The idea of a true metaverse, not a simple VR meeting space like Horizon Worlds, is a vast, immersive experience. While many companies are jumping on the Meta bandwagon, it's clear that computing isn't currently capable of recreating the visionary idea of the dystopic future internet.
With that in mind, computer chips developer Intel has explained that current computer hardware is far from where it needs to be to meet that vision. In fact, to truly bring the science fiction warning into reality, we need a massive boost in power.
Intel vice president reveals we aren't close to True Metaverse
In a blog post about the technology required for metaverse computing, Intel senior vice president Raja Koduri discussed how far away we are from the level of computing that's required for immersive reality. In the post, Koduri explained that the metaverse could indeed “be the next major platform in computing after the world wide web and mobile.” However, we’re not there yet.
With that said, Koduri also explained that we might be on “the cusp of the next major transition in computing”. With real-time graphics technologies encroaching upon CG-quality via ray-tracing, we could breach Moore’s Law and create even more immersive experiences.
“In recent years, metaverse has come to represent a utopian convergence of digital experiences fueled by Moore’s Law – an aspiration to enable rich, real-time, globally-interconnected virtual- and augmented-reality environments,” he said. “[This ] will enable billions of people to work, play, collaborate and socialize in entirely new ways.”
On the other hand, he also explained that we need to multiply computing power by 1000 times reach an accurate metaverse. He said: “Truly persistent and immersive computing, at scale and accessible by billions of humans in real time, will require a 1,000-times increase in computational efficiency from today’s state of the art.”
Read More: The Metaverse is already full of sexual harassment
Will Quantum Cloud Computing help!
The technology of traditional rendering has been impressively growing in the past few years. Technologies like NVIDIA RTX and Intel Xe is helping to alleviate raster rendering costs with the addition of ray-tracing tech. However, could Quantum Computing help with creating the true metaverse?
At the moment, quantum computers like China’s Zuchongzhi hardware shows just how far computers can be pushed. On the other hand, quantum computers — for the time being — cannot render raster graphics.
While quantum computing could be used to alleviate intense mathematical calculations, it can't really help with the metaverse. It's an unfortunate reality, but one that people are discussing. Perhaps one day the technology can be used in conjunction with the metaverse, but it seems unlikely.