First Metaverse Envisioner Neal Stephenson's Discussion With Meta The author Neal Stephenson who envisioned the Metaverse 30 years ago, on Wednesday sat and explained the engineering breakthroughs needed to perfect the virtual world experience at the World Economic Forum Panel held in Davos, Switzerland.

By Kavya Pillai

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Photo by Muhammad Asyfaul on Unsplash

The author Neal Stephenson who envisioned the Metaverse 30 years ago, on Wednesday sat down with Chris Cox, the Chief Product Officer at Meta and explained the engineering breakthroughs needed to perfect the virtual world experience at the World Economic Forum Panel held in Davos, Switzerland.

Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta Chief Executive, had expected his investments in the metaverse to take around ten years to pay off and by then Cox believes people would take a walk with their friends and family in the virtual worlds as willingly as they currently make video calls.

Meta had incurred a loss of 9.4 Billion USD from its Reality Labs metaverse unit during the period of January to September and they expect the number of losses to grow more in 2023. This loss has contributed to the decision to cut 11,000 jobs.

Cox at the World Economic Forum Panel said, "We're in the very early version, the Xerox PARC era." in reference to the company that innovated the mouse and other fundamental computer gadgets fifty years ago.

According to Cox whose company (Meta) is investing billions of dollars to develop software and hardware for the metaverse, one of their biggest challenges with the metaverse is the relation between speed and graphic quality. For a virtual environment like a comedy club in the metaverse to be successful with a good user experience, a large amount of support is required. To engagingly simulate the real world atmosphere a number of avatars should be able to chatter and laugh, updating these avatars simultaneously to match the movement of the real person is necessary. However, this limits the processing power that is available for high-quality graphics. On this Cox commented "We're trying to figure out if comedy can work."

Stephenson is trying to address the issue about moving fluidly between experiences in different virtual worlds while retaining the avatar's accessories, clothes and other items through working with a company he founded for blockchain application development. During the panel discussion he shared that according to him the key question about the metaverse is if it would be built from the bottom up or be created completely by a single company?

To this, Chief Executive Enrique Lores said, "A more open metaverse is better". He added, "If someone controls the full metaverse the ability for others to add value is much smaller."

Kavya Pillai

Former Correspondent

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Science & Technology

AI Is an Answer, But Not the Only Answer — Here's Why It Can't Replace Humans

The detriments of lacking human touch due to AI are not unique to the music industry: It's a conversation being grappled with across business industries from retail to media. How do industries strike a balance between innovation and human replacement, and who is responsible for policing AI when it goes too far?

News and Trends

Recur Club Announces Credit Offerings for Startups Beyond Series A and SMEs

In FY 24–25, the platform also plans to deploy an additional INR 2000 crores through its Recur Swift program for startups.

Business Solutions

Use These Advanced Tools and Training to Transform Your Photos

Add excitement to a lifetime of photos with training and robust AI-powered editing tools.

Growth Strategies

Tata Motors: Mainstream Buyers Still Not Confident Of EVs

The next two quarters would be crucial as Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited, believes the EV industry is up for a change