The metaverse is on the horizon, and when it arrives, everything we know as real will be altered. With a three-dimensional Internet experience, Tristan Bishop Pan says, users will no longer sit in front of their computers and click on what they want to buy – instead, they will enter a virtual store, load clothes or groceries into a cart, buy them from a virtual clerk who looks completely real, and pay for them with their virtual credit card that is connected to their ‘real’ bank account.
Sounds crazy? So did the idea of the 2-D Internet in the 1980s, Tristan Bishop Pan recalls. “Look where we are now – doing exactly what seemed so crazy back then. The metaverse is coming, and with it, you’ll have virtual reality be projected into your real world. To access it, you won’t have to plug into it or wear something that blocks your view of the real world. Instead, the real world and the digital world are going to be superimposed on each other. Get ready because it’s going to fundamentally alter everything you think you know about what’s real and what isn’t.”
The basis for the technology is already there, Tristan Bishop Pan believes. “We know how to use ionic particles to project holograms into the air. That’s possible because they’re air particles and give light something to bond with. So, we can project things like that into our version of what we know as reality. All of this comprises the infant stages of the metaverse – it is just going to get more and more advanced.”
The ramifications of what the metaverse will be able to do are staggering. “Consider medicine,” Tristan Bishop Pan suggests. “The metaverse will completely change the services a patient can receive. Think about this scenario: you’ve got a brain tumor. You live in Omaha, Nebraska, and the world’s most prominent brain surgeon is in Israel. Through the metaverse, you could get that man to give you a consultation in brain surgery. When it came time to have the surgery, your doctor could perform brain surgery on you while he sits at his office desk, 2,000 miles away. He could work the Da Vinci laser machines and guide them remotely.”
That’s the metaverse, explains Tristan Bishop Pan. “You’ll be able to be anywhere at any time. We’ve always said that you can’t be in 2 places at the same time, but with the metaverse, yes, you can. Your AI will be able to be anywhere it can be projected to.”
The technology behind the metaverse will be so advanced that you will no longer be able to tell the difference between reality and virtual reality. “It won’t matter!” says Tristan Bishop Pan. “That’s the lovely, wonderful, and scary thing about this: we are ultimately building the Matrix. The Matrix movie is nothing more than the metaverse in its infinite form.”
As much good as the metaverse will do, Tristan Bishop Pan believes it will destroy nearly everything as we know it. “The metaverse will destroy television. Phones will be obsolete – there will be no more need for a third-party device.”
Instead, Tristan Bishop Pan explains that If you want to talk to someone, you will be able to just project to them. “They, in turn, will project to you. They will be able to communicate with you without having a third-party device that you have to fit in your pocket. It will all be microchips. The metaverse and the resulting new version of reality is going to change communications entirely.”
Tristan Bishop Pan says that anyone who doubts the metaverse will exist should remember Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook’s creator. “Facebook, one of the world’s most valuable companies, is rebranding themselves to be in the metaverse. You may like Zuck, or you may hate Zuck. However, let’s face it – he’s not stupid. He’s a good businessman. He’s a crafty, shrewd businessman, but he’s a good businessman. If he’s putting his billions of dollars behind this metaverse, take note: this is the next wave of the future.”
Tristan Bishop Pan says it will be a while before the metaverse arrives in all its glory. “You’ll see it gradually happen,” he thinks. “The tech will evolve. One day, sooner than you think, you’ll swerve your car to avoid hitting a squirrel, and you won’t be able to tell whether or not the squirrel was ever actually there. Now that is going to fry your mind!”
