This is because the Metaverse will not fundamentally replace the internet, but rather build on it and iteratively transform it. The best metaphor here is the mobile internet, which is the “quasi-successor” to the internet built from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although the mobile internet has not changed the underlying architecture of the internet—in fact, the vast majority of internet traffic today, including data sent to mobile devices, is still transmitted and managed over fixed infrastructure—we still think of it as iteratively different. This is because the mobile internet has changed how, where, when, and why we access the internet, as well as the devices we use, the companies we sponsor, and the products and services we purchase.
The Metaverse will be similarly transformative as it too will advance and change the role of computers and the internet in our lives.
Fixed-line internet in the 1990s and early 2000s inspired many canada mobile database of us to buy our own personal computer. However, the device was largely isolated to our office, living room, or bedroom. As a result, we could only occasionally access and use computing resources and internet connectivity. Mobile internet has led to most people around the world buying their own personal computer and internet service, meaning that nearly everyone has continuous access to computing and connectivity.
The Metaverse works by placing everyone inside an “embodied,” “virtual,” or “3D” version of the Internet and iterating further on an almost endless basis. In other words, we will always be “inside” the Internet, rather than having access to it, in the billions of interconnected computers around us, rather than occasionally touching them, and together with all the other users and in real time.