Social media giant Facebook's rebrand as Meta has popularized the idea of the metaverse - the three-dimensional, immersive virtual worlds that exist "inside" the internet.
So, what is the "metaverse"? It describes a combination of virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality worlds that allow us to interact in real time. Computing power and high-resolution VR headsets are now creating truly convincing metaverses. We'll experience the metaverse as holograms in the physical world, or through special augmented reality (AR) glasses, or certain elements of these on a smartphone or computer. Think of it as a kind of embodied internet, one we'll often experience via an avatar inside a virtual space.
Training on virtual machinery
Many people are convinced that Mark Zuckerberg is right about the metaverse. They say that this is the inevitable next phase of the internet, and that it will affect the way all of us socialize, shop, work and learn in the future.
They point to the things that are already possible in the metaverse. Beyond the popular gaming and virtual concerts that make up much of current metaverse activity on platforms such as Roblox, other uses of the metaverse are here now - and more are constantly emerging.
Now, anyone with a computer or a smartphone can enter a metaverse experience - and VR headsets aren't always even necessary any more. Medics can walk around a model of a human heart, and pharmaceutical researchers can construct a new type of molecule or look at the way a particular protein folds. New therapies can be created and tested faster.
Engineers can walk around and through the parts of a new jet engine. Factory workers can train safely on virtual machinery before they tackle the real thing. Executives can meet in a hyperreal boardroom and see each other's facial expressions and body language.
Collapsing time and distance
So, will the real world one day take second place to the metaverse? Will we carry VR headsets around as we do smartphones? That doesn't seem likely. Apart from avid gamers, few of us will spend hours at a time in the metaverse.
What does seem highly likely, though, is that we will dip in and out of one immersive meta reality or another. We'll do it to have a meeting, finish a learning module or buy a new item of clothing after seeing exactly how it will look on us.
The metaverse will also bleed into the real. "ABBA Voyage", the hit show in which avatars of the band as they looked in the 1970s perform "live" in front of excited crowds, is an early example of this.
The metaverse looks as if it will become a valuable digital tool that can collapse time and distance to help us create and connect in new ways. But we're not going to live inside the machine full-time.