want the future to be.

The metaverse could be anything you imagine it to be. It's the virtual world of your imagination. By thinking about what you want it to be, you will shape it with your actions. The metaverse can't become real until someone builds it with code. Until then, the metaverse is whatever we imagine it to be while we are building it together.