How do you Solve the Metaverse Problem?
When you meet someone who has a metaverse or virtual world project, ask them what they're creating. If their answer is something like, "I'm creating a engine in C++ that uses a distributed computing to present an interactive world that is defined by point clouds", they've only described their solution. Do you fully understand the problem that they're solving? More important: do they?
I came across a great quote about systems engineering at Wikipedia. "The systems engineering process must begin by discovering the real problem that needs to be solved; the biggest failure that can be made in systems engineering is finding an elegant solution to the wrong problem." When we're making a Metaverse, what is it that we're trying to solve?
When I read the quote above, it resonated with me. Why don't we make a fresh attempt to start with needs and then work towards a technical solution? Who's problems are we trying to solve, what are they, and how important at they?
We are going to try to understand the needs behind something that is very thorny: a metaverse project.
It is worth pointing out that even though we'll start our focus with needs and we'll end up at solutions, we're still following the same path that has been made many times before us. We're going into this by saying that our solution is a metaverse. The only uncertainty is what form that metaverse will take.
The mistake? We're defining the problem in terms of a solution. At least this time we recognizing that fact up-front. Perhaps this illustrates yet another reason why the very attempt to intentionally create a metaverse can result in its failure.