It is not clear how soon metaverses will be commonly used for gaming, commerce or other content use cases. It is safe to argue that some platforms providing realism and a three-dimensional representation of reality could come much sooner.
As we experiment, it also is possible that the movement towards higher realism will be set back, as when people on a video conference use avatars instead of a live image. Still, as a rule, the advantage of any of the technologies underlying the metaverse is "greater realism."
In some cases that also applies to the ability to model changes to any system if one or more parameters are changed. It is safer and a better use of deployed capital to conduct a "what if" experiment not on an actual real world system but on its virtual twin.
Digital twins seem ideally suited for many industrial use cases, for example. Real-time reporting might not always be the advantage. Sensing and control functions might already be available.
What is new is the ability to vary parameters and play “what if” scenarios, much as accountants in the early days of the personal computer used spreadsheets for financial analysis.
The other new element is the ability to apply machine learning to performance data.
Such practical implementations are both easier to create, as they are confined to a bounded universe of requirements. Other more-immersive environments will take longer to construct, as they are more complex and have the relative disadvantage of an uncertain advantage over legacy ways of doing things.
It is easy to underestimate the challenge of introducing major immersive new experiences to any legacy process. Though not a full “metaverse,” three-dimensional experiences are expected to improve video conferencing, for example.
But the shift to business and consumer use of video conferencing already has consumed the better part of a half century in practice, and nearly two centuries as a concept. Some users might prefer the use of avatars within the conferencing experience. Others might see that as a step backwards in terms of realism.
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