In October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg – founder and president of Facebook Inc – announced that the company would be renamed “Meta”, in an allusion to the metaverse. More than a year later, the term still raises many questions.
The metaverse is defined by a set of virtual environments that simulate reality through immersive technologies. The objective is for people to move from just observers to active participants in the online universe, that is, for them to interact through avatars and 3D environments.
Regarding the use of VR and AR glasses, computers, headphones and 5G, Professor John Paul Lima, director of FIAP’s online undergraduate courses, believes that in the future these technologies will become more accessible, but that they are not essential to access the metaverse currently. “They allow for a better experience, but the only things needed are internet and a technological device”
According to John Paul, the metaverse is not restricted to avatars and the use of immersive equipment. “It goes way beyond that. I think that at first it will be the evolution of the social network and maybe in the future the replacement of the internet.”
Another feature of the metaverse is the creation of a digital economy that allows users to earn money, buy objects and clothing for avatars, trade virtual land, etc. For this, other technologies are used: cryptocurrencies, blockchain e NFT.
Blockchain is the technology that enabled the creation of the most famous virtual currency today, the bitcoin, and consists of a mechanism that tracks information on the internet, allowing financial transactions without fraud. Cryptocurrencies serve as a method of exchange and NFTs (tokens non-fungible) act as a certificate of authenticity for an item, proving its exclusivity.
For the professionals of the future who intend to work with the new opportunities of the metaverse, John Paul warns that there is no specific profession or course to take advantage of this new technology: “Just as for a building to be constructed, you need a civil engineer, a hydraulic engineer , electrical engineers, logistics professionals, administrators, architects, etc., the metaverse will not have just one professional, but several, contributing to the construction of this universe”.
The technology courses that exist today already prepare professionals to deal with the metaverse. “At FIAP, for example, we have degrees in Digital Games, Cybernetic Defense and Computer Networks, which prepare students to collaborate with the creation of virtual environments, security of traffic content and the infrastructure to run all the components of the metaverse” explains John Paul. “Just as the professional who was not prepared to deal with the remote model in the pandemic was harmed, the professional who does not know how to adapt to the metaverse in the future can also be at a loss”, concludes the director.
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