“That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
I am quite sure every reader has come across this thought and roams around places of their imaginary visions. Books introduce you to the universe of fictional and non-fictional instances. They let you dive deep into possibilities, juggle with diverse faces and clues, and then hug you with mixed feelings. You want to run, you need legs – but with books, you can handle your own roller-coaster, even above the seventh heaven!
“Of course, it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”
– Albus Dumbledore, Deathly Hallows
Let’s understand the parallel universe – Metaverse. This is a concept of social connection through a network of virtual worlds. It is an advanced form of “Cyberspace”, where encompassing virtual worlds exist even when you are not active. It can be any form, like VR, game consoles, digital platforms for economy, shopping and what not! You just have to be present in this unrealistic platform, and bang, you have your own avatar, a big inventory, poolside vacation or even a personalized movie theater. Nothing is impossible.
With this emerging technology, it is obvious that both must have a great connection to live. The term "metaverse" itself originates from a book’s reference in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of "meta" and "universe."
Let’s say, a virtual world “Decentraland” is managed by the people’s avatar, who can buy and sell real estate available there, just like in real world, and then there are books, which offers a broad but specific understanding of the basics of personal finance and investing e.g. “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, “Keepers of Castle” etc.
To clarify more on this point, Metaverse has an action-adventure game “Mines of Dalarnia” which takes you deep into the world of mines, where you can find all sorts of resources, items, gears and more, and of course you must fight for it to survive and earn more points. Similarly, “Ready Player One”, by American author Ernest Cline, is one of the many science fiction novels which focuses on all types of virtual reality games. This book has the story plot around the same to search for Easter Eggs, and the discovery of which would lead one to inherit the game creator's fortune.
“The Devil wears Prada”, by Lauren Weisberger, is a story revolving around fashion magazines and ambition for higher success in fashionable trends. Now there’s H & M, who has a metaverse store to let you buy clothes in a virtual world. Who knows what Miranda Priestly will do there, right? LOL!
So, you name it, and books have everything to put up a sign on Metaverse’s sentiments one by one!
And yeah, there’s one more interesting fact regarding the metaverse, NFT! NFTs or non-fungible tokens are a new class of digital assets, which help in representing the ownership of digital and physical assets on the blockchain. Starting from digital artwork to the gaming industry, NFTs are making a huge impact everywhere. NFT metaverse projects would drive the possibilities of using NFTs as deed to virtual property and could help in gaining exclusive access to enter the location in metaverse alongside allowing access to others. So, people can buzz in, bid for the digital piece as per their perspective and ratings will be dependent on highest bidder or majority demands. Similarly, books provide you with visual modality. It doesn’t matter what book’s genre is, it’s all on you (the bidder!), who can review on a personal basis of understanding and importance.
We have heard enormous controversies of books vs movies, but this, Metaverse, my friend, is an upcoming rivalry for complete hyped futuristic habitat.
I remember those times from my childhood, where the smell of books, cuckoo’s nest of surroundings filled with radio broadcast news, construction noises, and the aroma of cooked food mesmerized our whole era of reading days at home. I remember, I used to spend an immense amount of time in libraries and book fairs, and indulged myself around the clock. With the rising virtual planet, we are now more into technical prison to evolve as a different species. Metaverse has taken undivided attention from techies.
Book readers are a kind of person, who connect life with literary genres and their sophisticated harmony of it. We don’t know how the forthcoming days of survival will be, what will be dimensions of the world where books will be even recognized or not, but I certainly believe that this new world of advancements can never blow over the emotions of Hogwarts’s fantasies.
By
Preity Rashmi
IG Handle: @preity_rashmi
(Preity Rashmi is a professional developer, who loves to live around books and chai. She is a fiery solo traveler and enthusiastic reader. No one can beat her in selecting appetising cuisines in different places, and thus she is fond of exploring food and the factual art related to it. If you need a specific genre playlist recommendation, book review or just a healthy conversation to cherish – she is all yours!)
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