90 years ago, the book "A Wonderful New World" was published, a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, which, among other things, criticized the attempt to control people's thoughts and behavior through technology.
It is difficult to determine if this is the goal of Meta and the partner companies for the innovative-subversive venture called Metaverse, which provides a tangible and virtual reality experience, but what is certain - we are at the dawn of an era in which the boundaries between the real world and the virtual world will begin to blur.
Blurred boundaries of reality?
Meta offices in Israel, photo: Meta
Imagine spending time at your favorite band's concert on the other side of the world: singing the songs along with them, enjoying the show on stage, interacting with the people next to you, and all this - when you're physically in your home.
Or, for example, a work meeting, when the space is an interactive meeting room, when you see all those present, are aware of their body gestures (unlike Zoom meetings), and hear all the interim comments.
These and more are expected to be an integral part of our lives within a decade.
"Wonderful New World": Innovations of the Metaverse // Illustration: Meta
"We are at the beginning of the third era of the Internet. Within a decade from today we will not be consuming the Internet in the way we are consuming it now. This is the feeling of really 'being there' in a real way," declares Adi Sofer-Thani, CEO of Facebook Israel.
Among the developments, some of which are already implemented in Israel in an initial version, you can find the Meta Quest Pro, a helmet that allows you to combine virtual and augmented reality (a copy of reality).
In addition, you can point to the Ray-Ban Stories, smart and fashionable glasses with which you can take and share photos and videos, listen to music or make phone calls.
This is the next stage of wearable technologies.
The glasses weigh only five grams more than regular Rayban glasses.
In the meantime, the Villa platform of the Israeli entrepreneur Ofer Beharev for creating Metaverse worlds in Meta Quest virtual reality glasses has recruited about 500,000 users, who can take part in experiences such as floating above the digital twin of Jerusalem, riding jet skis in Tel Aviv or flying in a hot air balloon over Denver, Colorado .
Jerusalem through the virtual reality glasses Meta Quest // Credit: Villa
In the background: fear of identity theft and fraud
However, fears of identity theft, fraud and blurring the lines between reality and virtual reality flicker.
For example, babies who are born today and will grow up into the age of the metaverse, may find it difficult as adults to separate the physical reality from the "reality" in the metaverse.
"There's also the issue of identity theft. When I travel around the Metaverse world in my avatar's 'identity', I meet and communicate with all kinds of people there - by text, emoji, gif or other gesture. When an attacker talks to someone in the Metaverse or sends If he has a message, he will create a weakness that everyone who talks to him back, gives him their entire account, gives me their identity," explains Oded Vanuno, head of product weakness research at Check Point.
"If today in classic phishing I send someone a link or a malicious email to reveal details or harm, in the future world of the Metaverse, if someone sends me a like or other gesture, the gesture can be malicious. He can take over my account and take over the identity of the avatar. You are not Click on a link, you will enter a certain store, for example, and you don't know who built the store, it could be a malicious store and everyone who enters it is attacked."
Do you think the scams will increase?
"Sure. Today, when I want to commit fraud I have to send it in an email, or a message on a social network or an app. That's the only way I can fish people. When we're in Metaverse, everything is digital. I won't always stop to think if the person talking to me is a bot, an avatar or Real. The possibilities for fraud will increase significantly," concludes Vanuno.
In June 2022 Meta announced for the first time the launch of a control tool for parents in its virtual reality glasses, which allows to see all the applications owned by their children, to see the list of their children's friends and to block inappropriate content for them.
The company also launched a new information center for parents to help them discuss safety with their teens.
There are also tools that allow people to mute and block other people they meet in VR.
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