Pre-Written Metaverse Digital Content Store
Pre-Written Metaverse Digital Content Store
This article was originally posted on site: nature.com
Written By: Diego Gómez-Zará, Peter Schiffer & Dashun Wang
The metaverse can improve the accessibility of scientific laboratories and meetings, aid in reproducibility efforts and provide new opportunities for experimental design. But researchers and research institutions must plan ahead and be ready to mitigate potential harms.
Some technology companies and media have anointed the metaverse as the future of the internet1. Advances in virtual reality devices and high-speed connections, combined with the acceptance of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, have brought considerable attention to the metaverse as more than a mere curiosity for gaming. Despite substantial investments and ambitiously optimistic pronouncements, the future of the metaverse remains uncertain: its definitions and boundaries alternate among dystopian visions, a mixture of technologies (for example, Web3 and blockchain) and entertainment playgrounds.
As a better-defined and more-coherent realization of the metaverse continues to evolve, scientists have already started bringing their laboratories to 3D virtual spaces2, running experiments with virtual reality3 and augmenting knowledge by using immersive representations4. We consider how scientists can flexibly and responsibly leverage the metaverse, prepare for its uncertain future and avoid some of its pitfalls (Fig. 1).
To understand how the metaverse might affect the global research enterprise, we build on existing applications of metaverse technologies in science to evaluate the different ways in which the metaverse might affect scientific research, collaboration and learning. We further discuss the various pitfalls that the metaverse may bring to science and scientists, which researchers and science policymakers should consider carefully.
Here we define the metaverse as an immersive and persistent 3D environment in which people synchronously interact with others, with virtual agents and objects, and with representations of objects from the physical world. This definition has three components. First, the metaverse enables interactions with both digital environments and physical objects located in different places, all within an immersive environment that is persistent through time. Second, the metaverse enables individuals to interact with other people in remote locations. Third, by incorporating concepts such as the internet-of-things and digital twins5, the metaverse enables objects manipulated in virtual reality to cause effects in the physical world and correspondingly enables remote physical phenomena to directly affect the immersive experience.
In anticipating various potential opportunities for science, here we build on existing early-stage applications to evaluate how the metaverse might help to address several current issues of concern for the research enterprise.
Scientific facilities and meetings are geographically dispersed across the globe, which poses a barrier to accessibility for researchers who are not co-located or who have mobility challenges. Moreover, hectic schedules, prohibitive travel expenses, travel restrictions, lack of access to childcare and increasing greenhouse gas emissions all limit access for many researchers. Video conferencing and online communication platforms, although immensely helpful, lack many of the benefits of meeting in person6. Screens narrow the attention and focus of scientists, by filtering out other stimuli that are essential in generating new ideas7. Holding meetings by video reduces opportunities for serendipitous discussions in the hallways, and hinder social connections and a sense of social presence. The 3D character of the metaverse could ameliorate some of these issues and further facilitate collaboration and communication. Furthermore, recorded 3D meetings in the metaverse can recreate the space, the attendees and their real-time reactions with fidelity, expanding access across the globe.
The metaverse can also enable personalized, immersive 3D environments to simulate and connect with remote laboratories. Scientists could visit them remotely, share them with other research groups and optimize their operations virtually before making physical changes. As such, distant scientists can be immersed together to collaborate and work with the same instruments and facilities. For instance, scientists at UCL School of Pharmacy have developed a digital replica of their laboratory that can be visited through virtual reality2.
In both meeting and laboratory environments, artificial intelligence (AI) models could embody themselves within the metaverse as virtual agents or become part of the environment — all with the effect of enhancing collaborative scientific outcomes and human–AI teaming. For example, large language models can be implemented natively as virtual assistants to source information, provide recommendations or translate conversations to overcome language barriers.
The reproducibility of experimental results is a critical issue for the credibility of science, which often hinges on precise record keeping. With the advent of the metaverse, instead of recording with handwritten or electronic laboratory notebooks, scientists could combine the use of cameras and sensors to record and then replicate laboratory conditions and procedures in immersive 3D simulations. Researchers can use headsets to record what they do, generating a first-person point-of-view in 3D. The resulting recordings — including the researchers, devices, room, materials and how the process evolves — could then be uploaded to the metaverse. Unlike video recordings, the metaverse can integrate the states of materials, objects and devices that are manipulated by the researchers, and automatically include data streams from instruments in the laboratories. Such immersive records would enable anyone to revisit what the scientists did. When questions arise, collaborators or reviewers can be present in the experiment in the metaverse along with the original researchers, either synchronously or asynchronously. Furthermore, implementing blockchain technologies for these recordings could make them immutable and trustworthy8 — attributes that are especially important for expensive experiments or valuable equipment and samples. Owing to costs and logistical considerations, such solutions could not be universally implemented but they would make sense for studies of high impact for which replication might be challenging for a range of reasons.
One of the greatest challenges in maintaining a research programme is the appropriate training of new group members. The details of scientific processes can vary substantially between groups, and the time-honoured approach to training through one-on-one personal interactions is time-consuming, depends on co-location, is prone to disruptions due to personnel changes and often limits the sharing of techniques among groups.
The metaverse has the potential to enhance the process of such knowledge transfer. Research teams can design experiences using virtual reality technologies and share them at scale. Revisiting and experiencing what previous researchers did and being fully immersed in the metaverse — perhaps in the presence of a remote trainer — would naturally help trainees to replicate and learn laboratory procedures. Such training sessions conducted on the metaverse could also reduce research inequalities by allowing access to institutions across the globe. One example we can consider is the virtual laboratory training developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learners use a head-mounted display to immerse themselves in a virtual laboratory, where they need to identify the major parts of the laboratory, demonstrate how to keep the instrumentation working, apply safe work practices and conduct emergency procedures. As an added advantage, unlike traditional training, virtual simulation would enable learners to make costly mistakes without real-world consequences.