An article by Francesco Berlucchi

There is a single place where, almost at the same time, you can learn how to weld metal in total safety, do an interview with the principal dancer of the Teatro alla Scala and design a yacht equipped with a suite, wellness area and helipad for the helicopter. It is the Metaverse, and it is no coincidence that companies continue to show great interest in this new world, especially in the retail and entertainment sectors. "There are three major groups of Metaverse applications in the corporate world," says Lorenzo Cappannari, CEO & Co-Founder of AnotheReality. His is a three-dimensional software development company whose skills derive from the world of videogames, which deals with the development of virtual worlds accessible from different devices. "Prototyping is the first of these functions. Think of a dream yacht: today it is designed entirely using artificial intelligence. Then there's the employ experience, whose most talked about use case is collaboration in virtual spaces. Finally, the most experienced use by large companies is training, for example to train the soft skills and hard skills of managers and employees." Thus, explains Cappannari, a Spanish company has become a world leader in the production of virtual reality simulators for welders: "A niche, which nevertheless facilitates a profession that is in great demand in the metallurgical industry."

After delving into the new scenarios of work and the prospects for training in the Metaverse, the third chapter of the series of meetings promoted by the Humane Technology Lab addresses the relationship between the Metaverse and the communication of the future. A crucial issue, when "a revolution is underway, with aspects that are not predictable", as former Prime Minister Romano Prodi said in a recent meeting promoted by the same laboratory of the Catholic University directed by Giuseppe Riva. "I myself have learned so many things by listening to the guests that Professor Riva has involved in this project," comments Alessia Cruciani, a journalist for Corriere della Sera. "I read, in OECD research, that 86% of Italians between the ages of 18 and 75 who use the internet have heard of the Metaverse, but of these only 8% are able to explain what it is. According to the same source, one million and 400 thousand people in Italy would use it, especially for gaming."

"We often hear that globally the world of video games weighs more than cinema and music combined," explains Francesco Toniolo, professor of Forms and Genres of Cinema and Audiovisual at Università Cattolica. "It's clear that there are a number of new areas that are opening up all the time within the medium of video games. To give an example: not long ago Ivan Venturi, a historic Italian video game developer, said that in his opinion in no more than ten years there will be a boom in video games for the elderly. The boundaries of the Metaverse today seem blurred, but even the boundaries of gamification are not so defined. And yet, the latter represents a very successful concept, a fortunate intuition from a marketing perspective."

"At Corriere della Sera , we were probably the first to do interviews in the Metaverse," adds Cruciani. "The first time I interviewed Roberto Bolle: without legs (the 3D reconstructions didn't take into account people's legs, ed.), we thought he wouldn't accept. In fact, it is the pinnacle for the étoile of La Scala. Instead, he had a lot of fun. Then a colleague of mine interviewed Diletta Leotta: the virtual football field was immediately filled with male avatars."

"Conceptually, the Metaverse is a three-dimensional, immersive internet that doesn't exist yet," Cappannari continues. "A well-known expert, Matthew Ball, defines the Metaverse as a vision of the future. After all, that's what Mark Zuckerberg had in mind when he presented Meta in 2021. The most interesting thing, however, is the Metaverse that is there. Two interpretations are worth mentioning. The industry is the first: under the word Metaverse today we include professionals who were previously not identified by a label. I find myself in it a lot, and so do three-dimensional digital artists, those who create digital twins , those who produce virtual reality viewers. The formalization of a Metaverse industry was useful to try to explain to my mom what I do (smiles, ed.). The second interpretation is the Metaverse experience, which straddles the line between a real-time social network and an engagement and entertainment experience: it is an experience that was born as a video game, but today 90% of Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012, ed.) are inside a video game not only to play but to socialize with the community. A bit like when my generation went bowling even though they didn't want to go bowling. It was the place of socialization that attracted us." And that's why the Metaverse went on strike.