Tuesdays in the Metaverse

Over the next five years, major technology companies will invest a massive amount of money, on the order of tens of billions, in the Metaverse. Why? First talking about the "Metaverse" was a science fiction author, Neal Stephenson. In his novel "Snow Crash," published in 1992, he described it as a three-dimensional digital world -- a shared virtual reality experience -- that allowed users to escape from a physical world that had become uninteresting.

After the experience of the pandemic that forced us to replace our daily activities with telecommuting or distance learning, the prospect of spending our entire lives in a digital world does not seem particularly inspiring at first glance. One of HTLab's goals is to understand what living in the Metaverse will mean, take advantage of its opportunities, and avoid unwanted effects. The series of three meetings - Tuesdays in the Metaverse - which will begin on Tuesday, March 7, in Università Cattolica with the media partnership of Corriere della Sera, pursue the goal of analyzing the relationship between human experience and the Metaverse through direct discussion among those who are on the front lines of driving this change.

The first meeting - The New Scenarios of Metaverse Work (March 7, 5:30 p.m.) - will feature Christian Colonna, Metaverse eXtended Reality Design Lead ICEG at Accenture, and Ivan Montis, Secretary General of Web3 Alliance. Their task, stimulated by Daniele Manca, deputy director of Corriere della Sera, will be to explain how the Metaverse will influence the world of work, changing practices and generating new professionalism.

The second meeting - The Perspectives of Education in the Metaverse (April 4, 5:30 p.m.) - will involve Nicola Ravarini, Founder & Ceo of VRZONE, and Andrea Gaggioli, full professor of Psychology. The third and final meeting - The Metaverse and the Communication of the Future (May 9, 5:30 p.m.) - will instead seek to answer a crucial question: How will the Metaverse impact communication processes? The question is critical given that the Metaverse is a transformative technology, capable of changing cognitive mechanisms and what people think is reality.