To what extent can the human senses be replaced or deceived? Is total digitalization the way forward for humanity? If everything in life can be digitized, what is the meaning of life itself?

The term "metaverse" first appeared in science fiction. American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson first coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In this novel, the term metaverse refers to a state in which the real world is mixed with a virtual world created through augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. Although this work was not as influential in the science fiction world as another science fiction master, William Gibson's similarly titled Neuromancer, published in 1984, the term "metaverse" has since come to rest in the limelight with the rapid development of the online world, and has since been borrowed from time to time by various works have been borrowed from time to time.

The 2018 science fiction movie Ready Player One is considered by many to be the most visual explanation of the metaverse concept. With the help of virtual devices, people can move freely between the real world and the virtual world. Needless to ask, the more unrestrained virtual world can bring people the surprise and joy are far more than the real world.

If the concept of metaverse, which was borrowed from science fiction movies, was confined to science fiction fans at that time, then from October 2021, the concept officially "broke the circle" and started to be discussed by people who knew nothing about it before.

In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the 17-year-old American social networking giant Facebook, published a Founder's Letter (2021) announcing the company's name change to Meta, demonstrating his commitment to the meta-universe A big event in the Internet world happened. Although the creator of the term metaverse, Neal Stephenson, then took to his social media accounts to make it clear that the metaverse concept he had created had nothing to do with the newly renamed Meta, the sci-fi Internet concept was already sweeping the world at a breakneck pace. Then, in a video presentation featuring Zuckerberg, the word "metaverse" appears more than 80 times in nearly 90 minutes to explain to viewers what a metaverse really is.

After watching this nearly 90-minute video, I felt more confused than ever, except for the etymology of the word "metaverse" in English. According to Zuckerberg, the metaverse is a merger of the root word "meta" and the word "universe". The Greek word "meta" has the meaning of "beyond" or "above ......" (beyond). For example, the Chinese word metaphysics is a merger of meta and physics, and was once translated as meta-physics.

What about the rest? In this video, Zuckerberg and some of the researchers at Meta try to show the magic that people can experience living in a meta-universe. It seems that people are no longer bound to their physical bodies, that the limits of space-time are no longer an issue, that they can move at the speed of light, that they can choose their appearance at will, that they can show themselves as they are, or that they can choose an Avatar to meet their friends and family. ...... The question is, what elements of the metaverse life shown in the video have been The question is, which elements of the metaverse life shown in the video have become reality and which are still a distant fantasy? What kind of efforts do people need to make to enter the metaverse, and what kind of changes will people's real life undergo? These questions, like the face of Zuckerberg in the video, make it difficult to distinguish which is his real life, and which is computer effects?

Articles and videos about the metaverse abound today, but it is still difficult to give a precise definition of the metaverse. What is certain is that the birth and development of the metaverse, and some of the concepts associated with it, are mostly related to science fiction and computer games. Not only is the metaverse itself derived from science fiction, but the term "avatar" as used in the metaverse, while fundamentally Hindu in origin, is actually more closely related to computer games - game designer Richard Garriott first used the term avatar" to describe the image of the game player in the game.

It can be said that each person has a meta-universe in his own mind that he defines. For example, many people believe that the metaverse is the next form after the evolution from the Internet to the mobile Internet, but it is difficult to define the core characteristics of the new generation of Internet forms. In people's descriptions of the metaverse, many technologies are integrated: what exactly will be changed when blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, sensors, cameras, 5G networks, and other old and new technologies are overlaid together? Many people are still confused.

In January 2020, venture capitalist Matthew Ball published a long article, "The Metaverse: What It is, Where to Find it, and Who Will Build It," in which he discusses some of the metaverse's The Metaverse: What It is, Where to Find It, and Who Will Build It, which discusses some of the characteristics of the metaverse, such as the fact that it expands the real and virtual worlds, contains a fully fledged economic form, offers unprecedented interoperability, etc. But when we look at the Internet that people are currently using, it has most of these characteristics, or is being refined toward these goals. Some people also conclude that the so-called metaverse, which is everything people can do in real life, can be done in the virtual digital world - but what is the point of such a metaverse?

Zuckerberg defines the metaverse as a new form of human-centered Internet. In a metaverse, people no longer need to stare at the screen of their computers or phones (or rather, there are screens everywhere in the metaverse), but become part of the content of the metaverse itself. In the metaverse, people can communicate and interact with their friends and family (or their avatars) without barriers, read each other's eyes and movements, and escape from the real world and the physical body to the greatest extent possible, which is perhaps the core value of the metaverse described by the newly renamed Meta.

It can be said that the metaverse concept not only bears the distinctive mark of the generation that grew up in the world of the Internet and games, but also Zuckerberg's own beliefs as a technological progressive and futurist. He believes that a new generation of technology is the key to solving most societal problems, and that every 10 to 15 years, a new disruptive technology or machine will emerge - so the metaverse is just in time. It is with this belief that Facebook has been able to transform itself rapidly under his leadership.

The question is, how far away from reality is this unfettered virtual world? To what extent can people actually get rid of the constraints of real life, so as to maximize the freedom of mind? If everything can be virtual, then what is the meaning of real life? What is the relationship between virtual and reality, and how can people tell the difference between the two?

"The Past and Present of "Virtual Reality It is a question of how far people can trust their senses and how far they can deceive their senses. It is another question to what extent we can rely on our senses to perceive "reality". Both Chinese and foreign thinkers have struggled with the subtle distinction between reality and dreams. Zhuangzi therefore proposed the idea that we may not have clear criteria to distinguish which is closer to reality between reality and dreams. As the saying goes, "In the old days, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, and it was a vivid butterfly. But when he suddenly realized it, he was also a superstitious Zhou. I don't know whether Zhou's dream was about Hu Die or Hu Die's dream was about Zhou. If the dream of Zhou and the dream of the butterfly is Zhou, then there must be a division. This is called materialization"-whether Zhuang Zhou dreamed and became a butterfly or Zhuang Zhou appeared in the butterfly's dream, it is really difficult to distinguish between the two.

The French thinker Descartes was also wary of the similarities between dreams and reality, so he believed that the reality perceived through the senses was only an indirect reality. Where then does the most direct reality come from? From a rationalist point of view, sensory experience is not trustworthy, but only thought is. Therefore, there is the theory of "I think, therefore I am".

Others deny the reality of the real world itself. The Pythagoreans believed that "everything is number" and that the world is merely a reflection of mathematics; the ancient Greeks believed that the world people perceive may only be a projection of a more fundamental reality in the world, just as prisoners in prison could only see the images of the outside world on the walls, which is another level of doubt about reality.

Reality may not be credible, but the senses are easily deceived - this is what people have long learned from their psychological and life experiences. People often complain about the constraints of reality, and the inconvenience of the physical body brings them mental pain; on the other hand, they hope to achieve the separation of the mental and physical bodies, so that the mind can travel without obstacles. As Shakespeare's poem describes the scene.

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought.

(Injurious ditance should not stop my way.)

For then despite of space I would be brought.

From limits far remote where thou art. (From limits far remote where thou dost stay.)

No matter then although my foot did stand, (No matter then although my foot did stand,)

No matter then although my foot did stand, What hindrance is there to me at the farthest end of the earth? (Upon the farthest earth removed from thee?)

For nimble thought can jump both sea and land, wherever it wants to reach.

For nimble thought can jump both sea and land. (As soon as think the place where he would be.)

One is surprised to discover that, by cleverly tricking the senses, Shakespeare's scenarios may actually be realized with the aid of modern technology - if one is willing to enter a virtual world made up of digital technology, or as it is more fashionably called: the metaverse.

On this level, both the so-called metaverse and the so-called virtual reality are ultimately an art of creating illusions by tricking one's senses with one's knowledge and consent. To the greatest extent possible, the separation of one's spirit from one's body, as if one were in an illusory world, can even be said to be a "basic need" of human beings at the spiritual level, as well as a maximum degree of "freedom". Perhaps it is because of this realization that the word "teleport" is mentioned several times in Zuckerberg's video preaching. In life, if you want your physical body to switch locations and scenes, not only by the laws of physics, but also by the constraints of the social environment - but if you just want to achieve spiritual travel, even with the current technical conditions, you only need to wear a virtual reality device can be achieved.

In retrospect, I have had two brief experiences with the metaverse myself. Once in Hong Kong Ocean Park, before riding a roller coaster, each passenger put on special glasses - with the start of the roller coaster, glasses also began to appear in a variety of three-dimensional images, there are a variety of magical animals, dragons flying around, I was in the blue sky, and then dive into the bottom of the sea ... ... ... I must admit, in that short minute or so, although I know that what I saw are only illusory three-dimensional images, but the feeling of excitement and excitement still makes me remember.

The next time I entered the metaverse was when I visited the Casa Battló in Barcelona, Spain, designed by the genius architect Gaudi. I put on a pair of glasses and walked into this apartment inspired and themed by marine life. As I walked into each room of the apartment, I could see various images of sea life appearing around me, with giant whales swimming past me from time to time, the illusory images blending perfectly with the surroundings.

Of course, my experience was not really into the metaverse, at least the device I was wearing did not have access to the Internet, and I could not communicate with other people through the glasses. Nevertheless, the feeling of being out of reality and entering an alien world instantly was still fresh. By metaverse standards, my two experiences, one called virtual reality and the other augmented reality, both relied on head-mounted devices to make them possible.

The idea of building a virtual sensory world is a long-standing one, and in fact such technologies were first used in special scenarios to train people to react in the real world. in the 1920s, American engineer Edwin Link invented the world's first flight simulator to train pilots. Later, there were theaters with seats that vibrated and rooms that emitted special smells to simulate movie scenes. As computer technology advanced, by the 1980s, computer scientist Jaron Lanier coined (or at least popularized) the term "virtual reality. Lanier set up a company in the 1980s to develop virtual reality eye wear and gloves, and the first hype for virtual reality technology began in the United States. But it was soon discovered that virtual reality devices were of little use to most people, and the hype quickly subsided.

When another round of hype about virtual reality technology emerged in the 21st century, some engineers preferred to use the more realistic term "virtual environment" in order to reduce the science fiction aspect of the hype; by the 1920s, even the term "virtual reality" could not satisfy the hype, and the more science fictional "metaverse" emerged. The hype was not useless.

To what extent can the human senses be replaced or deceived? Is total digitalization the way forward for humanity? If everything in life can be digitized, what is the meaning of life itself?

The term "metaverse" first appeared in science fiction. American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson first coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In this novel, the term metaverse refers to a state in which the real world is mixed with a virtual world created through augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. Although this work was not as influential in the science fiction world as another science fiction master, William Gibson's similarly titled Neuromancer, published in 1984, the term "metaverse" has since come to rest in the limelight with the rapid development of the online world, and has since been borrowed from time to time by various works have been borrowed from time to time.

The 2018 science fiction movie Ready Player One is considered by many to be the most visual explanation of the metaverse concept. With the help of virtual devices, people can move freely between the real world and the virtual world. Needless to ask, the more unrestrained virtual world can bring people the surprise and joy are far more than the real world.

If the concept of metaverse, which was borrowed from science fiction movies, was confined to science fiction fans at that time, then from October 2021, the concept officially "broke the circle" and started to be discussed by people who knew nothing about it before.

In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the 17-year-old American social networking giant Facebook, published a Founder's Letter (2021) announcing the company's name change to Meta, demonstrating his commitment to the meta-universe A big event in the Internet world happened. Although the creator of the term metaverse, Neal Stephenson, then took to his social media accounts to make it clear that the metaverse concept he had created had nothing to do with the newly renamed Meta, the sci-fi Internet concept was already sweeping the world at a breakneck pace. Then, in a video presentation featuring Zuckerberg, the word "metaverse" appears more than 80 times in nearly 90 minutes to explain to viewers what a metaverse really is.

After watching this nearly 90-minute video, I felt more confused than ever, except for the etymology of the word "metaverse" in English. According to Zuckerberg, the metaverse is a merger of the root word "meta" and the word "universe". The Greek word "meta" has the meaning of "beyond" or "above ......" (beyond). For example, the Chinese word metaphysics is a merger of meta and physics, and was once translated as meta-physics.

What about the rest? In this video, Zuckerberg and some of the researchers at Meta try to show the magic that people can experience living in a meta-universe. It seems that people are no longer bound to their physical bodies, that the limits of space-time are no longer an issue, that they can move at the speed of light, that they can choose their appearance at will, that they can show themselves as they are, or that they can choose an Avatar to meet their friends and family. ...... The question is, what elements of the metaverse life shown in the video have been The question is, which elements of the metaverse life shown in the video have become reality and which are still a distant fantasy? What kind of efforts do people need to make to enter the metaverse, and what kind of changes will people's real life undergo? These questions, like the face of Zuckerberg in the video, make it difficult to distinguish which is his real life, and which is computer effects?

Articles and videos about the metaverse abound today, but it is still difficult to give a precise definition of the metaverse. What is certain is that the birth and development of the metaverse, and some of the concepts associated with it, are mostly related to science fiction and computer games. Not only is the metaverse itself derived from science fiction, but the term "avatar" as used in the metaverse, while fundamentally Hindu in origin, is actually more closely related to computer games - game designer Richard Garriott first used the term avatar" to describe the image of the game player in the game.

It can be said that each person has a meta-universe in his own mind that he defines. For example, many people believe that the metaverse is the next form after the evolution from the Internet to the mobile Internet, but it is difficult to define the core characteristics of the new generation of Internet forms. In people's descriptions of the metaverse, many technologies are integrated: what exactly will be changed when blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, sensors, cameras, 5G networks, and other old and new technologies are overlaid together? Many people are still confused.

In January 2020, venture capitalist Matthew Ball published a long article, "The Metaverse: What It is, Where to Find it, and Who Will Build It," in which he discusses some of the metaverse's The Metaverse: What It is, Where to Find It, and Who Will Build It, which discusses some of the characteristics of the metaverse, such as the fact that it expands the real and virtual worlds, contains a fully fledged economic form, offers unprecedented interoperability, etc. But when we look at the Internet that people are currently using, it has most of these characteristics, or is being refined toward these goals. Some people also conclude that the so-called metaverse, which is everything people can do in real life, can be done in the virtual digital world - but what is the point of such a metaverse?

Zuckerberg defines the metaverse as a new form of human-centered Internet. In a metaverse, people no longer need to stare at the screen of their computers or phones (or rather, there are screens everywhere in the metaverse), but become part of the content of the metaverse itself. In the metaverse, people can communicate and interact with their friends and family (or their avatars) without barriers, read each other's eyes and movements, and escape from the real world and the physical body to the greatest extent possible, which is perhaps the core value of the metaverse described by the newly renamed Meta.

It can be said that the metaverse concept not only bears the distinctive mark of the generation that grew up in the world of the Internet and games, but also Zuckerberg's own beliefs as a technological progressive and futurist. He believes that a new generation of technology is the key to solving most societal problems, and that every 10 to 15 years, a new disruptive technology or machine will emerge - so the metaverse is just in time. It is with this belief that Facebook has been able to transform itself rapidly under his leadership.

The question is, how far away from reality is this unfettered virtual world? To what extent can people actually get rid of the constraints of real life, so as to maximize the freedom of mind? If everything can be virtual, then what is the meaning of real life? What is the relationship between virtual and reality, and how can people tell the difference between the two?

"The Past and Present of "Virtual Reality It is a question of how far people can trust their senses and how far they can deceive their senses. It is another question to what extent we can rely on our senses to perceive "reality". Both Chinese and foreign thinkers have struggled with the subtle distinction between reality and dreams. Zhuangzi therefore proposed the idea that we may not have clear criteria to distinguish which is closer to reality between reality and dreams. As the saying goes, "In the old days, Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, and it was a vivid butterfly. But when he suddenly realized it, he was also a superstitious Zhou. I don't know whether Zhou's dream was about Hu Die or Hu Die's dream was about Zhou. If the dream of Zhou and the dream of the butterfly is Zhou, then there must be a division. This is called materialization"-whether Zhuang Zhou dreamed and became a butterfly or Zhuang Zhou appeared in the butterfly's dream, it is really difficult to distinguish between the two.

The French thinker Descartes was also wary of the similarities between dreams and reality, so he believed that the reality perceived through the senses was only an indirect reality. Where then does the most direct reality come from? From a rationalist point of view, sensory experience is not trustworthy, but only thought is. Therefore, there is the theory of "I think, therefore I am".

Others deny the reality of the real world itself. The Pythagoreans believed that "everything is number" and that the world is merely a reflection of mathematics; the ancient Greeks believed that the world people perceive may only be a projection of a more fundamental reality in the world, just as prisoners in prison could only see the images of the outside world on the walls, which is another level of doubt about reality.

Reality may not be credible, but the senses are easily deceived - this is what people have long learned from their psychological and life experiences. People often complain about the constraints of reality, and the inconvenience of the physical body brings them mental pain; on the other hand, they hope to achieve the separation of the mental and physical bodies, so that the mind can travel without obstacles. As Shakespeare's poem describes the scene.

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought.

(Injurious ditance should not stop my way.)

For then despite of space I would be brought.

From limits far remote where thou art. (From limits far remote where thou dost stay.)

No matter then although my foot did stand, (No matter then although my foot did stand,)

No matter then although my foot did stand, What hindrance is there to me at the farthest end of the earth? (Upon the farthest earth removed from thee?)

For nimble thought can jump both sea and land, wherever it wants to reach.

For nimble thought can jump both sea and land. (As soon as think the place where he would be.)

One is surprised to discover that, by cleverly tricking the senses, Shakespeare's scenarios may actually be realized with the aid of modern technology - if one is willing to enter a virtual world made up of digital technology, or as it is more fashionably called: the metaverse.

On this level, both the so-called metaverse and the so-called virtual reality are ultimately an art of creating illusions by tricking one's senses with one's knowledge and consent. To the greatest extent possible, the separation of one's spirit from one's body, as if one were in an illusory world, can even be said to be a "basic need" of human beings at the spiritual level, as well as a maximum degree of "freedom". Perhaps it is because of this realization that the word "teleport" is mentioned several times in Zuckerberg's video preaching. In life, if you want your physical body to switch locations and scenes, not only by the laws of physics, but also by the constraints of the social environment - but if you just want to achieve spiritual travel, even with the current technical conditions, you only need to wear a virtual reality device can be achieved.

In retrospect, I have had two brief experiences with the metaverse myself. Once in Hong Kong Ocean Park, before riding a roller coaster, each passenger put on special glasses - with the start of the roller coaster, glasses also began to appear in a variety of three-dimensional images, there are a variety of magical animals, dragons flying around, I was in the blue sky, and then dive into the bottom of the sea ... ... ... I must admit, in that short minute or so, although I know that what I saw are only illusory three-dimensional images, but the feeling of excitement and excitement still makes me remember.

The next time I entered the metaverse was when I visited the Casa Battló in Barcelona, Spain, designed by the genius architect Gaudi. I put on a pair of glasses and walked into this apartment inspired and themed by marine life. As I walked into each room of the apartment, I could see various images of sea life appearing around me, with giant whales swimming past me from time to time, the illusory images blending perfectly with the surroundings.

Of course, my experience was not really into the metaverse, at least the device I was wearing did not have access to the Internet, and I could not communicate with other people through the glasses. Nevertheless, the feeling of being out of reality and entering an alien world instantly was still fresh. By metaverse standards, my two experiences, one called virtual reality and the other augmented reality, both relied on head-mounted devices to make them possible.

The idea of building a virtual sensory world is a long-standing one, and in fact such technologies were first used in special scenarios to train people to react in the real world. in the 1920s, American engineer Edwin Link invented the world's first flight simulator to train pilots. Later, there were theaters with seats that vibrated and rooms that emitted special smells to simulate movie scenes. As computer technology advanced, by the 1980s, computer scientist Jaron Lanier coined (or at least popularized) the term "virtual reality. Lanier set up a company in the 1980s to develop virtual reality eye wear and gloves, and the first hype for virtual reality technology began in the United States. But it was soon discovered that virtual reality devices were of little use to most people, and the hype quickly subsided.

When another round of hype about virtual reality technology emerged in the 21st century, some engineers preferred to use the more realistic term "virtual environment" in order to reduce the science fiction aspect of the hype; by the 1920s, even the term "virtual reality" could not satisfy the hype, and the more science fictional "metaverse" emerged. The hype was not useless.