Many articles discussing the metaverse talk about the wonderful new and infinite possibilities that will “free” human expression, notably via creating custom avatars, create their own virtual worlds, easily generate any object they wish via AI assisted tools and more.
But to me, this is a fantasy that will quickly disappear. Whenever humans are totally free, let loose in a boundless infinite space where “everything” is possible, they quickly withdraw from sheer boredom, feeling totally jaded, or from a feeling of vertigo at the limitlessness of the space.
As a teenager, I have played my share of video games. And just as any teenager, when I got frustrated with a video game, losing too many times against a big boss, I would consult the cheat codes for the game, become immortal with unlimited weapons, and take my sweet revenge. However, such a revenge tasted more bitter than sweet. Eventually, invariably, I would go back to trying to beat the level without cheating, in order to truly savour my victory.
In a metaverse where everyone can “manifest” a Lamborghini or customize their clothing attire with no limits using powerful AI generation tools, users will have the same feeling as if they were using cheat codes. When everyone has everything, it is the same as everyone having nothing. Humans thrive by overcoming obstacles, expanding the boundaries of what is possible against all odds inside a tight set of rules. Humans love to find easter eggs in video games, glitches, strategies which defeat the game without cheating. Or quite simply, push their talent to beat the game within the boundaries that were set. Trying all levels of difficulty, until they can beat it in the hardest setting. See for instance, the popularity of “speed runs” on YouTube and the pleasure people have in watching others skillfully play video games on Twitch.
Looking at the success of MineCraft, for example. MineCraft is built on a very clear set of rules and limitations. It is the perfect example of a successful balance between freedom (to create) and constraints. One cannot just ask an AI to generate a virtual castle or build a model of the Star Wars Death Star. One has to painstakingly carve, out of a randomly generated land, whatever he/she wishes to create, by mining the land, transforming materials, assembling them together block by block… Then, when one shows their creation or achievement to other humans, they can appreciate the transcendental essence of that creation or achievement. They recognize the human skill, competence, effort, and talent involved and celebrate such an achievement.
I doubt that humans will hold the same kind of admiration for AI generated contents, celebrating the great “talent” of saying to an AI: “I want a rainbow coloured glittering Lamborghini”.
In recent years, lucid dreaming has become a trending practice, with more and more people sharing their lucid dreaming experiences and offering advice for how to enter a lucid dream state. In a lucid dream, one becomes consciously aware of being in a dream, and can also consciously steer the dream in one or the other direction. This means, in essence, that one can enjoy a very realistic “fantasy” at will. You want to drive an expensive sports car? You can. Have sex with a celebrity? It’s happening. Fly in the sky? Why not. Your imagination is the limit. But why don’t we all just lucid dream our life away then? Why engage in the frustrations of the “real” world? Possibly because as humans, we find no real pleasure in a frictionless environment. And especially, we like to overcome friction in front of a crowd. Humans are social creatures. Why do humans bother to put the results of their efforts on display, in front of other human beings? Why does a violin virtuoso bother to play in front of huge crowds as opposed to enjoy his/her talent alone in a practice room? As humans, we love to celebrate the result of our efforts in overcoming limitations, and showing to the world how far we have managed to expand the boundaries of what’s humanly possible. And as spectators, we love looking at humans that show us just how far we can go. Looking at another human doing incredible things is an expansive experience for both the person on stage, as well as for his/her audience.
But in order to overcome friction, humans need to be in a favorable environment: neither too hard, nor too easy. Video game developers have clearly identified this, by designing games where the frustration to reward ratio is optimal to keep people hooked. If you win too easily, you get bored and annoyed. If it’s too hard, you get frustrated and quit. But the shot of adrenaline and other pleasure hormones reaches sky high intensities depending on the (perceived) level of difficulty. Soccer or football, is among the most popular sports in the world. Why is that? It is one of the sports where scoring a point is rarer than in other games like basketball where scores easily reach in the hundreds and teams score every minute or so. Sometimes, it takes over an hour for a team to score, but when they do, the fans go positively crazy. The pressure and build-up in soccer is akin to holding off an orgasm during sex for an hour or so, and then finally getting release. And what a release!
In my view, if the metaverse is to become successful, it will have to work very hard at setting artificial boundaries and limits for human (co)creation, so as to create friction which generates pleasure. That is why many metaverse projects are in the business of emulating the “real world”, with the same rules and limitations, because ultimately, that is the friction most of us are used to. Obviously, it would be a mistake for people to have to wait a year to build a house in the metaverse, but making it too easy, or instantaneous, would also be a mistake.
A few examples:
- From reality to virtuality: Using soul-bound tokens as a universal log-in feature to access any metaverse, the virtual clothing you can wear on your avatar will be linked to your real-world attire. Upon purchasing a clothing item, you will scan a unique QR code which can only be used once, and which will add a virtual copy of that clothing to your soul-bound token account, enabling you to dress your avatar with it. Upon entering the metaverse, you could even let your device scan what you are wearing and match it to the clothes you have in your soul-bound token account, to reflect your “real world” attire in the metaverse.
- From virtuality to reality: In the metaverse, your virtual creations would “decay” after a set period of time, subject to a kind of “digital entropy”. Companies in the real world would provide services to 3D print or produce a real life replica of your favorite virtually generated objects, which would then become permanent in the metaverse. In other words, in order to cement the existence of anything in the metaverse, one would have to create it in real life, and apply a special QR code provided by accredited companies to prevent the object from dematerializing.
These are but simple examples, off the top of my head, but the main point to retain, is that any metaverse environments’ success will be linked to the balance between friction and freedom. Should the friction part be underestimated, it will inevitably fail. The holy grail of the metaverse, in my mind, is to create decentralized metaverse spaces, with friction and limits self-imposed by the community itself. People are tired of the types of limits and frictions which come from centralized institutions, be it governments or giant corporations. However, with the advent of blockchain technology, there are more and more signs that people are willing to engage with projects and platforms which are collaborative in nature. And this will allow for many iterations to test the best ratio between freedom and friction.
One key example is the Ethereum blockchain. While many were busy criticizing it for its limits, its backward technical capabilities compared to other blockchains, millions of developers were engaged in improving it and building on top of its infrastructure. Why? Precisely because of the pleasure involved in cocreating within a challenging environment, enjoying the process of pushing the boundaries of what is possible via a collective effort.
People don’t want the perfect product, the perfect solution, the perfect virtual world. People don’t want paradise. They want to enjoy the process of building towards paradise, always keeping it just out of one’s grasp, since the process of building towards it enhances people’s imagination of what is possible, making them aim for an even more “perfect” paradise.
If you went back 1000 years ago, and asked someone what “paradise” meant to them, they would probably describe the society we have now, where within a day you can go anywhere in the world, where within a couple of minutes, you can have any kind of food delivered to your doorstep, where in every household, you find a bed more comfortable than the best bed of a 10th century King. But do we feel like we are in paradise? No. We don’t. And thank God for that! Because that is what drives us, this eternal seeking, this willingness to push the boundaries of what is possible ever further. Had you given “paradise” to a person 1000 years ago, human society would have ceased to evolve, and thereafter, to exist.
The key, is for the metaverse to actually embrace this process, facilitate it, and make it enjoyable rather than depressing and frustrating. At the moment, would you say that our societies are enjoying this eternal dialectic process of self-actualization? Of perpetual improvement? Of transcending ourselves over and over again in an eternal quest for paradise? I wouldn’t say so. We are stuck in a depressive state of fear and paralysis, “climate change here” and “world war III there”, and “pandemics this”, and “economic crisis that”. The friction levels in our “real” reality have reached paralysing levels. Perhaps intentionally as I explain in this article.
This is where the metaverse can come into play. By “gamifying” life, making it enjoyable to counteract entropy in the “real” world, incentivising people in fixing a loose brick in the pavement, or pick up a piece of trash in a public park. By facilitating co-creation in the real world and in virtual worlds, and cross-fertilize between these. See the following article for more details on how that could work: The metaverse — A bridge between the material and immaterial world
