Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook believes that Metaverse is the next paradigm shift in computing. Let’s find out how the Metaverse will trigger the next paradigm shift in computer science.

Is the Metaverse Really the Next Paradigm Shift in Computing?

Metaverse, Paradigm Shift in Computing — Metaverse

Can the Metaverse completely change the way of working and aspects of personal life?

Mark Zuckerberg is a self-made billionaire, innovator and symbol of the “social” Internet. The appearance of Facebook under the name of FaceMash in 2003 and with the change to Facebook in 2004, laid the foundations of the technological empire that positioned it as one of the great minds of the 4.0 era

The rapid growth of the Facebook platform and the successive and successful purchases of others (Instagram and WhatsApp), allowed Zuckerberg to do business with other giants in the industry, such as Apple and Microsoft.

After a turbulent year, in which privacy and data use were under public scrutiny, he kicked the board again, rearranged the chips, and threw a concept inspired by science fiction on the table, but one that promises to herald the future of humanity: the metaverse.

The world is changing and our way of working must go hand in hand. Metaverse will radically change the way we work and do things in our personal lives. Meta is the new identity of the holding company that brings together all companies from Facebook to Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. Meta company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to human life.

He also notes that ” remote work offers the flexibility to work from anywhere, but that flexibility brings certain challenges, such as feelings of loneliness and a sense of isolation or difficulty concentrating when working due to the distractions of the home environment.”

That is why we will need better tools, which allow us to be more productive, to be present, and to stay connected with our colleagues without losing that flexibility. This is where virtual reality can offer a real sense of presence, favoring productivity and collaboration between people.

As ambitious as it sounds, the plan makes sense, at least considering the leaps in innovation in recent decades. Technological evolution reaches milestones every several years that forever revolutionize the world and the way in which people relate to each other.

Writing, newspapers, radio, mail, telegraph, telephone, television, and smartphone screens are the means by which humans communicate and interact with one another.

While the metaverse isn’t a concept created by Meta, it will be the one that flags this new era of change behind which will come a wave of companies that won’t want to be left out.

The technology that supports the metaverse vision as presented by Zuckerberg is still far on the horizon.

Although there are already virtual and augmented reality use cases (especially in the world of gaming), a large amount of technology and infrastructure will take between 5 and 10 years before it is a reality.

For that, infrastructure must transform with new technologies, hardware, and cooling specifications to support robust service, and build new equipment that includes holographic screens, projectors, batteries, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers and sensors, among others.

In essence, it is a profound change in the Internet in general. It is a different proposition to use the network and combine platforms into one concept: a digital world.

According to his vision, “the metaverse is not something that Facebook is inventing. It is a concept of science fiction and that a few years ago resonated in a very subtle way on the internet in general”.

Now, you can enter Facebook in a browser tab, use Whatsapp in another, or on the phone. At the same time, you can be playing with friends through a web platform or a console.

If we cross all that by adding virtual reality, instead of having tabs on a screen and actions that you command with a joystick, keyboard, or mouse, you can put on a headset and experience all of that.

Opportunities appear in this paradigm shift, both for companies and for users.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the metaverse would mean a business of US $800 billion by 2024. An impressive commercial panorama opens up for brands, which from now on should think about strategies that contemplate this ‘ hybridity ‘ of physical and digital worlds.

Likewise, according to a study by Wunderman Thompson accessed by iProUP, users will be able to access goods that will only exist in the metaverse: from works of art and clothing to properties that would sell for $76,000 on average.

Now, video game companies offer more potential than music or cinema. We were already able to access this experience in games like Fortnite or Roblox, in which brands like Ferrari or Hyundai joined these digital worlds. The great attraction in the case of gaming is the possibility of building engagement with highly loyal users.

Metaverse can be new ways of selling existing digital products, creating digital versions of physical items, improving audience relationships and engagement in remote or hybrid work processes, or providing services to companies marketing the metaverse space, among others.

When the change is so radical in the paradigms, traditional thinking does not help us to take advantage of the full potential generated by these innovations.

For all this vision to prosper, the work will have to be distributed among its main actors. Not only will companies like Meta have a fundamental role, but in this vision of a new ecosystem, users and content creators will play a leading role.

The entire industry will have to work on standards to make this an open platform, just like the Internet. The metaverse will be more like how the Internet works than how mobile phones work, where there are separate ecosystems and you can easily move between them.

The success of the metaverse depends on the construction of solid interoperability between services so that the experiences of different companies can work together. The metaverse cannot be built in any other way: making this the industry-wide standard will be a technical challenge, as well as reaching an agreement on it.

Several companies around the world will work on projects related to the new Studio, helping to build tools, technologies, and strategies that will allow clients to reinvent themselves and emerge as leaders in their industries.

Metaverses will open the “possibilities of reinvention ” to interactions between brands and consumers, as well as the growth of digital businesses: “It will be in these new spaces where companies will be able to extend their presence, offer and creativity, amplifying the participation of customers and employees.

The opportunities are as diverse as the number of industries that can benefit from the metaverse: rehearsing care protocols to return to the office and estimate their effectiveness; creating a new work plant and knowing how many resources and time it will require, even designing new cities and anticipate investment in infrastructure.

Meta today is the main exponent and who is directing the journey. The rest, Microsoft, Adobe, Twitter, and Google, will start thinking about how to integrate into the metaverse or create their own that can integrate with the Meta and with each other.