Benefits of the Metaverse
If the Metaverse becomes reality, it will open up new opportunities for people like never seen before. Three major advantages stand out:
1. Affordability of Experiences
The Metaverse will make a variety of experiences and products more affordable, allowing poorer people to purchase a luxury that only wealthier people used to be able to enjoy.
Just like the internet has given much of the human population access to vast libraries of knowledge and entertainment, the Metaverse may allow most of humanity to virtually experience world travel and high-quality interaction with family members who are far away on other continents.
This will not only make goods and services cheaper, but also make people more prosperous by making their labour more productive. Many jobs that were once only available locally will now be available nationally or even globally because remote work will be much better than it currently is over Zoom and Slack.
History has shown that new waves of innovation tend to create large numbers of new jobs. Metaverse industry will likely be no exception to this and will create new markets we’ve yet to imagine.
2. Creation of New Possibilities
The Metaverse will also introduce new possibilities that do not currently exist, even for the ultrawealthy. It is currently impossible to have a high-quality virtual experience of traveling to distant solar systems, or the center of the earth, or past eras of human civilizations
However, over the next few years there will be a rapid development of VR and most of humanity should probably have access to it.
Other than entertainment value, there is plenty of other value in the education or medical sectors. “Let’s say you’re a med student or a doctor. With apps like Osso VR, you can learn new techniques in surgery firsthand, practicing until you get it right,” suggests Marne Levine, Chief Business Officer at Meta. “Or, if you’re studying Earth Science, you could swim through the Great Barrier Reef.” Would you prefer surgery from a surgeon trained in today's medical schools, or one who has practiced his or her skills thousands of times in highly realistic simulations?
3. Sustainability
The Metaverse will be a huge addition to our sustainability efforts. By using it for meetings, lectures and social gatherings, people can save both time and resources because they won't have to travel as much.
“Dropping our daily commutes will mean less time stuck in traffic and more time doing things that matter,” Zuckerberg points out. “And it’ll be good for the environment. Actually, if you travel for work, and working in the Metaverse means that you just take one less flight each year, that’s probably better than almost anything else that you can do for the environment.”
And when we’re living in a more virtual world, fossil fuels won’t be the only items we’ll be less dependant on. Zuckerberg says that, “There are lots of things that are physical today, like screens, that will just be able to be holograms in the future. You won’t need a physical TV, it’ll just be a one-dollar hologram from some high school kid halfway across the world.” You’ll even need less material clothing and accessories to express yourself stylistically when you’re more frequently socializing in a virtual world where your avatar will have access to thousands of digital clothing options.