La idea del metaverso genera entusiasmo en algunos, mientras que hace que otros se estremezcan. La mayor\u00eda de nosotros hemos visto pel\u00edculas o videojuegos en los que cobra vida la idea de un mundo sint\u00e9tico, en el que los participantes pueden relacionarse entre s\u00ed sin los l\u00edmites de la realidad.\u00a0Nos guste o no, el metaverso no eludi\u00f3 la atenci\u00f3n de la industria de defensa.<\/p>\n
The idea of metaverse compels excitement in some, while making others cringe. Most of us have seen films or video games where the idea of a synthetic world comes to life, where participants can engage with each other free from the limits of reality. Like it or not, the metaverse did not elude the attention of the defence industry.<\/p>\n
What is the metaverse?<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no consensus around the definition of the metaverse, and explaining it is a bit like trying to define the internet. It is not a singular technology or even a singular concept. But for argument\u2019s sake, this article will use a workable definition provided by\u00a0War on the Rocks<\/em>\u00a0writers Jennifer McCardle and Caitlin Dohrman: \u201cA metaverse is a series of interconnected and immersive\u00a0virtual\u00a0worlds that afford their users a sense of presence via agency and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n It is similar to virtual or augmented reality in that it provides a spectrum where the physical and digital can meet. In military settings, these platforms are mostly used for the purpose of training. Commercial metaverse technology will not satisfy the military due to the lack of dexterity. But the price of the best available equipment on the market is eye-watering, and defence departments may adopt technologies in the early stages with the aim of improving them to fit the requirements of the armed forces.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is a greater push for cheaper but higher quality haptics and cheaper things like motion capture, and investments are going into those capabilities, then it could end up yielding something important for the military in the future,\u201d says James Crowley, business development director at immersive urban training expert 4GD. \u201cThis will both improve the technology for the civilian market, and will also make it cheaper and much more accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n Defence in the metaverse<\/strong><\/p>\n Militaries have been using different forms of rudimentary metaverses for training for years. The development of the first simulator networking (SIMNET), where different virtual words were stitched together, started in the 1980s by the US military. SIMNET was a wide area network with vehicle simulators and displays for real-time distributed combat simulations that included tanks, helicopters and planes on a virtual battlefield. In the past two decades, the fidelity and effectiveness of simulated training and synthetic environments have grown momentously.<\/p>\n Nick Brown, defence product marketing director at distributed computing company Hadean, says: \u201cPerhaps we can categorise the defence metaverse as an \u2018industrial metaverse\u2019. While the more familiar metaverse is focused on entertainment and social interaction of itself, industrial metaverses use the same technology in order to enhance activity in the physical world.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown believes there are three key aspects to the metaverse that make it so appealing to defence. \u201cFirstly, the virtual worlds of the metaverse are getting increasingly better at connecting more people from disparate locations,\u201d he says. \u201cSecondly, they can be used to simulate physical events at a high fidelity such that greater knowledge about the \u2018real world\u2019 can be derived.\u201d<\/p>\n The third point, Brown says, is the metaverse\u2019s ability to offer an immersive experience that would be too expensive, logistically or economically unfeasible or simply impossible to conduct physically. Combining these three aspects when placed into the concept of modern military acquisition, force development and training requirements, it is clear why defence is interested in the metaverse.<\/p>\n Crowley expects continued military interest in the metaverse in the future. \u201cThere\u2019s an area for influence and an area where we need to be conscious of disparate groups coming together, and perhaps forming either very short-term collectives or of longer-term political groupings and we need to be fairly politically live to that as organisations,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He says if the metaverse changes the way individuals come together and the way information is exchanged, militaries and governments will need to be aligned to know how those interactions are taking place.<\/p>\n The challenges of the metaverse<\/strong><\/p>\n It is also very important to consider the operational challenges of the metaverse. Building the computer power and infrastructure capable of running high-fidelity virtual worlds across a range of devices and handling enormous amounts of data will be equally imperative for the metaverse to exist.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to create these kinds of simulations may be cutting edge, but they\u2019re no good if you need a PC the size of a car seat next to you while you run it,\u201d Brown explains. \u201cEvery participant, whose device may vary, needs to be able to view and act within the simulation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where distributed cloud and edge computing are set to change the game. If you can dynamically scale computation across cloud and edge environments, then this vastly lowers the requirements needed by devices to run the simulation.\u201d<\/p>\n Crowley echoes the importance of computer power by saying: \u201cThis is probably the most impactful part of it. Unless you can reduce your latency to a point that it doesn\u2019t make people ill and feels realistic, unless you can store move and communicate data across various different people in different simulators, you\u2019re not going to provide a practical training tool.\u201d<\/p>\n Another major challenge in developing an open metaverse where militaries of different countries could engage with each other is the aspect of security.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, allied operations, for example among Nato countries, will be greatly enhanced by completing training simulations together, incentivising the creation of an open defence metaverse for them,\u201d says Brown. He could envisage an open metaverse for defence where allied forces could all plug into the same virtual version of a given strategic context.<\/p>\n Crowley warns, however, that defence will have to be ruthless and extremely pragmatic when adopting certain technologies. Militaries need to ensure they do not take on new technologies just because they are the most recent on the market, but ensure they can provide the required results.<\/p>\n The development and employment of various metaverses and augmented realities are no new to defence, but the industry still has a long way to go before entering the metaverse for military purposes.<\/p>\n