Life & Living:  In the Metaverse.

If you are trying to understand the Metaverse, it’s an evolving concept, one that is not well defined, and one that I don’t fully grasp.  For example, I don’t get the “so what” of VR, AR, and avatars.  But then, I’m not a gamer; a lot of tech sees its invention and 1st adoption in gaming.  So, maybe I will get it.

Nevertheless, I think I’ve been living in early versions of the Metaverse for a long time.  Maybe you too.

I became aware that I was living in a virtual world in 1996.  Daughter Emily was a freshman at Vanderbilt.  I likened her going off to college as a reverse birth experience.  One day Emily wasn’t in my life and then, overnight, from the day she was born, she was in my physical world essentially 24X7 for 17 years.  And then, from the day we left her in Nashville, she was not in my physical world for extended periods.  Talk about cold-turkey Emily withdrawal! 

But Emily was in my virtual world.  I tried to call Emily every day, typically during my 1-hour commute at 7 or 8 in the evening.  Sometimes just a brief check-in … sometimes a wide-ranging discussion with a cherished and interesting friend.  After I guess about 2 months, she decided to come home for a weekend.  I picked her up at Newark airport on a Friday evening.  This is in the era when you could meet an arriving passenger at the gate.  So, there I was as she walked off the plane, with her dazzling smile and as pretty and stylish as ever.  She was in my physical world again.  But as we hugged and started to talk, I had the strangest reaction.  It was like we hadn’t been physically apart for months; it was as if I had seen her yesterday.  I think we were living in an early version of the Metaverse thanks, perhaps gratuitously, to the miracle and gift of my life’s work in telecommunications network operations and technology.

Fast forward to today.  With advances in video, social media, etc., I live in a much-improved Metaverse. 

When I was a kid, my world was small, maybe just Western Maryland.  Then jobs at headquarters for global enterprises and business travel expanded my world to, well, the whole world:  Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Sao Paolo, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, and Milan, to name a few. 

Now as a semi-retired x-road warrior worn out from all that travel, my world would likely shrink.  But, thanks to the Metaverse, my world is as big as ever.  A good thing. 

I can stay current and connected with friends and colleagues, all over the world and more frequently.  Another good thing.  (But quick to note, the relationships with my friends and colleagues were born and blossomed in the physical world.  Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t think of one close relationship born in the virtual world … and I have no inter-avatar relationships.)

I used to buy things from local merchants and people I knew, often based on their recommendations.  Now, in the current version of the Metaverse, I mainly buy “brands” from machines, assisted by reviews and ratings from anonymous strangers.  Selection is certainly bigger, but sometimes to the point of being overwhelming if not paralyzing.  Maybe prices are better.  A good thing?

It will be interesting to see how the Metaverse … and you and I … evolve.