In these days when Web3 technologies have become widespread, Metaverse has become a word that has penetrated into our daily lives. This concept, which attracted attention when Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta and made a Metaverse-themed launch accompanied by Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar, is heard in daily life with the agenda of “buying land from Metaverse”, but its background is worth examining.
What is Metaverse?
When we look at Wikipedia, the concept is defined as “the potential to go beyond the physical universe we are in, by moving away from the current dimension of time and space, thanks to computers, android devices, VR lenses and various 3D user interfaces.” It is said that Metaverse, seen as the future of the Internet, promises to create a virtual public space, and it is stated that the virtual currencies of this public space are already traded in the cryptocurrency market today. The history of the concept goes back to Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash, published in 1992, and today, one of the most important metaverse investors in the world is Facebook, which bought the Oculus company, which works on virtual reality devices, for 2 billion dollars.
One Step Behind: Oculus' Crowdfunding Story
The crowdfunding campaign for the production process of the virtual reality device Oculus Rift stands out as one of the best examples of the option of generating income through crowdfunding, which is used by initiatives that want to create social, ecological and cultural impact. Rather than knocking on investors’ doors and getting rejected with negative responses, Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey chose to appeal to a community of VR enthusiasts. The device first made a name for itself with the campaign on the Kickstarter website. The campaign, which started on August 1, 2012, attracted the attention of many people in a short time and the targeted amount of 250 thousand dollars was collected in a short time of 4 hours. It crossed the million dollar threshold in 36 hours and managed to collect 2 million 437 thousand 429 dollars by the end of the campaign. In March 2014, Facebook purchased Oculus VR, the maker of the device, for $2 billion. Virtual reality was a trend that emerged in the 1990s but was subsequently “forgotten” when the technological conditions of the period prevented virtual reality from providing the desired realistic and immersive experience. The crowdfunding campaign, which started with a prototype, reintroduced virtual reality to today’s technology agenda, and technology giants such as Microsoft, Sony and Samsung have invested heavily in this field and developed their own products.
Shifting the Focus to Social Good in the Metaverse
In a newspaper interview evaluating Metaverse, academician İsmail Hakkı Polat describes the vision that “Turkey will draw to become a country of social and economic prosperity of the 21st century” in the context of Metaverse as follows: “By bringing together the east and west, north and south of the country on Metaverse, we offer a vision to everyone.” It should create a social consciousness consisting of those who provide equal opportunities and build an ecosystem full of productive practices that will create education, solidarity and employment that the society will benefit from.”:
In an article evaluating Metaverse in the context of education, academician Ahmet Göçen states that investing in Metaverse tools and technologies will facilitate the implementation of personalized teaching programs based on knowledge and creativity.
However, he says that the most important task in the transition to 3D environments in education falls on instructional-technology leaders. Oğuzhan Aydın, who discusses Metaverse in the context of equal opportunity, inclusion and sustainability in his article published in Aposto, points out the potential of Metaverse for “more dynamic participation in the workforce”. Stating that it will provide equal opportunities for disabled people and those living in different geographical regions and can provide opportunities against physical, social and economic obstacles, he adds: “It is also envisaged that most emissions related to consumption and transportation can be prevented by Metaverse creating a parallel space. Because the metaverse is expected to reduce our need for transportation in the near future, make the fashion industry, which is one of the most polluting sectors, greener by digitalizing it, and bring the blessings of the arts, entertainment and tourism sectors to our living rooms.”
The Ekşi Şeyler page, which compiles qualified definitions in Ekşi Sözlük, explains the Metaverse through a prediction on the site: “The savings to be made thanks to this technology will be in a world that is heading towards an inevitable gigantic and mass unemployment problem, like universal basic income.” “It can be spent on solutions and social policies.”
Different Evaluations of the Metaverse
The metaverse, with all its positive potential, is also discussed with its aspects that can deepen inequalities.
Çağrı Mert Bakırcı and Mücahid Köse from Evrim Ağacı examine the metaverse in his writings. They criticize that “the effort to build humanity’s first major simulation, the metaverse, is based on a top-down model rather than a bottom-up model.” They also question Facebook’s role, considering the risk of Metaverse turning into a structure that will be concentrated in a single hand or a minority: “Those who said Metaverse would not belong to anyone changed their name to ‘Meta’.” The two names also provide a striking example in the context of gender equality: “They continued to run the same algorithms even though they knew that it worsened the psychology of 32% of girls and reinforced some of them thinking about suicide.” While examining Facebook’s negative reputation with these and similar examples, they also draw attention to harassment and bullying on the internet and say, “While there are tremendous security problems even on social media, how do we ensure privacy and security in the metaverse, of which we will literally make our physical self a part of?” They pose the question.
Co-Produced by Fayn Studio and +90 in the Magnetic video series“Metaverse” episode discusses the concept with the following questions: “What will this next version of the internet, where everyone is already racing to take their place, look like? Will the metaverse be a utopia or dystopia? And more importantly, what choices await users in this new world whose foundations have been laid?” Dr., whose opinions are included in the episode. Güven Çatak emphasizes that “people will carry themselves there”: “I don’t foresee that there will be much of a change, as they will probably carry their own traumas and troubles there, and the poor will still be poor due to the income models inside.” Cüneyt Durukan, another interviewee, warns that “we may go to a universe where there is a transition from a more corporate-dominated structure to a more nationalist structure, where the internet is more censored and controlled, and where there are actually national or closed metaverses, such as an effort to move to a closed-circuit internet.”
ReFi Türkiye Podcast 🎧️
🌱 Within the scope of the ReFi Turkey program, in the podcast series we conduct with pioneers who think and build on Web3, we also ask common questions to the guests in each episode. Each guest describes, from his or her own perspective, the areas he finds exciting in Web3 and the risks he sees. If you liked encountering Metaverse arguments from different perspectives, as we mentioned above, you may also be interested in the evaluations in the podcast episodes. You can reach Spotify from here.
Documentary Proposal
HBO’s documentary We Met In Virtual Reality, shot entirely in virtual reality, is about the metaverse experience of Jenny, an American Sign Language teacher. Before watching the documentary, which conveys the difficulties experienced by hearing-impaired communities in the virtual world, please read an evaluation article about it. You can read from here.