Have you ever imagined going inside of a video game? That dream may soon become real. It's called "metaverse （元宇宙）".
The metaverse is a shared virtual 3D world, or worlds. The word is a combination of "meta", which means beyond, and "verse", which refers to "universe". The word first appeared in a 1992 science fiction book called Snow Crash. In this story, people wear virtual reality（VR, 虚拟现实）headsets（戴在头上的耳机）to see and join metaverse.
Now what happening in the book is becoming reality. Wearing a VR headset, you can meet other people wherever they are. You can work and play with them. It will feel real because the technology can simulate our senses: vision, hearing, touch and even smell.
"We're talking about creating another reality, another world, that's as rich as the real world," said Rev Lebaredian, vice president of simulation technology at NVIDIA, a US tech company.
So, what can you do inside of the metaverse? Your location（位置）will no longer matter, says VOA News. In the metaverse, "people… would be connected at all times…" You can meet friends from other countries and go on a virtual beach vacation together. But forget Thailand—you can go to the beach on the moon, or anywhere else you can imagine. Can't find a friend to play basketball? Jump into the metaverse and find some friends to play with or go to a concert.
Cathy Hackl, an except in metaverse technology, said her son's first concert was inside of a video game. "Just because it happened in a video game, it made it more real for him," she said.
Perhaps the metaverse will change our idea of what is real.
