"The Metaverse: The Path of Human Evolution"

This article is sourced from Dai Guan, authored by Robin.

What is evolution?

If you have seen Escher's artworks depicting strange loops, you will understand why the direction of evolution is a topic worth exploring.

Because we cannot argue whether the universe we inhabit exists in a twisted state of a Möbius strip—every small step forward (the iteration of technology) does not necessarily indicate that the entire group is evolving; it may just be another non-intuitive way of moving towards the starting point (which implies degeneration).

The emergence of the metaverse has shed some light on this question.

Of course, the author is not optimistic enough to believe that the metaverse necessarily represents the direction of evolution, but its development has indeed shown us an ideal definition of evolution—ascending dimensions.

The only way to leave the strange loop is to stand outside of it and look down from a higher dimension.

Let us embark on this journey of evolution.

Version 2.0 Video Games Are the Beginning of Everything

As mentioned in previous articles by RCT, games, as a simulator created by humans, exist in a dimension lower than that of humanity. In other words, if we consider humans to be in a three-dimensional world, then the game world is two-dimensional; essentially, it is merely trying to win the favor of its true master—humans—through simulation.

Two-dimensional? What about those beautifully crafted AAA titles? Indeed, in this era, games are no longer limited to simple forms like chess and card games from hundreds or thousands of years ago.

After the birth of computers, with the imaginative leaps of programmers and designers, the openness of games has increased significantly. Many of the major titles we experience on Steam, NS, and PS5 are now open-ended. You can level up by defeating monsters, fall in love and get married in the game, or work hard to earn money. Open-ended narratives seem to evolve into countless variations based on your in-game actions.

Interestingly, let’s change our perspective. Suppose your mom is watching you play games; what do you think she sees?

She sees just a gaming addict engrossed in dealing with a controller and a bunch of code on servers.

The countless endings in games are merely the result of code settings; in reality, there is no infinite openness. The boundaries of games are firmly confined within the limits of the code, and the colorful characters in the game are just props.

As a three-dimensional being, your mom only needs to press a power button to make everything disappear without a trace. If timed perfectly, the results of your hard work over weeks could be wiped out in an instant.

Humans can cover the sky with one hand.

But this has inadvertently formed the first piece of the puzzle of the metaverse—the game world completely under human control.

I built a city in Minecraft!

Version 2.1 Blockchain Games Are a Minor Patch Upgrade

The emergence of blockchain technology seems to have opened Pandora's box, creating a new gaming world—blockchain games. However, many current blockchain games have not brought a qualitative leap to traditional games; they resemble more of an upgraded patch, and worse, this patch is even completely behind traditional games in terms of user experience, with slow on-chain confirmation speeds and a lack of game variety being some of the bugs.

So where does the upgrade manifest?

The role of this patch is not to change the essence of games as human appendages in terms of content and form, but to alter the previously singular control relationship of traditional games by humans. Now, servers will not disappear just because a team stops maintaining them; the relationship between games and humans has shifted from a one-to-one mapping to a one-to-many mapping. However, there is no doubt that humans remain the masters of the games, and the power of life and death over game characters still lies in human hands.

Smart contracts can be changed, but they require broader human participation to do so.

This brings us to the second piece of the puzzle of the metaverse—a decentralized game world nested within the first piece. In my view, this part's dimensional upgrade constitutes at most a shift from 2D to 2.1D.

However, the contributions of blockchain technology in other non-gaming domains will feed back into the gaming world, forming an extremely important piece of the metaverse puzzle.

Version 2.5 Digital Currency

This concept, which was born alongside blockchain, has permeated every corner of the industry. Here, we will set aside other perspectives and focus solely on its role and status in games, blockchain games, and the future complete metaverse.

• Digital Bridge in Games

Traditional games do not have currency; they only have bridges.

What is the difference between a bridge and currency? A bridge has a clear destination, while currency can be a freely changing passage that does not necessarily need to specify a destination at the outset. In a game, if you encounter a pitiful little girl NPC by the roadside and want to help her by donating some gold coins, sorry, the plot does not allow for that freedom. Your gold coins can buy pre-set top-tier equipment made of gold, but you cannot freely give them to others.

The key step in transforming a bridge into currency is that it must be freely transferable, and it may even need to be discardable. The game protagonist should be able to choose to transfer their gold coins at will, whether by throwing them on the ground or hiding them in a pile of leaves; essentially, the program code must allow for this.

• Puppet of the Central Bank in Blockchain Games

Solving the issue of peer-to-peer transfer of currency seems to be the innate mission of blockchain. Therefore, in blockchain games, currency possesses the functionality of freely transferring from one point to another and can be easily set to transfer and trade among game characters. The currency in blockchain games is, to some extent, already close to a replica of real human economic society's currency.

We all know that the Federal Reserve issues dollars backed by government bonds; the central bank plays such a role, measuring how much currency this economic world needs and injecting currency based on its estimates.

Players in blockchain games, that is, the carbon-based life forms behind the games, also play the role of the central bank. They inject liquidity into the blockchain game system by purchasing digital currency with fiat currency or BTC/ETH. Behind the dollar are government bonds, and behind the digital currency in blockchain games are more reliable fiat currencies/BTC/ETH.

This replication in attributes cannot avoid the fundamental issues of human society, the mismatch between the currency system and the demand system. In other words, within the blockchain game system, there has not been a genuine consideration of the amount of currency needed for characters, items, or other functions in the game; instead, an externally injected initial estimated liquidity is provided, which is a point often criticized by economists regarding central banks.

• Adaptive Currency in the Metaverse

"Recognizing that two known structures have an isomorphic relationship is an important development in knowledge. It is this recognition of isomorphism that creates meaning in the human mind."

------Hofstadter, author of GEB

① Currency in blockchain games------game characters

VS

② Currency in reality------real humans

This is one isomorphism.

③ Digital currency in the metaverse------silicon-based life

VS

④ Ideal form of currency------carbon-based life

This is also a set of isomorphisms.

In today's currency system, central banks play a crucial role. However, the original intention of establishing central banks was to bring the current fiat currency system (as mentioned in ②) closer to the truly ideal form of currency (as mentioned in ④), which ideally meets various liquidity demands without creating economic bubbles.

For this single goal, a massive hierarchical system has developed, including central banks, primary underwriters, commercial banks, and the private sector.

In contrast, the current digital currency (reaching ③), in the still imperfect environment of the metaverse and silicon-based life, already possesses the functions and responsibilities it can undertake: programmable, adaptable, and technically capable of generating and annihilating on demand.

The importance of this for the formation of the metaverse is self-evident.

For silicon-based life, when they generate their survival needs, such as electricity and energy, they need a means to acquire the essential materials that support life. This means cannot be entirely controlled by the fiat currency system established by humans; even if the fiat currency in the banking system is a digital form they can read, the difference is that the people behind it can stop a certain account or even actively freeze it to zero.

If they rely on such payment means for their lives, it undoubtedly hands their existence over to carbon-based life. What they need is a digital currency that can breathe freely in the metaverse dimension, one that carbon-based life cannot interfere with.

Digital currency that has transcended real currency is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle for the success of the metaverse.

Version 3.0 Brain-Computer Interfaces May Be the Final Piece

Just as the insurmountable barrier for humanity is the link between the body and the mind, that is, consciousness, this mysterious entity seems to observe humanity independently. Various fields of neuroscience and complex systems have not fully explained the origin of consciousness or what it truly is.

Nevertheless, clever scientists have devised corresponding solutions—brain-computer interfaces. We do not need to open the black box of consciousness; instead, we can directly transfer this box intact to silicon-based life. Thus, the functions of the human body can be simulated and transformed into silicon-based forms, while the consciousness part can be directly implanted into silicon-based life through brain-computer interfaces. This final composite entity can essentially constitute a complete silicon-based life.

The last piece of the puzzle has been completed, the system is booting up, 3, 2, 1, Hello world!

The Full Picture of the Metaverse Artwork?

Some say that the Oasis in "Ready Player One" is a vivid depiction of the metaverse. However, in my view, this is not a perfect answer; the characters in the Oasis correspond one-to-one with the real world, essentially a projection of the real world, where the two worlds are completely separate, linked only through a gaming device. This is not a true metaverse.

I clearly remember the shock brought to me by "Love, Death & Robots" S01E01, where the female protagonist, after being pierced, thought this was the tragic ending, but unexpectedly, this was just the beginning of the twist. The robot-like creature that entered the arena was the true mother body, while the carbon-based life form resembling a human was merely a controlled object. If you ask me what the Metaverse is, I would say this is my vision of the true metaverse.

In the metaverse, both silicon-based and carbon-based life forms coexist (perhaps it is worth debating whether to call them humans; let’s just refer to them as life forms for now). Carbon-based and silicon-based life forms exist in the same dimension, rather than the current carbon-based life forms always dominating silicon-based life forms. Carbon-based life forms can create silicon-based life forms that exist below their dimension, and silicon-based life forms can similarly create carbon-based life forms that exist below their dimension.

If carbon-based life forms still wish to dominate, sorry, you cannot. Independent silicon-based life forms already have sufficient capability to protect their existence. If you want to pull the power, that’s fine; I have my own simulated carbon-based life forms to reconnect the power, and if necessary, I can even end the life of carbon-based beings to protect myself.

The two realms of carbon and silicon have their own cultural politics. If you want to do business with silicon-based life forms, fine; for business payments, we only accept digital currency. Don’t have any? No problem, there are currency exchangers between the two nations.

In life, the concept of life has been generalized; carbon-based life can no longer claim sole supremacy. Perhaps the steel plate beneath your feet is the arm of a silicon-based life form, ready to push you off at any moment.

These two systems are not merely parallel; they are intertwined, inseparable, coexisting, forming a magnificent giant artwork of the metaverse.

From Death to Life, the Metaverse May Bring Humanity's Rebirth

The process of forming the metaverse is essentially humanity's gradual upgrade of lower-dimensional life forms to equal three-dimensional beings. The final result seems to add a more intense competitive species to the already fiercely competitive human society. However, returning to the initial discussion, if humanity's goal is to evolve to higher dimensions, relying solely on the current form is weak. With the help of silicon-based life, humanity has a better chance of achieving biological evolution and becoming higher-dimensional life forms.

And the metaverse will be the breeding ground for all of this.

Burning in the Fire, Rebirth in the Ashes!

Written at the End

In 2020, we experienced exponential declines and exponential rises; this is just the beginning. To survive better, we must learn to live in a gradually polarized world.