Author/Han Shujie
Source/Han Shujie (ID: han-shujie)
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2021 is known as the first year of the "metacosm".
Is it hot? How to say it, it's ok. Someone has already said that this concept has been "rotten street", and it seems that even mentioning it will dirty his mouth. This year, it is not easy to appear superior instead of being scolded as a second commodity.
Fortunately, everyone has been accustomed to various hot concepts over the years, P2P, crowdfunding, AR/VR, blockchain, what is the meta-universe?
Rising from tall buildings and feasting guests, each leading the way for two or three years, with a wide range of knowledge, the mentality will be peaceful. Of course, in addition, these two years do not have so much capital and mood to support your excitement. Come to think of it, the big guys are still lining up to pay fines.
Tune up and float, take it back.
For most non-professionals, of course, it is necessary to follow up on the progress of the times, hot concepts, understand some common sense, and watch a hilarity, but there is no need to spend a lot of time to do special research.
So, how to better and simpler and more intuitively understand the "metaverse"?
My advice is, watch the movies.
If the metaverse is roughly understood as a "digital virtual world" (see my article for a detailed discussion: Metacosmology), then there are many movies with the attribute of "metacosm", and I think there are five very typical ones that are worth watching.
1. The Matrix
The "Matrix" series, in the history of science fiction movies, must have a strong stroke.
In the future, humans will be controlled and "captive" by an artificial intelligence system called matrix, living in a realistic virtual world without knowing it. A very small number of people who awakened in reality formed a resistance organization, and under the leadership of the leader Morpheus, they found the legendary "savior" (network hacker Neo) in the matrix, and jointly embarked on the road of fighting against the matrix.
Directed by the Wachowski Brothers, released by Warner Bros., starring Keanu Reeves and others, the film has been released three times: The Matrix (March 31, 1999), The Matrix 2: Reloaded (May 15, 2003), and The Matrix 3: The Matrix Revolution (November 5, 2003). The Matrix 4: The Matrix Reborn is scheduled to be released in North America on December 22, 2021.
As a classic brain-burning science fiction movie, there are many details in the film that are worth playing, and various analytical articles are also in the opinion, and if you are interested, you can study it carefully.
It is hard to imagine that "The Matrix", released 22 years ago, even in the "first year of the metaverse", is a very advanced and typical metaverse scene, covering many important elements of the metaverse discussed today:
Immersive digital virtual world like reality; human beings think they live in the real world, but they live in the "metacosm" created by "higher civilizations"; switch between the virtual world and the real world through brain-computer interface; artificial intelligence ultimately controls human beings and "captive" humans in the virtual world.
In addition to the virtual world, the film also reflects the catastrophic risk of the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence that many contemporary gods (such as Hawking, Musk, etc.) are worried about.
In short, this 22-year-old film is not only an audiovisual feast, but also enough to cause you to reflect on human existence and technological development.
2. Inception
Strictly speaking, Inception is not a typical metaverse movie, but if we equate "dream" with "virtual world", or expand our understanding of "metaverse", then "Inception" is completely similar and classic.
Released on July 16, 2010, this sci-fi movie, directed by Nolan Dashen and starring Leonardo and others, tells the story of a team of "secret agents" led by top dreammakers, who enter other people's dreams, not only steal secrets from the subconscious, but even transform the thoughts and behaviors of others in reality by implanting thoughts and information in dreams.
This is also a movie that is recognized as very brain-burning. The film presents a "Zhuang Zhou Mengdi" style scene, in which the parties in the dream cannot even distinguish between reality and dreams (giving a way of turning the gyroscope, leaving an open-ended ending), and there are multiple dreams (dreaming in dreams).
The film presents quadruple dreams (brain-burning dots, different people have different understandings), like Russian matryoshka dolls, but in theory multiple dreams can be infinitely nested. I also mentioned the multiverse in the Metacosm Philosophy, in which the metacosm was created, to infinity. Further expanded, this is also a way of understanding "parallel universes", "multiverses", and "artificial universes".
3. Ready player one
When talking about the metaverse, it is almost necessary to talk about "Ready Player One", and many people use this movie to image the analogy and explanation of the metacosm.
Directed by big director Spielberg, Ready Player One tells the story of the chaotic collapse of the real world in 2045, when people are addicted to the genius Halliday through VR equipment to create a virtual game universe: "Oasis". When Halliday dies, he leaves the huge fortune and ownership of the "oasis" to the first person to break through three puzzles to find out the easter eggs hidden in the game, and the protagonist and his friends will embark on an adventure and competitive journey in the virtual world, becoming a superhero who realizes his dreams.
Compared with "The Matrix" and "Inception", "Ready Player One" is not brain-burning, but it intuitively presents that through VR glasses and other devices, humans can temporarily leave the unsatisfactory real world, enter the imaginative virtual world scene, and become a superhero.
The scenes shown in the movie do not seem to be out of reach for the current AR/VR and game technology.
4. Hacker in different dimensions
"Alien Hacker" was released in the same year as "The Matrix", although far less than the latter's standard and fame, but it is also a classic science fiction film that presents a nested virtual world.
Directed by Russnack, the film tells the story of scientist Fowler and others who used computers to create virtual worlds: los Angeles in 1937, who could implant their own consciousness into the brains of selected objects in the virtual world, borrowing his body to do whatever they wanted. But Fowler suddenly dies, and his friend and partner Hall becomes the number one suspect, in order to find out the truth, Hall travels back and forth between the real world and the virtual world, only to find that the world they thought they were in was also a virtual world created.
In the film, people in the "virtual" world think that they live in "reality", and people in the "real" world can "substitute" for people in the virtual world (similar to "possession") and do whatever they can't do in the "real" world (cheating, killing, enjoying themselves). At the end of the story, not only can people in the "upper world" be "possessed" to people in the "lower world", but people in the "lower world" can also be "possessed" to people in the "upper world" in reverse.
The reason why "virtual" and "real" are put in quotation marks is because the film presents a triple world, and the people of each world think that they live in reality. And at least two worlds are virtual worlds created by the previous world —another Russian nesting matryoshka.
5. Creation: War Discipline
Released in 2010, TRON: Chronicles of War is the sequel to the 1982 classic sci-fi film Battle for the Electronic World.
Computer game genius Kevin founded Yingkang, but mysteriously disappeared shortly after. Years later, his son Sam found the secret room and computer where his father worked, and after several operations, he was digitized and entered the video game world created by his father, engaged in a thrilling confrontation and battle, not only found his father hiding in the electronic world, but also found that the villain was the stand-in in the electronic world created by his father.
"TRON: Battle Chronicles" presents a different technical approach from AR/VR devices, realizing the digitization of people, thus entering the electronic world, and returning from the electronic world to the real world. The story setting is not outstanding, but the visual experience is not bad.
For understanding the metaverse, these five films are more classic and have their own characteristics.
In addition, there are some movies that embody AR/VR, possession, virtual worlds, parallel worlds, multiverses, foreseeing the future and other elements, such as "Soul Shifting City", "Source Code", "Truman's World", "Iron Man", "Avatar", etc., but in my opinion, they cannot be regarded as typical "metaverse" concept movies.
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