BBC: Welcome to the 'metaverse' 1

On Saturday  moirnings I love going to watch football in the park. The problem is when it's cold and rainy- I look out the bedroom window and go straight back to bed!

Well, instead of going to the park, why not bring the park to you?

Imagine watching a live version of the football match at home in teh warm, with friends. Sound good, Sam?

Sounds great!- but how can I be in two places at once? Is there some amazing inventionn to do that?

There might be, Sam- and it could be happening sooner than you think, thanks to developments in VR, oir virtual reality. According to Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg, in the future we'll all spend much of our time living and working in the 'metaverse'- a series of virtual worlds. 

Virtual reality is a topic we've discussed before at 6 Minute English. But when Facebook announced that it was hiring ten thousand new workers to develop VR for the 'metaverse', we thought it was time for another look.

Is this programme, we'll be hearing two different opinions on the 'metaverse' and it might shape the future. 

But first I have a question for you, Neil. According to a 2021 survey by gaming company, Thrive Analytics, what perecentage of people who try virtual reality once want to try it again? 

Is it: a) 9 percent b) 49 percent or c) 79 percent?

I guess with VR you either love it or hate it, so I'll say b) 49 percent of people want to try it again. 

OK, I'll reveal the correct answer later in the programme. But what Neil said is true: people tend to either love virtual reality or hate it. Someboidy who loves it is Emma Ridderstad, CEO of Warpin, a company which develops VR technology. 

Here she is telling BBC Wordl Service programme, Tech Tent, her vision of the future:

In ten years, everything that you do on your phone today, you will do in 3-D, through yourclasses for example. You will be able to do your shopping, you will be able to meet your friends, you will be able to meet your friends, you will be able to work remotely with whomever you want, you will be able to share digital spaces, share music, share art, share projects in digital spaces between each other. And you will also be able to integrate the digital objects in your physical world, making the world much more phygital than is it today.

Virtual reality creates 3-D, or three- dimensional experiences whre objects have the three dimensions of length, width and height. This makes them look lifelike and solid, not two-dimensional and flat. 

Emma says that in the future VR will mix digital objects and phyusical objects to create exciting new experiences- like staying home to watch the same football match that is simultaneously happening in the park. She blends the words 'physical' and 'digital' to make a new word describing this combination: phygital. 

But while a 'phygital' future sounds like paradise to some, others are m ore sceptical- they doubt that VR will come true or be useful.