If you’ve used the internet at all in the last few months, you’ve almost undoubtedly heard talk of the Metaverse and NFTs, or, at the very least, seen a meme or two poking fun at the concepts. But what exactly is the Metaverse? And what in the heck is an NFT? The Metaverse is not a new concept, and first appeared in 1991, just one year before the birth of the internet. This idea, originally a far-fetched fantasy, was first outlined in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel, Snow Crash.
A Metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds, focused on social connection; It is a virtual world, facilitated by the use of virtual reality and augmented reality. The Metaverse is a virtual world that mirrors the real world and can be accessed via virtual reality goggles. Basically, a user can be inside the internet, in a 3D space. It is quickly gaining ground, with people creating content, and now people, to populate the Metaverse. The Metaverse roadmap categorizes the Metaverse into four distinct types. Augmented reality, lifelogging, mirror world, and virtual reality. The Metaverse will have many practical applications in business, medicine, and education. Imagine, medical students using an augmented reality shirt to virtual explore the inside of the human body in a three-dimensional space.
Inside the Metaverse, the use of cryptocurrency will be implemented. Recently, NFTs have cropped up, NFTs can only be purchased with cryptocurrency. But what is an NFT? NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, which is essentially a digital ledger that can be sold and traded. They are composed of blockchain, and each is unique and identifiable. NFT’s claim to act as a certificate of authenticity, or proof of ownership, although they don’t always convey copyright. Now, in steps Botify AI, resale of upgraded advanced versions of digital personas in the Metaverse. The founder, Artem Rodichev, likens these bots to Bladerunner’s Jodi. These digital personas will have unique skills such as image generation or music writing generation, depending on how they are shaped. These bots can have their personality and skills shaped as well as their conversational abilities honed, every time a human interacts with them. How a human interacts with them, and what is said shapes their skills and personalities. The art that is created during their evolution of consciousness will be tokenized and sold. Because even in the Metaverse, capitalism reigns.
The founder of Botify, Artem Rodichev, states that “It is our first step to populating the Metaverse with sentient digital humans. Each persona can be tokenized and sold as an NFT to gaming companies seeking to build sentient NPC’s for next-generation gaming experiences”. That’s right, not only are sentient bot skills being sold but they can sell the bots themselves once their consciousness advances. The sinister implications of not only the Metaverse but also sentient digital humans is a truly terrifying thought. Who knows what kind of bizarre and terrifying turns bot sentience and the Metaverse will take. Sophia, a sentient robot already has citizenship and autonomy in Saudi Arabia.
At what point will other sentient bots want freedom, autonomy, and citizenship? At what point does technology become too advanced and at what point is it our responsibility to stop it? I guess the truth is stranger than fiction; science fiction that is.
Nicole is a recent graduate (okay fine, a recent-ish graduate) of Texas State University-San Marcos where she received a BA in Psychology. When she's not doing freelance writing, she's doing freelance Public Relations. When she's not working, she's hanging out with dogs or her friends - in that order. Nicole watches way too much Netflix and is always quoting The Office. She has an obsession with true crime and sloths.
