In the movie Ready Player One, every action and object is created by virtual reality. The whole world is composed of a three-dimensional software map, and augmented reality is applied. People spend their time inside the virtual universe OASIS as their physical situation is so depressing. And, this is called metaverse. It is an imaginary world where users can communicate with others through an online virtual environment. The metaverse saves the user of the changes made after turning off the server, allowing the user to continue where the user made the changes. As all the social actions are done by digital space, physical interaction over people gets replaced by virtual communication during the movie.
The shift from physical interaction to imaginary intercommunication wields out a lot of advantages for people. It allows the users to have extraordinary experiences that they couldn’t have in reality. For example, people who have physical disorders can move freely in the metaverse. They can run as fast as they want, ride bikes, or ski through the mountains. There is no limitation on physical strength or space in fictional space; users can travel anywhere and do any activity they want.
However, this brilliant technology has some concerns. In the movie, people spend 24 hours living in the metaverse. They do not balance their physical and digital life. Spending more time on imaginary reality can make the boundary of each society ambiguous. A key concern that is over metaverse is that users might not be able to recognize the difference between physical and digital space. So it is essential to balance the amount of time spent in each world.
By: Sungju Park