What I learned from diving headfirst into the metaverse

CNN — Until a couple of months ago, I would have described myself as a Luddite when it came to the metaverse. But working on the Decoded show for CNN International I had the opportunity to dive headfirst into these virtual worlds and meet some of the key players in this space.
At its most basic definition, the metaverse is the internet gone three-dimensional. The word itself it much older than you might think; it was first created in 1992 by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, who, with alarming foresight, wrote about a dystopian future where people escaped into a virtual world, accessed with goggles.
The metaverse has been reimagined many times in the three decades since, but Stephenson gave me the best definition of what it is right now: “It’s a virtual environment where large numbers of people can get together and interact with each other, through avatars.”

Which metaverse?
Perhaps the most surprising element for me as I got to know the metaverse, was that there’s more than one, and they all look and feel very different.
If I wanted to meet friends virtually and have some fun, I might head into Somnium Space. On this platform users create incredible virtual experiences and earn real money for their efforts. This is where you can find worlds within worlds. It’s like descending into the movie “Inception.” If you want to dance in a virtual club, or race cars in a desert, this may be the metaverse for you.
However, if I want to have a meeting for work, you’ll find me in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms.
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