On January 21, the Metaverse Development Research Report Version 2.0 was jointly released by a team led by Shen Yang, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, the high-level humanoid robot Qingxin, the real-life replica virtual human Xinyue, and the cartoon virtual human Yuanling. As the world’s first academic report jointly released by a natural human, robot, and virtual human, the report depicts future scenarios of the metaverse, shedding light on its development trends and potential risks.

As early as 1990, Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen (Tsien Hsue-shen) had mentioned “Virtual Reality” in his manuscript, and he wanted to translate it into “lingjing” (literally “spiritual realm”) in Chinese, so that it could be applied to human-computer integration and human brain development. Qian emphasized that this technology would trigger some world-shaking changes and become a major event in human history. This is the budding of the metaverse in China.

The recognized concept of the metaverse comes from the 1992 American science fiction novel Snow Crash. The novel depicts a sprawling virtual reality world where people use digital avatars to control futuristic settings. In other words, avatars are an integral part of the metaverse.

On March 10, 2021, Roblox, a game compatible with the virtual world, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first metaverse concept stock offering. This showcases the metaverse’s commercial value.

Unlike the business world, academia’s interest in the metaverse focuses on the induction and exploration of the basic elements that constitute the virtual world, said Jiang Qiping, director of the Center for Informatization Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “What we care about is what elements constitute the basic plates of the new continent of civilization, and the fact that the concept of the metaverse may continue to evolve and expand in the future.”

In the metaverse state, the real world and the virtual world are two parallel worlds, which will have an impact on social structures, social ethics, and cultural heritage, said Zhang Hongzhong, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University. People’s foci, discourse modes, and habits of media use will change accordingly in the metaverse, which will provide new concepts in journalism and communication research, and will also have a profound impact on people’s mentality and their way of thinking.

Shen noted that the development of the virtual world will further expand the boundaries of human thought, triggering new reflections on the technical, ethical, and legal issues of physical rules, AI, robots, and digital humans.

In the short term, although the concept of the metaverse is currently enthusiastically sought after by the capital market, the industry is still in its infancy with many uncertainties. The public, industry, and market all need to return to rationality to avoid capital speculation and capital bubbles. Shen warned that the development of the metaverse also brings a series of social and technological risks.

In the long run, should the metaverse become an environment on which human life depends, then its stability would be a primary concern, Shen noted. Coping with the pressure of computing power, reducing computing costs, and ensuring the stability of servers will become major issues related to the national economy and people’s livelihoods.

In addition, virtual and real economic systems make economic risks more difficult to predict, while addiction, social alienation, ethical disorder, and privacy protection may also give rise to a series of social problems. “As such, for the future development of the metaverse, we must plan ahead and guide it in time,” Shen concluded.