What the Metaverse Is (Really) and Why We Need to Know About It

Major technology companies are investing significant sums of money in the creation of the metaverse whose main feature will be the fusion between the virtual world and the physical world. To allow this possibility is one of the less obvious features of the metaverse: the metaverse works like our minds. This ability makes the metaverse a significantly different technology from its predecessors. If television and social media are persuasive technologies, because of their ability to influence people's attitudes and behaviors, the metaverse is instead a transformative technology, capable of modifying what people think reality is. To achieve this goal, the technologies of the metaverse hack different key cognitive mechanisms: the experience of being in a place and in a body, the processes of brain-to-brain attunement and synchrony, and the ability of experiencing and inducing emotions. Clearly, these possibilities define totally new scenarios with positive and negative outcomes. Educating ourselves as to its promise, and the challenges it may present, is a necessity. This requires a “humane,” integrated, and multidisciplinary approach, with stakeholders at the supranational level joining in the conversation.