Kumar, Ganesh, Saini, Krishnakant, Soman, Nikhil, Parmar, Vagmita, Nahar, Praveen and Thappa, Sahil (2022) Envisioning the Metaverse. In: Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design, RSD11, 3-16 Oct 2022, Brighton, United Kingdom.

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Abstract

The Internet: we are surrounded by it, and it’s growing at a fast pace; it’s constantly evolving, changing the way we experience it. We have already gone through 3 phases of the internet web 0, 1 and 2. The next phase of the internet, or “web 3” as we call it, is going to modify how we interact with the virtual world. Metaverse is a part of that next phase.

It is a virtual universe made up of various virtual world platforms running on the blockchain. Users on metaverse platforms have a virtual avatar through which they can interact with each other and carry out various activities.

Despite what numerous people have to say, we know that the metaverse is inevitable. In such a scenario, it becomes our responsibility to foresee the opportunities as well as the threats, and we must work towards making a more humane metaverse and improving our overall digital presence. This is what our project is about, envisioning the metaverse. Foreseeing everything, positives and negatives alike.

In this project, we have tried to deconstruct and then reconstruct the present system of the metaverse and derived the following outcomes:
- Mapped model of the present Metaverse System.
- Our metaverse model with a few modifications and interventions in the areas of Platform, Hardware, Communities, Lifestyle, and Infrastructure.
- Metaverse Manifesto for a more Humane Metaverse
- A set of Method Cards
- Design Fiction Installation – We built a fictional scenario set in the future
- Centred on digital footprint and made an installation – ‘Digital Ash’

How to read the map?
Our Map is in the form of a timeline starting from 1957. And we have jotted down all the important events that happened since then. We tried to study how these events influenced and shaped the metaverse that is today.

The year is denoted on the road, and the artefacts that you see kept on the road are marking significant advancements in VR technology. The first strip from the bottom (in purple) notes down all the literature and movies that came into the picture and shaped the current scenario (D&D, Snow Crash, Ready Player One etc.)

The middle strip (in yellow) notes the VR devices, and the topmost strip contains the era (web 1, web 2, web 3 etc.).

Our timeline continues to a bigger platform, which signifies the current scenario (2020–2022). This is also represented by different sectors, Communities, Economy, Lifestyles, Hardware, Infrastructure, and Platforms. The pits represent the Problems, and the Saplings represent opportunities from each sector, respectively.

Towards the right, we have an iteration of a metaverse using the findings from our research. We divided it into the same sectors as before Communities, Economy, Lifestyle, Hardware, Infrastructure and Platform. Labelled are our modifications to the current system.

Item Type:	Conference/Workshop Item (Other)
Divisions:	Faculty of Design
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2024 14:11
Last Modified:	30 Apr 2024 14:11
URI:	https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/4339

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