The US military, not Meta, is building the Metaverse

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Since Facebook became Meta late last year, every industry seems to have embraced the Metaverse. However, the language around different "metaverses" in various industries is getting confusing. We don't yet have a common imagination for the metaverse and the technology needed to build it.

Virtual worlds that could be considered metaverses have been around in gaming for quite some time. The video game Second Life, for example, has built "an enduring community of millions of people who 'live' together in virtual spaces". Obviously, the idea is not new. The current metaverse hype cycle has revolved around the marketing of big tech players. Each of these companies wants to steer the conversation towards their technology. Meta owns VR headset developer Oculus, so it only makes sense that its buzz around the Metaverse is pushing its customers to buy more headsets.

In other words, companies want users to remain dependent on their technology within a closed, commercialized ecosystem. Despite their rhetoric, Big Tech presented a rather narrow view of the Metaverse. Simulation technology has the power to be so much more. I envision an open virtual world that supports thousands of concurrent players and provides valuable and immersive use cases. The scope of this vision requires an open cloud architecture with native support for cloud scalability.

By prioritizing cloud development and setting clear goals, military organizations have made great strides toward effectively realizing this metaverse.

MetaBeat 2022

MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders from across the Metaverse to advise on how Metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 3-4 in San Francisco, CA.

In terms of industry progress toward the scalable cloud-based metaverse, no organization has gone further than the US military. Their Synthetic Training Environment (STE) has been in development since 2017. The STE aims to replace all legacy simulation programs and integrate different systems into a single connected system for combined arms and joint training.

STE is fundamentally different from traditional server-based approaches. For example, it will host a 1:1 digital twin of the Earth on a cloud architecture that will stream high-fidelity (photo-realistic) terrain data to connected simulations. New terrain management platforms such as Mantle ETM will ensure that all connected systems operate on exactly the same terrain data. For example, trainees in a tank simulator will see the same trees, bushes and buildings as the pilot in a connected flight simulator, facilitating combined arms operations.

Cloud scalability (i.e. scaling with available computing power) will allow for better real-world representation of critical details such as population density and complexity of the land t...