Want to work in the metaverse? Talking Tech podcast

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Hey there listeners. It's Brett Melina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. You've likely heard us talk quite a bit about the metaverse. Are you ready to start working in the metaverse? That might happen a lot sooner than you think. Microsoft co-founder and billionaire, Bill Gates, predicts most workers will take their virtual meetings within the metaverse in the next two or three years. I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.usatoday.com.

If you think Zoom has not been fun for you, as far as doing stuff remotely, although it's been a godsend to a lot of us, I'm sure there are some folks who prefer the physical interaction being with other people, and so Zoom might not be as fun for them as it is for others. Get ready for the metaverse, which is going to apparently take this to a whole other level.

Back to Bill Gates. He shared his thoughts in A Year in Review post that he published on his personal website. This is what he says, "I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids, which I call the Hollywood Squares model, although I know that probably dates me, to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars." Now he does note that one of the big challenges here is it's going to take a while for this technology to be adopted because a lot of the tools that are required for this aren't available to a lot of people. Virtual reality goggles come to mind.

Bill Gates also talked about some sort of motion, hand gesture, gloves, or things like that to mimic hand gestures while your digital self is placed in the universe. He still is optimistic though, that there have been enough advances made where this is a matter of time. There are companies that specialize in 3D avatars. Also spatial audio, you've probably heard this when we talked about earbuds and things like that, where it feels like the audio is just, it feels like natural audio, as opposed to just piping through a speaker. As that becomes more advanced, we might see more of the metaverse take off.

If you're still not sure what the metaverse is, super quick explainer. It's essentially this digital realm where you combine virtual reality, augmented reality, other elements like video, social media, everything into this virtual universe. What exactly makes us different from the internet? From what it feels like, the metaverse is all those things, but you sort of can live in this virtual universe as well. You're really spending a lot more time engaged and with your digital self.

There's a lot of talk about the technology behind this, like being more seamless, so we're not using goggles, but we're using stuff that allows us to still interact in the real world, but we're also attuned to what's happening virtually. Obviously we've seen a lot of companies step forward in support of the metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg being one, the CEO of Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook.

We've seen a lot of games and products approach this stuff. Minecraft, for example, Roblox is probably the biggest one. They've done a lot of partnerships with companies like Ralph Lauren and Vans, where they introduce products and players can buy virtual products for their avatar and basically live in this little world.

As for the workplace, I have two different thoughts about this. On the one hand, again, I just feel like being in person to physical interaction is just something that is important. I think for a lot of people, that's super important.

On the other hand, though, if you're someone that prefers working remotely and you have this as an option, it feels like this makes it much easier for you to be remote and yet still feel like you do have a bit of a connection to other people. Also the bonuses, your avatar can wear a suit and you can just be at home in sweatpants or whatever. It's great.

But but the other drawback too, is spending hours sitting with virtual reality goggles and other stuff, that just feels like a lot. I think we might see more of this stuff kind of slowly trickle into what we use as far as tech in the workplace. But as far as the thought of spending several hours at a time with goggles on doing stuff, that just feels like a lot. That just feels like too much for your brain for just mentally. I think the physical interaction thing is still important to a lot of people and it's just, that's us by nature.

We'll see how this takes off. We'll see what kind of sprinkles into our work experiences over the next couple years, but we'll have you covered on all this. You can read coverage of the metaverse and much more on tech.usatoday.com.

Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas, any tech problems you want us to try to address? What are your thoughts on the metaverse? Do you still have no clue what it is? Are you looking forward to it? Are you not looking forward to it? Let me know on Twitter. I'm @BrettMolina 23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.