Primer to Metaverse: What is it and what it means for your work life?

Web 3.0 and its adventures

Dear subscribers,

I got a chance to meet and connect with some of you in Delhi. In the coming months, I will be in your city and look forward to catching up in person. Last week we wrote about the future of offline events and in-person meetups in a world where the metaverse would be an integral component of our lives.

Now let’s explore the M word.

Why is metaverse?

Science fiction has played a pivotal role in the evolution of technology. The term “metaverse” was coined by writer Neal Stephenson in his book Snow Crash way back in 1992. He described a virtual world experienced by users equipped with augmented reality glasses. His idea was taken a step further in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Cline conceptualized a fully formed immersive digital world that exists way beyond the world of atoms we inhabit. When these ideas were first advanced, a small segment of techies gravitated towards it. Others ignored it as things seemed far fetched. At a time when the internet was barely known, very few people had the foresight to visualize immersive experiences.

3 decades out, almost all major tech companies are trying to shape this elusive techno-utopian vision.