{"id":23571,"date":"2023-01-24T13:01:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T16:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andreaiorio.com\/?p=23571"},"modified":"2023-01-24T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T16:01:13","slug":"what-is-a-programmable-world-and-how-does-it-combine-with-the-metaverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andreaiorio.com\/en\/blog\/what-is-a-programmable-world-and-how-does-it-combine-with-the-metaverse\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0What is a “programmable world” and how does it combine with the Metaverse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was recently studying an Accenture report called “Meet me in the Metaverse”, which explores the main building blocks behind the construction of what they call the “Metaverse Continuum”. First, what is the Metaverse Continuum all about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Accenture, it is a spectrum of digitally enhanced worlds, realities and business models poised to revolutionize life and business over the next decade, and the word Continuum complementing the Metaverse refers to the metaverse as a continuum evolving and expanding across multiple dimensions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 various technologies including XR, blockchain, artificial intelligence, digital twins and smart objects \u2013 including edge computing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 It encompasses the \u201cvirt-real\u201d \u2013 the range of experiences, from virtual to a mixture of virtual and physical, in other words, the immersive phygital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Describes the spectrum of immersive consumer experiences and the new business models that will be reinvented and transformed by the Metaverse in every enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within this Continuum, as I mentioned, Accenture points out to have 4 decisive and fundamental blocks for its construction, they are the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WebMe, ie introducing the Self into the Metaverse;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Unreal, that is, transforming synthetic into authentic, where AI-generated data and synthetic content mimic what is \u201creal\u201d in a very assertive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Computing the Impossible, in other words, as a new generation of computers are solving some of the world’s most unsolvable problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And finally, the “Programmable World”, ie how control, customization and automation are being part of the world around us, making the physical world as programmable as the digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0And it is precisely this programmable world, and its role in the construction of the Metaverse, that we are going to explore in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In 1970, NASA’s famous Apollo 13 mission had a big problem: after the spacecraft was launched into space, the oxygen tank suddenly exploded and the situation became critical. To save the astronauts, NASA used a digital model of Apollo 13 to simulate it. After many attempts, they found a solution and sent it to the astronauts in the spacecraft. In other words, it was in those years that the world came across the first version of a Digital Twin, a concept that we have already learned well throughout my Podcast, the Meta Leadership, and that it is a digital replica of a real object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, in 1974, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created the first connected Internet of Things device. It was a Coca-Cola vending machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Nichols, a student in CMU’s computer science department, got thirsty while in his office, and since the nearest vending machine was far away and was probably empty, he didn’t want to get up to get a drink. Instead, he thought he could connect the machine to a light that flashed in his office when someone was about to get a Coke, or when the machine was going to run out of soda or when it was being restocked. That’s when two other students, Mike Kazar and Ivor Durham, started working on the project, and they plugged in the device, connected it to ARPANET (an old early version of the Internet), wrote some codes, and the light, voila, started to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might be asking yourself: Andrea, why did you go so far back in time to talk about a future trend like the Metaverse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because if we are going to follow some reasoning here, we have to start with the very definition of the Metaverse, which is the combination of two spheres: the virtual world that replicates the physical world, and the digitally enhanced physical world. Here we can see, then, that in the 70s and 80s, work began on the blocks that make up the metaverse, that is, on the one hand Digital Twins, and on the other hand Iot (which, however, was a term that was only popularized in 1999).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the second step of this reasoning that we need to realize together is the following: what was the main way that allowed this to happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was obviously the ability to program, whether the physical world through IoT, or the Digital world through lines of code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when we look at the world that awaits us, from an immersive metaverse, or Continuum as Accenture called it, the key will be exactly the same: the ability to program this world, and that, however, goes through much more advanced technologies and tools. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n