Going beyond the final frontier

What is the metaverse?

t’s the overarching term used to describe the next big phase of the internet, in which advances in a range of new technologies – including virtual and augmented reality – are predicted to transform the online world into a more immersive, 3D experience, blurring the physical and the digital. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg (who has just rebranded his company as Meta Platforms to position it as a “metaverse company”) describes the metaverse as “an internet you’re inside of, rather than just looking at” – a place where you, or