In the coming years, other social activities such as enjoying a coffee or a beer with friends, may also take place online. Will funding come from budgets previously allocated to urban spaces and infrastructures? Will our governments follow Saudi Arabia’s or South Korea’s example and start investing in infrastructure and plots of land within these novel virtual cities? Although the experiences are virtual, their costs - in terms of money, energy and environment - are real and increasing. The virtual reality experience ‘Eternal Notre-Dame’ was launched in Paris in January 2021, and allows virtual visitors to tour the famous cathedral.Īs the metaverse grows, it will need more money, land and infrastructure to house the computer servers it runs on. It’s already possible to visit several museums virtually. Many urban attractions such as cinemas, restaurants, museums and historical monuments will see a drop in the number of customers passing through their doors. ![]() Let’s start by tackling social activities. We are currently spending astronomical amounts of money to make our cities more liveable, equitable and sustainable, but what good are these investments if the citizens’ of tomorrow will only experience the city virtually? Thirty years after the publication of Stephenson’s novel, elements of science fiction are now giving us a preview of the new realities and new urban challenges to come. Virtual urban environments: grab your helmet! These spaces, rented or bought by large corporations, make the metaverse a virtual urban environment entirely controlled by private interests, those of the digital technology giants. It is controlled by the Global Multimedia Protocol Group, which manages building permits, regulates zoning and delimits the boundaries of businesses, parks and advertising spaces. Stephenson’s metaverse is depicted as a very long boulevard generated by powerful computers. ![]() Neal Stephenson coined the term in 1992, in his novel Snow Crash to designate a dystopian virtual urban environment. The term metaverse does not come from the fields of science and technology, but rather from science fiction. This vision of the future may seem quite dystopian, but let’s take this opportunity to imagine what the cities of tomorrow might look like. To this end, Microsoft recently acquired the video game giant Activision Blizzard for US$68.7 billion.Īs more of our daily activities take place online, we believe it’s time to consider how this may eventually play out if tomorrow’s city dwellers prefer the metaverse to brick-and-mortar stores and other urban amenities, what will it mean for cities and what purposes will cities ultimately serve?Īs professors in the departments of urban environment and digital culture we delve into this question and examine how the metaverse could profoundly change our relationships with urban spaces. Several companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are betting that the world of tomorrow will, at least in part, be carried out in the metaverse.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |