Understand what the metaverse is and what possibilities it offers for the future

Every time a technology appears, it is natural that the first reaction is fear, or even resistance.

In 2021, Facebook announced that it will invest to become, within five years, a “metaverse company”.

But what does this mean exactly and how will it affect our lives in the future? To help explain, the CNN Radio heard Professor John Paul Hempel, who is coordinator of the Engineering courses at FIAP.

“The metaverse is a set of virtual environments where people will interact, socialize, create, study, work, consume and have fun”, he said.

According to him, “we are already very digital”, with streaming consumption and, obviously, social networks.

“We are seeing a great movement of technology companies, which realized that during the pandemic we were forced to stay at home and had to adapt, to study and work. It was a catalyst for companies to say that now is the metaverse’s turn.”

But what is the difference to what we already have today? “As much as we can work and interact with colleagues digitally, we feel the need for immersion.”

“We would like to see, be in the same environment, have more freedom to look from one side to the other, in the metaverse people talk about virtual and augmented reality, these new technologies are incorporated.”

Metaverse in practice

The technologies that can be applied to the Metaverse are many. As John Paul explains, there is the “digital twins” movement, in which engineers from around the world, in the virtual environment, analyze the performance of planes that are flying in real time.

“The metaverse allows me to go teach a class and be able to talk to people from Singapore, USA, Africa and Brazil, it allows for more inclusion.”

New Professions and Chances of Protagonism

John Paul believes we will see a “series of new professions created”: “There are architects of virtual environments, Facebook alone has 11,000 engineers for the construction of the metaverse, even virtual stylists, who create clothes for avatars.”

The expert points out that, despite Brazil being unequal, the country is “one of the biggest consumers of digital in the world, one of the most connected on the planet.”

“The government could create policies for Brazil to be at the forefront of developing new professions, it is a great opportunity, we consume, but create little, with training incentives we could be one of the protagonists of this new technology.”

legal repercussion

Like all new technology, there are perks and bonuses. The professor says that there are already typifications of cyber crimes, such as racial slurs and harassment, even in the virtual environment.

“Justice exists, but obviously it cannot predict what new forms of interaction will have, from time to time it should be reviewed, financial crimes can also happen in the metaverse, you have to be careful”, he added.

*With production by Bruna Sales