The development of current technology now shows very rapid growth. The state of the world today demonstrates the high level of civilization and technology humans possess. In the 1990s, computers were a sophisticated and expensive technology. At that time, the form of computers was still prominent and portable computers (PC).
In the middle and towards the end of 1990, laptops began to enter the market with their large, heavy, and expensive forms. However, since the 2000s, the shape of laptops has changed to mini, light, and cheap; until now, tablets have appeared that can function as laptops. Likewise with mobile phones, in the 1990s, mobile phones were exclusive and expensive items. Even at that time, the shape of mobile phones was still large and thick, and the service cost was still expensive.
However, nowadays, mobile phones are starting to be smaller and thinner; there is a variety of sophisticated and cheap software, even free, using touchscreen technology, with network services being affordable too.
This rapid technological change started from the Industrial Revolution (IR), which began in the 1760s, until today, which has entered IR4.0, and even some countries have prepared to enter IR5.0. The Covid-19 pandemic caused many industries to “fall out.” It shows that many industries need to be stronger and are vulnerable to the economic crisis. The Covid-19 disaster brings negative and positive effects in the form of new technology and corporate culture aimed at survival.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the internet plays a critical role, especially in supporting work and school from home. Online meeting technology such as ZOOM, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams became popular during the Covid-19 pandemic until today after pandemic. The increase in the use of online activities has led to the existence of new technologies in the use of the internet that are interactive. One of the modern internet-based technologies that started to develop today is Metaverse.
What is Metaverse?
The term Metaverse is still entirely foreign among the general public today. Only those involved in technological activities know it. Metaverse is still not popular because the amount and form of Metaverse software is still small. In addition, Metaverse technology has yet to be actively used in business and education.
Metaverse is an evolution in the internet world. Metaverse is a “portal” to the digital world. The presence of the metaverse opens up the opportunity to expand the digital world that has been present in fiction films. Let’s imagine, activities in the real world are transferred to the digital world. We can work, study, travel, watch movies, concerts, and sports competitions without being physically present, but all these activities can be done virtually.
Computers, software and the internet are necessary to enter the digital world. The presence of the metaverse will open vast opportunities for advancing computing technology and super-speed internet networks. The development of metaverse supporting software in Web 3.0 e-Metaverse technology and high-speed internet construction at low cost. The structure of this technology will open up opportunities for the development of satellite and smart material technology. Can you imagine when you take a cooking course in the Metaverse, at the same time, you can smell the delicious cooking and even taste the cuisine. For that, support equipment is needed for smell and taste sensors connected to the computer and Metaverse system.
One of the current famous proponents of Metaverse technology is Avatar. Avatars are interactive figures widely used in games and Social Media. Avatars are one of the essential components of the Metaverse, whose future expansion will resemble the actual existence of its owner. This Avatar will be representative of its owner in the digital world. This Avatar development will involve multimedia, animation, and drawing skills.
Where Does the Metaverse Apply?
Metaverse will be one of the crucial components in the effort to change the world as we move towards the digital world. Metaverse began to gain attention after Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, branded his company to Meta in October 2021 and invested approximately $10 billion in capital to develop Metaverse technology. After that, big tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Qualcomm have invested billions of dollars in this technology. Metaverse is expected to improve the world economy by 2030, especially in online business, marketing, office, education, research, logistics, entertainment, and games.
The presence of digital currency, cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, makes the company of the Metaverse increasingly essential to create a digital world in the future. Metaverse will be a platform for several internet applications such as digital shares, e-shopping, and e-concert to support and help accelerate the development of Metaverse.
Metaverse technology is believed to enter the political field in the future. Political parties and candidates for elected representatives will invest in digital politics through Metaverse. Election campaigns can be more economical through Metaverse. The services of elected representatives can be more effective, and citizens can connect with their elected representatives faster through Metaverse. People can also evaluate the performance of their representatives, both in Parliament and in the State, through Metaverse. Even the people can actively monitor the performance of the Central and State governments through Metaverse. You should also not be surprised when the digital country appears later because the supporting components for that direction are available now, although they must be perfected.
Metaverse is sure also to enter the health business, such as Clinic Digital. Can you imagine when you are sick, you don’t have to bother to come to a clinic or hospital to see a doctor? You connect with your doctor through Metaverse, and the doctor will be able to check your illness with the help of health sensors connected to computer equipment and the Metaverse system on your computer. After the doctor discovers your condition and prescribes medicine to the nearest digital pharmacy to your home, you must wait until the drug is delivered to your home; very easy.
For those of you who want to buy food at a restaurant or eatery, you can interact directly with the seller or cook, see the food you want to buy, and even smell or feel the taste of the food you will buy through restaurant digital in Metaverse. Very unusual.
If you want to travel abroad, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy plane fare or book a hotel room, you use Metaverse, and you can visit the places you and your family want to see even if you can feel the fantastic sea breeze or the mountains there, the smell of snow, the warmth of the sun on the beach.
You don’t have to leave the house if you want to visit a library or bookstore to read or buy a book. You enter the digital book store / digital library worldwide through Metaverse and are free to read or buy books worldwide while enjoying a warm cup of coffee at home.
You can also enjoy a classical music concert from your bedroom or family room without coming to the venue. It can be realized thanks to the help of Metaverse technology.
Metaverse is also crucial to protect and preserve the environment. Special sensors connected to computer equipment and Metaverse systems and placed on trees in the forest, in the ground, areas containing natural resources, monitor animals, trees, living creatures, and natural resources found underwater will help the government and related agencies as well as companies and researchers in the field of the environment to monitor, study, exploit and care for it.
The presence of current 3D printer technology will help speed up the digitization process, especially when this 3D printer technology has developed into a technology that is easier to operate, fastest printing, uses smart materials and is cheap. If you buy shoes online, you usually must wait a few days to receive your order. However, using metaverse technology and 3D printers, you can receive your order in just a few minutes.
The presence of Metaverse technology will also affect logistics management and operations in the future. The logistics industry may only need a few trucks or aeroplanes to deliver ordered items. They need more sophisticated printers and high-speed internet networks in every home to provide their customers with ordered items. Inservice will no longer be required because a solid avatar has replaced it.
The Metaverse Technology
Metaverse technology is generally a digital ecosystem built using various types of digital technology such as 3D modelling & reconstruction, the internet, artificial intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), brain-computer interfaces, blockchain, and so on.
Several factors affect Metaverse’s work system to the maximum by future users. Among them are operability, data portability, internet speed level, ease of application management and use, support equipment, computer hardware quality, and user-friendliness.
Metaverse is predicted in the next five years – seven years will develop very fast and start changing the face of the world, from the real world to the digital world. Human life becomes more dynamic, practical, and simple, a more expansive living space without limits, and humans will begin to build a new life that has never been imagined today: a digital life.
It is expected that by 2030, construction and progress in the digital world will be faster than in the real world. Unsurprisingly, many large companies will invest less in physical buildings in a few years, and they will invest in modern digital office systems in the form of Metaverse. We should also not be surprised if later factories will be operated and controlled from home. This situation will help reduce and save the company’s operational costs significantly.
The Metaverse Companies
Currently, only some other companies are involved in developing Metaverse technology. Three well-known software vendors have their metaverse visions nowadays. The three companies are:
Meta. Meta Platforms Inc. is owned by technology billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, who is known as the owner of Facebook. In October 2021, it rebranded its Facebook company name to the Metaverse. The company aims to accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, including social platforms and creative tools, required to “bring the metaverse to life.”
Epic Games. Epic Games is a company that is popular with Fortnite games. The Epic Games’ vision of the Metaverse differs from Meta’s in that it wants to provide a communal space for users to interact with each other and brands.
Microsoft. The metaverse is coming to Microsoft Teams, the software giant’s online meetings competitor to Zoom. The new service lets Teams users in different physical locations join collaborative and shared holographic experiences during virtual meetings. The platform includes a suite of AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, and synchronization across multiple users, which lets users reconstruct and transmit high-quality 3D models of people in real-time).
The Pros and Cons of The Metaverse
The presence of the Metaverse brings positive and negative effects. Like modern technology, the company of Metaverse technology brings pros and cons among experts, developers, educators, and the community. There are several pros and cons of the presence of Metaverse, as follows:
The Pros
- Reduce the company’s operational costs
- Reduce building infrastructure costs
- Creating and providing alternative new job opportunities
- Accelerate the advancement of digital technology
- Work flexibility
- Save time and work efficiency
- Increase work productivity
- Improve digital shopping technology
- Accelerating and improving the preservation of nature through Metaverse technology
- Improve the quality of the healthcare system
The cons
- Increasing the cost of Internet use
- Increase the cost of hardware and software supporting the use of the metaverse.
- Causing the existence of new diseases related to digital, especially among children
- Security issues of increasingly complex network systems
- The rise of high-level cybercrime
- Increase consumerism
- Causes addiction
- Increase the cost of living
- Requires high price for the digital infrastructure
- Requires high price to develop the metaverse system & content
The Using of Metaverse Today and Future
Metaverse technology was first introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The current situation is very supportive; many employees cannot physically work in the office, and many students cannot attend school. Most workers and students do work and learn online from home.
The presence of the Metaverse is believed to change human life in the future from the real world to the digital world. Although nowadays, the Metaverse has yet to become famous so, there are still very open opportunities for the medium to significant technology and games industry to get involved in this Metaverse business. In addition, software and hardware developers and enthusiasts have a vast opportunity to exploit and develop Metaverse technology.
The phenomenon in the future is expected that companies will start investing in digital infrastructure instead of physical infrastructure such as office buildings. Suppose the company needs to develop a physical infrastructure. In that case, the company prefers to build a factory that produces products while the operational and management office is digital.
The game industry is one of the most active industries using Metaverse technology today, for example, Roblox (Microsoft), Fortnite (Epic Games), and Decentraland. This digital game is expected to grow in tandem with the development of the technology supporting the Metaverse.
The education industry is one of the industries that have the opportunity to increase the application of Metaverse technology. In the future, it is expected that the learning process will not use physical infrastructure but digital infrastructure. It causes operational costs in schools and campuses to be significantly reduced, and the learning burden among students and parents can also be reduced. Metaverse technology also allows all communities to follow lifelong learning more quickly and cheaply. This technology also helps the government to encourage and improve the quantity and quality of learning for its people.
Realistic avatar is one of the supporting technologies of the Metaverse that is being developed and developed by current technology companies. Realistic avatars are hologram-shaped avatars that look real in the real world and can perform human-like activities, for example working as an office secretary, planning staff, or financial team. The development of solid-shaped hologram avatars that can perform actions such as holding, writing, and lifting objects is a future technology that technology companies will develop to support the development and maximum use of this Metaverse technology.
Many companies are currently trying to develop and apply the Metaverse in their activities, such as training, running the company’s daily operations, new technology applications, work system integration, product planning, and production, company financial system management, and producing new hardware and software technologies as supporters of the Metaverse.
Conclusion
Metaverse technology is a future technology that will transform the real world into a digital world. Although nowadays, few technology companies are serious about entering the Metaverse business, it is a new opportunity for technology industry players, both companies and individuals, to start preparing their skills and take this Metaverse business opportunity seriously.
