Personally I think the "metaverse" will not be a thing until climate change makes going outside impossible or at least extremely uncomfortable for a large perce

Personally I think the "metaverse" will not be a thing until climate change makes going outside impossible or at least extremely uncomfortable for a large percentage of the global population. Covid did increase teleconferencing software usage (Meet, Zoom etc) - but I think that work-related (i.e. forcible) usages can only go so far. Online education solutions were lacking this time around, but I think next time there might be better options that end up "sticking". Imagine a holistic lockdown going on for years at a stretch, and your only possible respite is to explore some virtual worlds, or meet others in an MMO style setting. Something I would personally enjoy is wikipedia converted to a VR "Library of Alexandria" - which you can browse at will, or take guided tours, or attend lectures by subject matter experts, or just chat in general with others who are browsing the same topics as you. Just need to write an engine that converts the wiki graph into some rooms.... EDIT: this is not bad: https://wikiverse.io/ https://wikiverse.io/