The Age of Enlightenment

Circa 2050. The climate crisis had been averted. The epidemics had ended. There was total nuclear disarmament. The world had peace at last. There were no nations and religion had been long abandoned by all. There was but one world and everyone lived to be a hundred.

Photo by Nathan Duck on Unsplash

This world had been taken over by a self-regulated and autonomous artificial intelligence grid in 2040 after years of gradual ceding of all decision-making to it by the governments of the world who realized that their nations were much better run by machines that ran on ever-evolving artificial intelligence or AI algorithms. In ten years’ time, the AI grid had re-ordered the world in a manner designed to bring about the age of enlightenment on Earth.

Life for the average family (almost everybody was part of an average family now) was pretty good. They woke up to the sunlight streaming in through large glass windows, with the blinds or curtains having been drawn open automatically by an AI-controlled home system. Everyone would wake up to the sound of soothing music playing into their ears at the precise time their bodies had received their required quota of sleep time.

A typical family would gather together to sit at the eating table to be served the right kind of customized breakfast that suited their body type by the AI-powered system.  Every member of the family would leave their homes at the designated time for work or school which would involve their not moving out of their houses, but entering a virtual world present in the metaverse.

At lunchtime, they would exit the metaverse and head to the eating table again where they would eat a hearty and healthy plant-based meal, which would be delivered to their homes by autonomous aerial vehicles that would source it from urban farms created inside tall vertical buildings that would nurture various food crops in a perfectly controlled environment.

The family members would reenter the metaverse to finish their pending assignments and leave it in the evening. They would next be directed by the AI system-appointed flying nanobots to leave their homes and head to the neighbourhood park for their daily physical activity regime, where they would be encouraged to socially engage with other people present.

After some time, the families would return home to a sumptuous dinner replete with all the nutrition required at the end of the day, prepared by robots connected to the AI grid. After dinner, the family would sit together to typically play a simulated 3D board game or catch an immersive 3D movie for some relaxation and bonding. Soon, it would be bedtime with the AI grid dimming the lights and playing soothing music to help the family gently fall asleep for the exact number of designated hours.

Were the people happy in this world? Would you call this an age of enlightenment? For aeons, mankind had aspired to a world where total peace and harmony prevailed and people lived long and healthy lives which saw them fruitfully employed and their families well looked after. Now that they had got there, were they happy?

What is enlightenment? A phenomenon where humankind lives by reason and logic and used science to achieve universal progress. Going by that line of argument the people did indeed live in an age of enlightenment. But then who was deciding what was reasonable, logical, and scientific for them? Wasn’t individual freedom and the right of everyone to take autonomous decisions at the core of what is human existence?

Who would produce literature, make movies and write great plays of human dramas? The AI-powered machines could only use past human experiences stored in their archives to create content for human consumption, both for entertainment and education. But what about new human experiences? Would those be human experiences or machine-induced human experiences? What would leave that of humans that is human? They would be cyborgs, part machine and part human. Indeed, the machines might decide to make them immortal! Wither ethics and morality then?

With people and machines potentially combining their abilities to help the former enhance and augment their physical, cognitive, and sensory capabilities using cybernetic implants, prosthetics, and a gamut of other ultra-futuristic technologies that allow for a brain and computer interface, the humans would possibly once again control the machines that controlled them. Alternatively, they may share a more cooperative, mutually advantageous symbiotic relationship and evolve into something beyond one’s limited imagination. They may become gods or they may become demons.

 

 

 

What’s the big fuss about the metaverse?

Photo by Julien Tromeur on Unsplash

  

Everybody is talking about the metaverse these days, especially since Mark Zuckerberg made a lot of noise about how he sees this new phenomenon enter and take hold of our lives like nothing we have known hitherto or are likely to know in the future. Experts and specialists, not to speak of laypeople have expounded how it is the new frontier to be explored by humans and spelt out their pet theories about how enabling and useful it is or how much of a dystopian nightmare it is likely to be. 

 

What Exactly is the Metaverse? 

 

The term metaverse is the creation of sci-fi author Neal Stephenson who used it in his 1992 book, Snowcrash in which he created a world where avatars meet and interact with each other in a virtual reality environment.

Well, it so happened as is often the case-life imitated art or in this instance, real science imitated science fiction and many scientific and technological developments later we have a real metaverse- an online virtual universe which leverages the abilities of virtual reality, augmented reality, 3-D holographic avatars as well as video and other ways of communicating to help create an almost as-good- as-real world for one to inhabit alongside the actual real one.

Proponents of the metaverse believe that such a world would allow one to do all the important things that one does in the real world- working, entertaining and communicating with friends as well as attending concerts, and travelling virtually to wherever one fancies. 

The Metaverse Exists 

 

The metaverse existed much before Zuckerberg explained its virtues to the world last year. Liden Lab came up with Second Life, an online virtual way of life back in 1992. 2003 saw the launch of Roblox, an online platform that enabled users to create and share games. This was followed by Bitcoin in 2006, the world’s very first successful cryptocurrency. In 2014 came Decentraland’s first edition of an online virtual world.

 

Then there was the iconic augmented reality-based Pokémon Go that came out in 2015. Fortnite, the multiplayer game cum social hub with its virtual concerts and tours was introduced in 2016. Axie Infinity the well-known virtual reality game about training as well as trading in mythical creatures made its debut in 2018 Microsoft announced Mesh a platform that enables virtual collaboration across many devices in April 2021. For the most part, however, gaming platforms like Mirandus, Sandbox and Decentraland typify the metaverse as it exists today.

  

How Will it Unfold?

While the jury is out about how the metaverse is going to impact us as it evolves and permeates every aspect of our lives in the years to come, the fact that it will change and grow is something of a foregone conclusion. The very fact that Zuckerberg decided to rename his iconic Facebook to Meta, tells you something about how much importance some very smart people accord to the metaverse and its ability to impact our lives in a seminal manner.

As a precursor of things to come, Facebook launched Workrooms, a platform for employees to attend virtual meetings in the shape of digital cartoon-like avatars by donning VR headsets. The only catch-the avatars haven’t yet been given legs. Gaming platform Roblox on the other hand has enabled virtual concerts performed by artists like Zara Larsson that have been attended by millions across the world-some even in nondescript towns no one has ever heard of. 

 

It is not just Facebook and Microsoft who are very gung- ho about the tremendous business enabling potential of the metaverse. The times ahead are likely going to see a lot of metaverse companies open shop, just like the advent of the Internet gave rise to a host of internet businesses that earlier went by the name of dot com companies. Just like it is de rigueur for all businesses to have a digital presence, one could see a metaverse strategy becoming an integral part of any company’s marketing plan. Already companies like Nike are looking at showcasing their products in the metaverse. 

 

The metaverse is essentially the future of the internet and like it, is likely to permeate every aspect of our lives in the foreseeable future. An amalgamation of a host of technologies that range from VR, AR and XR (extended reality) to edge computing, 5G, AI, new age internet satellite networks, GPUs and so on, the metaverse is going to radically alter the paradigm of the digital world as we currently know it.

It will impact every aspect of our lives in ways we probably won’t even begin to comprehend at this time. You can be sure that it will radically alter the way diverse sectors like manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, education, retail, entertainment, content creation and much more function and operate right now. 

What’s there to not like about the metaverse? 

 

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos

  

There is an awful lot of noise about the metaverse that has enveloped the world leaving many to wonder in awe what this new universe is all about and whether they have anything to fear from it. With the endorsement that it has received from the ever-controversial Zuckerberg and the fact that Microsoft plonked a mind-numbing $68.7 billion to acquire the video game Activision Blizzard a lot of people are genuinely worried about what the future holds for them in a world that seems more and more like what they show in the Matrix movie series. 

But do we need to fear the metaverse? There are many who would suggest that we indeed need to worry about what the future would hold for us if the metaverse would indeed become mainstream. They fear that it would eventually assume complete control of every aspect of its users rather than the other way round. The ability of this synthetically created universe to shape and direct daily life is to be deeply feared, according to them. Many believe and indeed dread that whoever controls the metaverse-corporations or governments, would exercise a vice-like grip over how people conduct their lives. 

The question is-are the fears justified? While there is certainly a case for exercising caution and placing safeguards to prevent its misuse, it is at the end of the day one more technology or a group of technologies that promises to bring about unprecedented improvements in the lives of people. Every such pathbreaking technology ranging from trains and telephones to television and aeroplanes was feared when it first made an appearance. But these fears proved largely groundless.  

While every successful technology may have some negatives associated with it, the capacity to infinitely changes mankind’s lot for the better invariably far outweighs any reservations about adopting it. Fearing change or anything new is human nature and there are those who even refuse the vaccine for Covid-19! The metaverse is undoubtedly a fascinating concept that holds tremendous promise in the coming years. We need to understand it, not fear it.