Metaverses: Their Effects on the Greater Consciousness

Fond memories flood my mind when I look back on my childhood days. Days of biking through open fields and wandering the ravines that backed our townhome. Of collecting rocks and burying shoeboxes full of 'perceived' treasures to be found by some other child of the future. I remember my collection of pressed leaves and the odd dead 'bug' that I would find and keep enclosed in a glass jar to be later analyzed. I remember the reams and reams of 'code' that I developed for my secret spy ring that would be scotch taped to the back wall of my closet, hidden carefully behind my hanging clothes.

I am remembering all these things as I sit here underneath a tree in a city park with my laptop, wirelessly accessing the 'information superhighway', as it was called back in the early '90's, while my avatar (a pixelated online representation of myself) is dressed in construction worker attire, creating a commercial build for a Japanese company in Second Life (an online virtual world created by Linden Lab of San Francisco).

"two paradigm shifts within a decade ..."

I have been immersed in the digital medium before it even became a reality to the rest of mainstream. When Nicholas Negroponte's book, "Being Digital" came out in 1995 I read that book cover to cover and twice over that same week. My thoughts were deeply intertwined with the concepts and visions that he had presented.

"Being Digital" reminded me of Alvin Toffler's book, "Future Shock", that came out in 1970. Both books stand side by side one another on a book shelf.

Both these books had a considerable impact on the way I viewed the world. I have realized that I had lived my life being aware that I was amidst an era of immense technological change and advancement - thus opening and preparing my mind for the world of the future. A future where children's experiences would be so different from that of my childhood. A future that would see two paradigm shifts within a decade and would become privy to witnessing their impact on our daily lives, in a global scale.

The first paradigm shift was the advent of the world wide web when it became accessible to the mainstream. Because of this 2D Platform I was able to sit on my bed and book a plane ticket to Europe, transfer funds from within my bank accounts, upload photos of my chihuahua to an online page to be viewed by my friends in another hemisphere and talk to my partner in Germany using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) all while watching the CNN morning news in video format - from my laptop (a laptop that was not connected to any cable or power source!)

"Closing the gap of the Digital Divide is inevitable."

The second paradigm shift actually started occurring almost simultaneously along with the 2D Platform - the creation of 3D virtual worlds or metaverses.

It behooves me to think that with all the hype Second Life received from the mainstream media being a platform for collaboration with education, the arts and various other projects, there have been other 3D platforms that have been quietly doing the same for the past decade, all with a healthy following of Real Life businesses, universities and the like. New metaverses are also being created by the handful almost every month (don't quote me on this, this is just suspect).

One 3D platform to watch out for is HiPiHi Ltd, a Chinese based company whose founder and CEO, Hui Xu was recently quoted as saying in a recent press release, "It is just a beginning of the globalization of the 3D virtual world." - just the beginning is an understatement.

I am NOT about to make a comparison between other metaverses (that is a whole other blog in itself). In my head, however, I am wondering what impact, both positive and negative, will these metaverses have on our societies. I can only wonder that on one planet alone, our earth, we have so many variables that keep us distanced from one another, religion, race, politics, sexual orientation, just to name a few.

Metaverses are being created where people can choose which platform or platforms best suits their tastes - will these metaverses separate us even more, I wonder.

In 2005 I blogged an entry about how Second Life can actually be used as a testing platform for improvement of Real Life social, business, industrial and educational models. It would be a place where we can create, improve and implement 'things that will work' for the benefit of the other 3D world (planet earth) and perhaps, humanity as a whole. Back then, I was only aware of Second Life and ignorant to the other 3D worlds that have been around for more than a decade. Second Life to me was the ultimate communication tool 'on cocaine'. Visions of a better world - through the use of Second Life's platform sent my mind reeling off in tangents.

This lead me to begin my journey into 3D platforms and other metaverses. This also lead me to realize the inevitable, possible, perceived 'separateness' that metaverses would have on 'us'. Or would it?

Then I thought ...

I remembered a few years ago reading something on Group Souls and Twin Soul Mates. It has suddenly struck me that with 'like minds attracting', these various metaverses may serve, on a metaphysical level, platforms for Group Souls to get together and achieve common goals. This thought appeased me, somewhat. I will continue to observe these various metaverses and follow up on blog entries and the like, on how these metaverses are changing and impacting our global society.

After these thoughts had raced through my mind, I took a charcoal pencil and quickly drew what came into my mind. The drawing was this.

Later, I logged into Second Life and made a 3D representation of the sketch.

The middle sphere represents the earth. The other smaller spheres around the 'earth' represent the different metaverse platforms that exist. Each metaverse platform, esoterically, also represents a Group Soul. There would be many more Group Soul groups, I only chose a handful of smaller spheres for easy visual. The larger, transparent sphere, where the 'earth' and the Group Soul spheres are enclosed in, represents the Global of Greater Consciousness.

My theory is this:

Each metaverse serves as a platform for various 'like minds' to connect and collaborate as they see fit. There may be similiar projects being collaborated on in the other metaverses and that is a good thing because ultimately the energies of all are somehow connected and related anyway and on an esoteric level, increasing the 'frequency' or 'vibrational' qualities of a specific 'thought project' .

I intend to explain this theory in more detail, but for now I will leave it as is. There are other 3D platforms I need to discover and explore and I hope to bring to you more insight into all of them.