Metaverse Technologies: History
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Contributor:
Martin Wynn
,
Peter Jones

The metaverse as a concept is not new, having been introduced in the sci-fi novel Snow Crash over 30 years ago. The metaverse is widely discussed and is generally seen to be the next “big thing” in the application of technology in business and society. A wide range of digital technologies will be deployed in the metaverse, bringing increased focus on corporate digital responsibilities that will likely require government regulation.

  • metaverse
  • corporate digital responsibility
  • CDR
  • regulation
  • digital technologies

1. Concept and Definition

There is little by way of a consensus on how the metaverse should be defined, which is partly due to the continuing evolution of its constituent technologies, but a small sample of working definitions of the metaverse is provided here, and some of its perceived characteristics are discussed. Conceptualising the metaverse and how it will work in practice is challenging. Tucci [1] (paras. 1–2) offers the following vision of the future:
“Imagine a virtual world where billions of people live, work, shop, learn and interact with each other—all from the comfort of their couches in the physical world. In this world, the computer screens we use today to connect to a worldwide web of information have become portals to a 3D virtual realm that’s palpable—like real life, only bigger and better. Digital facsimiles of ourselves, or avatars, move freely from one experience to another, taking our identities and our money with us”.
This, however, remains just a vision, and it remains unclear as to how it will develop in practice. McKinsey [2] (para. 4) sees the metaverse as “best characterized as an evolution of today’s internet—it is something we are immersed in instead of something we look at. It may realize the promise of vast digital worlds to parallel our physical one”. More starkly, in addressing “responsibly strategizing the metaverse”, Marabelli and Newell [3] (para. 3) argued that “the immersive and potentially ubiquitous and pervasive characteristics of this technology hold strategic implications for organizations, and have the potential to change the future of work and society”. Deloitte [4] (p. 6) set out three possibilities regarding how the metaverse may develop by the early 2030s. The more conservative (basic) assessment is that the metaverse “excels for the things it’s good at, but never becomes a general-purpose platform”, and remains “a speciality market for specific uses that will complement but not replace other technologies”. A more sophisticated (intermediate) possibility would see multiple metaverses in which there are “a handful of major players vying for share of a dynamic marketplace”, and “a mainstream market for many applications but split among the next generation of tech leaders”. Finally, the most advanced (dominant) perspective envisions “an open, interoperable metaverse”, which becomes “the dominant interface through which we conduct most of our daily activities”, and entails “the full migration of today’s internet and more into an immersive world in which most businesses and consumers operate”.
It is thus not surprising that the definitions of the metaverse differ or are couched in rather vague terms. Mystakidis [5] (p. 486) offers a brief definition, namely “the metaverse is a post-reality universe, a perpetual and persistent multiuser environment merging physical reality with digital virtuality”, whilst for PWC [6] (para. 5) “the metaverse promises a stunningly realistic 3D digital world where you can do almost anything that you can in the real world—and more besides……. one day the metaverse won’t run on platforms whose owners control data, governance and transactions. Instead, customers (and businesses) will be able to take their identities, currencies, experiences and assets anywhere they wish”.

2. Metaverse Technologies and Business Applications

Mager and Matheson [7] (para. 3) see the metaverse as “a confluence of technologies that allow new forms of experience and engagement across industries through 3D activity and the use of simulations based on artificial intelligence”. Underpinning the metaverse are a range of technologies—a “technology stack”—that are generally viewed as facilitating the metaverse (Figure 1). The metaverse space is made possible by the new, decentralised iteration of the Internet called Web3 [8], which provides access to a range of digital technologies that support the metaverse–blockchain [9], the Internet of Things [10], spatial and edge computing [11], artificial intelligence [12], 3D modelling software [13], extended reality [14], and brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) [15] (Table 1). However, as Pratt and Daniel [16] (para. 18) point out, “the technology is simply not ready to support a fully immersive and shared metaverse—interoperability, computing power, software protocols, networking capacity and the degree of sophistication don’t exist to create a true metaverse today—and it may never get there”. McKinsey [2] (para. 8), however, is more optimistic, noting “constant improvements in computing power allow larger virtual worlds to exist. Cloud and edge computing let intensive large-data processes, such as graphics rendering, move off local devices. The rapid adoption of 5G is enabling mobile devices to access these large worlds more easily and with lower latency. And the cost of production for augmented- and virtual-reality hardware is declining”.
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Figure 1. The metaverse technology stack and application areas.
Table 1. The technologies supporting the metaverse.
Digital Technology Role in the Metaverse
Web3 [8] The new version of the World Wide Web, still in development, that will provide the window into the metaverse, using blockchain and artificial intelligence to support operations in both the physical and virtual worlds.
Brain–computer interfaces [15] Still largely under development, these will replace or augment extended reality interfaces and provide more direct brain-to-computer connectivity.
Extended reality [14] Extended reality technologies (AR, VR and MR) will be used to provide user access to the virtual side of the metaverse. Headsets and glasses will provide users with virtual reality experiences that parallel the physical world.
3D modelling [13] Three-dimensional modelling technologies will be used to create the virtual world images, products and other objects.
Artificial intelligence (AI) [12] AI will be integral to the robotics functions in the metaverse, including chatbots and avatars. AI will also have wider applications to support human activities.
Spatial/edge computing [11] IoT and other data will be processed in real-time to provide the information that supports the physical and virtual worlds and oils the metaverse machinery.
Internet of Things (IoT) [10] A full range of devices, monitors and controllers for data collection within the physical and virtual environments.
Blockchain [9] Blockchain technology will support cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, providing the secure and immutable storage of digital property, payments and other transactions.
In outlining the commercial capabilities of the metaverse, Accenture [17] emphasised the future role and importance of the metaverse in imagining, designing and delivering innovative extended reality experiences, in using blockchain to drive resilience across supply chains, to facilitate trust [18], verify digital identity, and build new revenue models, in digital engineering and manufacturing, and in technology innovation. More specifically, Pratt [19] identified a number of possible areas of application in the metaverse, not only in business operations [20], but also in education and training [21], customer experiences [22], work meetings [23], healthcare [24] and marketing [2] (Figure 1).
In terms of the impact on work meetings, Choder [23] (para. 6) notes that “the metaverse could allow people from around the globe to come together in one space (albeit online) in ways that were previously unobtainable or prohibitively costly”. More specifically, as regards customer experience, Purdy [22] (para. 1) claims that “the metaverse presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent the consumer experience”, and identified three ways in which this could unfold: firstly “ by creating new ways to discover and explore products”; secondly “ by helping to fuse physical and virtual product experiences in more meaningful ways”, and thirdly “by reestablishing connections between people and brands through ‘digital humans’—AI-powered bots that can interact with users in virtual environments”. In a similar vein, McKinsey [2], in discussing the potential of the metaverse for marketeers, suggests that “for marketers, the metaverse represents an opportunity to engage consumers in entirely new ways while pushing internal capabilities and brand innovation in new directions” (para. 4).

3. Risks, Responsibilities and Regulation

Nichols [25] (para. 1) notes that “when companies and users decide to adapt the technologies of the coming metaverse, they will also expose themselves to a new class of security risks and vulnerabilities”. Research into who is to take responsibility for the metaverse is still in its infancy, and is emerging from a variety of disciplines, including information science, law, and systems engineering. Rosenberg [26] suggested that, as major corporations have begun investing billions to deploy immersive worlds, proposals for its regulation will soon be required. More specifically, he claimed that the fundamental risks were the monitoring, manipulation and the monetisation of users. Pratt and Daniel [16] (para. 32) take a broader perspective on the risks involved in the metaverse, and provide “just a short list” including “environmental concerns; cybersecurity issues; legal issues; sexual harassment and other forms of harassment; privacy issues; scams; misinformation; and effects on mental health, including lowered self-esteem and increased feelings of isolation”.
Charamba [27] (p. 110) argued that “the dawn of metaverses” could mean that “BigTech control over our digital lives could be all consuming”, and we be could be “ensconced in digital, state-like walled gardens that are controlled by a handful of companies wielding sovereign-like authority”. This leads Charamba [27] to question how we can understand corporate responsibility in relation to human rights in a digital environment, and he discusses the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and proposes a corporate responsibility to respect and protect digital human rights. In exploring the sustainability of the metaverse, De Giovanni [28] further suggested that companies should not exclusively focus on the metaverse merely as a booster to enhance economic performance, but rather that they should carefully evaluate its role in terms of its environmental effects and social goals. In illustrating his argument that taking a responsible digitalisation approach seems to be quite urgent, De Giovanni [28] asserts that environmentally, the metaverse will entail an interesting trade-off, because it demands a high level of energy consumption. At the same time, while the metaverse favours social interactions within the digital world, an attendant decline in social interactions in the real world may have psychological implications.
Schobel and Leimeinster [29] claimed that the creation of metaverse ecosystems and integrated platforms results in different responsibilities for complementors/service providers, consumers, platform owners, and orchestrators, who handle the transfer of one platform into other ecosystems. However, in mapping out the complex dynamic nature of the metaverse, Schobel and Leimeinster [29] argued not only that the responsibilities of these four groups will be continually changing, but also that it is important to rethink governance structures. Here, a distinction is made between governance by the metaverse and the governance of the metaverse, with the former involving rules to guide the behaviours of all stakeholders, while the latter involves things that cannot be programmed, such as in the real world, where rules can be broken.
In addressing the social and ethical challenges of the metaverse, Benjamins et al. [30] suggested that the potential negative consequences of the massive use of technology demanded attention. Here, the metaverse was seen not only to face a range of technical, legal, business, economic, security, and user experience challenges, but also to face risks stemming from deliberately malicious, usually forbidden, actions, and from the unintended consequences of supposedly innocent actions. The authors look to learn from the experiences of artificial intelligence in identifying direct and indirect challenges. The direct challenges of the metaverse are those that companies can handle by themselves, and those that require government involvement, while indirect challenges refer to problems that begin to surface after some time, and were mainly unseen at the time of market launch. Benjamins et al. [30] also suggested that the metaverse could exacerbate existing mental health and liberty challenges, as well as “dual world” challenges, in that, if people spend ever more time in virtual worlds, they may become less sensitive to the consequences of their actions in the real world.
In turning to regulation, Rosenberg [26] effectively assumes that companies will not adopt trusted norms that would eliminate risks without government oversight, not least because the history of social media suggests that self-regulation, while often espoused by large and powerful corporations, may not be effective when implemented. He also argues that it is unrealistic to expect consumers to simply opt-out of the metaverse to avoid violations of their privacy and other abuses, not least because metaverse platforms could be one of the primary access points to digital content. Furthermore, Rosenberg [26] suggests that some level of government regulation will be required to prevent the exploitation of users within the metaverse. Such regulatory measures could include restricting both the monitoring and the emotional analysis of metaverse users, and restricting both virtual product placements and virtual personas within the metaverse.
Figure 2 depicts the main risks and range of responsibilities associated with the metaverse evidenced in the extant literature reviewed earlier. It is clear that many of these issues are inter-related and need to be treated accordingly, in a comprehensive manner. 
 

Figure 2. Risks (grey-shaded) and main elements of CDR in the metaverse.

4. Summary

Consideration of the responsibilities associated with the development of the metaverse and the issues surrounding them, raises as many, perhaps more, questions than it answers. While many companies may initially look to focus their strategic thinking on creating immersive marketing opportunities, expanding audience engagement, and digital advertising, if companies lose sight of their strategic responsibilities for the metaverse, and in so doing lose consumers’ trust, then they may find it increasingly difficult to reap the potential business benefits claimed for the metaverse. 

Future research could profitably look into how companies are addressing their responsibilities for the metaverse. While a wide range of specific research avenues might be identified, two general themes would seem to stand out. On the one hand, it is important to develop a theoretical framework to help to locate corporate responsibility for the metaverse within the wider business and social context, and to provide a framework to underpin what will surely be a diverse and rapidly growing body of research work on corporate responsibilities for the metaverse. On the other hand, a variety of empirical studies might profitably explore how companies are addressing, introducing, and reporting on their responsibilities for the metaverse, and on consumers’ awareness, and understanding, of how companies are discharging such responsibilities.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/knowledge3040035

References

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