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The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. These are environments where humans interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and economically) and with software agents in a cyber space, that uses the metaphor of the real world, but without its physical limitations. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... Snow Crash is Neal Stephensons third science fiction novel, published in 1992. ... An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avie, avy, avi, avvie, avis, and avvy) is an Internet users representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games,[1] a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities,[2... In computer science, a software agent is an abstraction, a logical model that describes software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency. ...

In Stephenson's words, the "Metaverse" [is] my invention, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as "virtual reality") were simply too awkward to use [Snow Crash Acknowledgements]. The metaverse concept appears under other names in the Cyberpunk genre as far back as the 1981 novella True Names. Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... True Names was the science fiction novella which brought Vernor Vinge to prominence in 1981. ...

Stephenson’s vision of the metaverse

Snow Crash provides a unique use case for the metaverse. It shows how a metaverse might be implemented, how it could be used, how it might interface to the real world, and how it complements the real world. A use case is a technique used in software and systems engineering to capture the functional requirements of a system. ...

It also has the benefit of foresight. It was written before implementation was practical, and can be seen as an immersive requirements description for a metaverse. Much of what he proposes is becoming more relevant as modern implementations begin to address the problems he describes. For example:

• scalability: you can have millions waiting outside a club trying to get access. They are rendered as a crowd, without the impossibility of rendering individual detail.

• access levels: from low quality public terminals, through goggle-based (heads up) to an interface that is bio-integrated (gargoyle).

• usability: avatars can see facial expressions and get body language cues - providing a virtual experience that is as rich as real-life face to face communication.

• bandwidth: the sophistication that an avatar can project and the facilities that a user can experience may be limited by the available bandwidth. However Snow Crash avoids any discussion of whether a user's computer receives a fully-rendered video feed or simply a description of his location and surrounding objects.

• code protocols as law: the metaverse is built on coding protocols. These define what can and cannot be done, what is legal, what is not. Law is code.

• economics: in the dystopian world of Snow Crash, there has been a great redistribution of real world power structures at the same time as development of the metaverse, and the growth of the corporation as mini-country (franchulate).

Some elements of Stephenson’s metaverse were necessary for the plot, but have not stood the test of time. His idea of a single privately-owned managed environment does not fit with the co-operative network structure of the modern internet, or the distributed efficiency of peer-to-peer networks. A related idea, of ribbon development outward from a center with real-world style rapid transport (rail and motorcycle), is also seen now as an unnecessary complication. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Scale (computing). ... Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. ... Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of, for example, a filter, a communication channel, or a signal spectrum, and is typically measured in hertz. ...

Early implementations

Most of the pioneering work on creating a metaverse has come from the gaming community.

In 1993, Steve Jackson Games launched a MOO (a text-based low-bandwidth virtual reality system) called The Metaverse as part of their online BBS system Illuminati Online. Several other game companies opened up virtual shop there, presaging the Second Life commercial land-rush nearly a decade later. Steve Jackson Games (SJG) is a game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. ... Look up moo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the simulation technology. ... A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, playing games, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. ... This article is about a virtual world. ...

In the mid-1990s, SenseMedia created a MOO called SnowMOO. The world was based on Snow Crash and was a text-based implementation of the Metaverse. SenseMedia also ran ChibaMOO (aka The Sprawl) which was based on William Gibson's Cyberpunk literature but also was fashioned as a text-based Metaverse. Look up moo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Active Worlds, which was based entirely on Snow Crash, popularized the project of creating the Metaverse in 1997 by distributing virtual-reality worlds capable of implementing at least the concept of the Metaverse. Active Worlds (AW) is a 3D virtual reality platform. ...

Second Life and There have differentiated themselves from other by providing a social networking space and an economic framework for user-created content. Second Life has also begun opening up the architecture, turning it into a space in which users can freely develop content and interact for their own purposes and economic gain. This article is about a virtual world. ... There is a 3-D online virtual world created by Will Harvey and Jeffrey Ventrella. ... This article is about a virtual world. ...

Massively multiplayer online RPGs are also shifting towards Massively mutliplayer virtual environments, which are purposely taking the concept of "game" and "role playing" out of the mix. The intention is to suggest the metaverse is augmenting real life opposed to offering an outlet. “MMO” redirects here. ...

Recent developments

Current applications no longer claim to be the Metaverse. However, many are inspired by the vision and are exploring the potential of a 3D immersive virtual space from many angles. For example:

World of Warcraft (WoW) has been described as “the new golf”^[1] - where the young and affluent meet in a stereotyped environment and use it for real world business and social networking. World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ...

Second Life is a pioneering microcurrency based social and economic platform, where users own IP on their own creations, and are free to build their own spaces and communities. This article is about a virtual world. ... Micropayments are a proposed means for generating revenue while providing online content. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ...

The Croquet project takes the metaverse metaphor as a starting point for a new form of operating system^[2], that is built for the increasing power of modern computers, and does not have its foundations in the limitations of the previous century. Real time, interactive, 3D map of this very same world. ...

Google Earth is coming from the area of GIS and satellite imagery to build virtual structure on top of real earth data (cf downtown Tokyo). Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole, Inc. ... A geographic information system (GIS) is a system for managing data that has a spatial specialized form of an information system. ...

Even some 2D advances in social networking come under this umbrella. For example the mesh networking structure that underpins the One Laptop per Child operating system and its Sugar user interface, builds a desktop interface out from the principles of social connectivity. Image showing mesh network layout Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes. ... The Childrens Machine, also known as XO-1 and previously as the $100 Laptop, is a proposed inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children around the world, especially to those in developing countries, to provide them with access to knowledge and modern forms of education. ... Sugar is the name of the graphical interface being developed in 2006 for One Laptop per Childs Childrens machine project. ...

3D web

Virtual spaces are at the core of Web 2.0, and one recurring theme is that a metaverse will develop out of work to create a 3D web. The Metaverse Roadmap Summit in 2006-7 produced a 50-page public foresight report on 3D web developments that are moving us toward the Stephenson vision. ^[3] On September 30, 2005, OReilly wrote a piece summarizing the subject. ...

This transition is a real challenge facing modern MMORG style applications. However large their user base, none currently scale to the demands of a 3D Web. Second Life may have to change its business model significantly (towards financial and virtual asset management) if it is to go beyond its current architecture. P2P experiments such as Croquet may achieve the transition at the grassroots level. Virtual Real Worlds from MellaniuM Design[1] provide hi-poly/hi-res. environments for P2P and global access. A massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet. ... This article is about a virtual world. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...

Economics and regulation

Economic activity within virtual worlds cannot stay unregulated. The metaverse will likely not incorporate Barlow's vision of an independent cyberspace. ^[4] John Perry Barlow (born Jackson Hole, Wyoming, October 3, 1947) is an American poet, essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher, and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead. ...

The key development may be that of a global microcurrency platform. Inworld transactions have already gone from the Castronova observations in 2002^[5] of students paying for tuition through inworld activity, to a global market where work is done (and real income generated) by players in developing nations, and paid for out of the residual leisure income of people in wealthier nations. At present there are a small number of exchange points (e.g. Second Life's LindeX) where conversion to and from real currency can be regulated to avoid money laundering or other illegal financial transfers. Just as the internet comes into conflict with the real world with issues of freedom of information (cf the great firewall of China), applications that work towards the metaverse will come into conflict with fundamental areas of real world social and economic activity. Edward Castronova is Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University Bloomington as of fall 2004, previously Associate Professor of Economics in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton. ... This article is about a virtual world. ... The Peoples Republic of China has set up a system of Internet censorship in Mainland China. ...

Another possibility is not to use any conversion at all, but instead to use normal currency.

The social and economic impact of the metaverse was at the core of Stephenson's fiction, and is still an open question today. Will the massively multi-user metaverse architecture become a massively regulated architecture as the applications and infrastructure scale up to global metaverse dimensions, or will regulation be achieved in code ^[6]through open protocols and secure e-commerce layers. What does the framework for a massive virtual economic and social space look like? Who will control the metaverse?

Metaverse also refers to a content management system, ^[7].

References

1. ^ Is World of Warcraft the new golf?
2. ^ 2006 Croquet, System Overview
3. ^ 2006-7 Metaverse Roadmap (public foresight project)
4. ^ John Perry Barlow 1996 A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
5. ^ Edward Castronova, Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier
6. ^ Lawrence Lessig 2006 Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
7. ^ Metaverse Content Server