METAVERSE SCENARIOS

By: Leah Zaidi and Jesse Damiani

March 13, 2023
In 2022, we took you through PORTALS – the emerging
possibilities of the metaverse. Over the past year, we
watched several of those scenarios transition from
possibilities to realities.

Now, we’re immersing you in simulations. The following

scenarios go further into the future. They explore new
paradigms for a variety of fields from entertainment to
governance to healthcare.

We’re SIMULATING THE FUTURE before it happens.

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metaverse [ met-uh-vurs ]

1. The creation and manipulation of virtual atoms; 3D,

simulation-based internet;

2. The emergent technologies and practices that inform

the rise of a persistent, spatial Internet;

3. The fastest way to get kicked out of a dinner party.

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Our evidence-based scenarios were designed using Strategic Worldbuilding™ — a proprietary process
that combines strategic foresight, systems thinking, and storytelling techniques.

We started by gathering signals of change — unique incidences that indicate the future might be
different than the present. For example, we looked at how purple tomatoes (see Simulated Superfoods)
might intersect with metaverse technology.

Next, we drew out the potential implications and consequences using the Seven Foundations of
Worldbuilding model. By inserting the signal into this model, we created a richer picture of how our
world might change if a signal scales and becomes more commonplace.

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In addition to signals, we considered trends (patterns of change) and drivers (deeper underlying forces
such as climate change and wealth inequality). Each scenario presented in this document was designed
using the Minimum Specification for Futureproofing — three drivers that will have a significant
influence on how the future unfolds. The Min Spec should be considered in all futures-oriented work.

These three drivers are:

1. Environmental degradation: Simulations will play a key role in understanding and responding to
environmental challenges such as climate chaos, biodiversity loss, waste management, etc. It will
be important to ensure that we actively minimize the environmental impacts of simulations/3D
internet, and aim for a nature positive metaverse.
2. Social stability (battles for democracy, justice, and equality): Factors like wealth inequality,
authoritarian vs democratic policy, and ongoing social challenges will impact how simulations are
used, by whom, and under what conditions. Simulations will likely contribute to and impede social
stability in different contexts.
3. AI, particularly the underlying ethics and biases: Similar to how AI and algorithms are becoming
fundamental to the internet, AI will play a significant role in its evolution. AI will be used to produce
and manage simulations, allowing them to evolve over time with real-time input.

We combined various types of data to create a future world using the Seven Foundations model once
again. This future world forms the basis for each scenario. The scenarios are narratives in which we
highlight what we believe are compelling ideas and possibilities for the future. Some are opportunities
and others are warnings.

The final step of the process is the creation of strategies. Since the scenarios presented in this
document were not created for a specific organization, we have not outlined all the strategic
opportunities and challenges they might present. To explore these possibilities, or to commission your
own strategic scenarios, please contact us.

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Similar to our first metaverse report, PORTALS, the following glimpses of the future are not predictions.
They are emerging possibilities based on the evidence we’re seeing here and now. Our goal is to
provoke you to rethink and reimagine the metaverse (what we define as simulation-based, 3D internet).
The reality of this construct may look very different than the conversations we’re having about it now,
and we want you to be aware of the opportunities, challenges, and the nuances that it might bring.

Our provocations include:

Virtual Instruments
Open-World Science
Antifragile Energy
The Alternative Game
Ideal State
Simulated Superfoods
Talent Testing
Strategic LARPs
Optimized Organs
Time Machines

While some of these provocations are hopeful, some contain an equal number of opportunities and
threats, and some are quite dark and concerning. The value of thinking about dark futures is that they
challenge us to think about how bad actors might take advantage of already fragile systems, be more
conscientious of what we design in the present, and mitigate undesirable futures before they become
our reality. It is far easier to rewrite fiction than to rewrite reality.

Of course, these are not only possibilities that exist. These visions were created using Leah’s Strategic
Worldbuilding approach and are supported by images created using Midjourney. There is much more left
to explore.

This is where we'd like to begin our journey with you.

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When painters took their canvases off their easels and put them on the ground, they changed the
relationship between canvas and artist. They could approach their work from all angles, and with no
clear up or down, and remove the depiction of gravity from the image. Simulations will do the same for
music when instruments are no longer restricted by gravity.

The music industry transforms when meta-natives create virtual instruments with shapes, forms, and
sounds never seen or heard before. Some of these instruments float and spin. Others wrap around the
musician. A few are modular and can be assembled and reassembled into different shapes. Some merge
with avatars so that the musician becomes one with their instrument. They create new sounds and
unique auditory experiences that aren’t possible in the real world.

When combined with haptics, you’ll be able to feel the music.

Who Should Care:

Musicians: What instruments would you create if gravity and other physical realities weren’t a
constraint?
Gaming Worlds: Virtual concert platforms like Epic and Roblox should consider how they can allow
artists to do what reality can’t.
Developers: What new relationships and tools could you create for artists, scientists, educators,
etc.?

Evidence:

The Telemetron was a post-Earth musical instrument designed for zero gravity.
Virtuoso makes virtual instruments that are adaptations of real world instruments.
Like Minecraft or Lego, PatchXR allows users to create “sound machines” in real time, by combining
simple construction blocks.

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Virtual worlds become a gold mine for open science and innovation. Scientists, researchers, and NGOs
partner with gaming companies like Epic and Activision to run opt-in simulations and experiments. They
use gaming worlds to gather important data about critical situations. For instance, they test the impact
of a food system collapse in The Sims, a nuclear attack in Animal Crossing, and extreme and erratic
climate change conditions in Grand Theft Auto. Some of these experiments are special events inside
existing games. Some are pocket worlds built for various scientific research initiatives.

It’s not just researchers who benefit. Tech companies test and weed out the potential harmful impacts
of experimental technology before they go to market. Governments prototype policies before passing
bills. The general public plays and experiments too, running their own scientific simulations to
contribute to ideas and inventions. These simulations leverage the skills and abilities of gamers and
game-world enthusiasts to solve real-world problems.

But rich data and experimentation come at a cost. Regulation lags behind on who can run these
experiments and for what purposes. Some experiments run the risk of harm when they have no
oversight. And when these experiments act as a mirror for human nature, we see more of our ugly sides
than we like.

Who Should Care:

Scientists: How might simulations, virtual tools, and access to virtual populations alter science for
better or worse?
Game Developers: Would you accommodate scientific research in your worlds and, if so, how?
Policymakers: Open-world science will pose a number of regulation challenges including protecting
participants and preventing real-world harm via virtual harm.
Citizen Scientists and Gamers: Are you open to this possibility?

Evidence:

Corrupted Blood Incident: a glitch in World of Warcraft led to an in-game epidemic, and produced a
goldmine of information on human behavior for epidemiologists.
Fortnite Creative allows educators and students to create and run experiments in immersive
environments.
Project Discovery involved 300,000 citizen scientists who were invited to analyze proteins for the
Human Protein Atlas, Cell Atlas. It is one of many collaborations between scientists and gamers.

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How do we create an energy ecosystem that improves each time we strain the grid? As our energy
demands grow and energy insecurity becomes a global reality, we need to rethink how we keep the
lights on.

A real-time digital energy twin of cities helps monitor where and when the grid is weak, and what
solutions are needed to help reduce demand and increase supply. The antifragile energy simulations
design the right configuration of energy needs for each city. For instance, California needs solar panel
systems but also batteries when wildfires block out the sun. It might also benefit from Finland’s sand
silos and Italy’s food storage caves. This simulation takes the long-term data about climate change into
account to help manage the grid.

Backed by AI, the digital twin monitors and tweaks its algorithm to meet energy demands and improves
with each failure. It chooses what sources are needed most and at what time. It redirects energy from
one place to another during peak times. It also monitors unique solutions and new innovations being
implemented to conserve energy in different cities, and recommends those solutions to other places
where they might be helpful.

As the algorithm increasingly skews towards renewables, oil, gas, and coal companies fight back. They
use each failure and setback as an opportunity to denounce the simulation and its algorithms.

Who Should Care:

Governments: Energy grids are already strained in many places. Diversifying and better managing
them will be a necessity.
Energy Providers: How will you diversify energy provision and make greater investments in
renewables?
Climate Scientists and Activists: How might you use this scenario to advance adoption of
renewables?

Evidence:

The Sjavarklasinn (“Iceland Ocean Cluster”) network includes environmental entrepreneurs

collaborating across several industries to turn one company’s waste into another’s product.
Berkeley Lab will make supercomputer-generated earthquake simulations available on open-access
website to improve resilience in California.
MIT engineers have found that energy output of wind farm installations can be increased by
modeling the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines and optimizing the control of individual
units accordingly, without the need for more equipment.

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Michael Jordan’s iconic buzzer-beating shot in the first round of the 1989 NBA playoffs is regarded as
the symbolic beginning of the Chicago Bulls’ ascent to dominant force in 1990s basketball…but what if
he’d missed? How might those ripple effects have spilled across the future of the NBA? With
increasingly detailed simulations, we no longer have to wonder. Sports leagues and video game
franchises create alternate histories, forming official multiverses of their own. Depending on the
narrative arc of the season, some games are decided by the writers, but others are played as video
games by pro esports players, creating “live event” suspense — revenue streams through fantasy
leagues and gambling are a factor too. In some cases, whole seasons (or nodes in the timeline) might
have limited-play pop-ups that only last a few days or hours. Leagues, teams, and studios, also use
audience data from these alternate seasons to better understand their fanbases, potentially impacting
schedules, merch, and even concessions at physical events.

While some players cash in, others are concerned that their image/status might be diminished by
alternative games; some players refuse to have their image used and licensed. But it’s hard to hold out
when you watch your peers making all types of new brand deals in these game multiverses.

Who Should Care:

Athletes: the era of simulation brings about new considerations for life rights and how your image is
used in the future.
Entrepreneurs: simulated sports means new opportunities for products, platforms, and games.
Writers: sports will become a major category for creative work, especially regarding narrative arcs
for seasons.

Evidence:

Champions Round, a fantasy league startup that caters to Gen Z sports fans, lets sports content
creators engage further with younger players by creating content and fantasy sports games.
Olympic Esports Series merges traditional and virtual sports for new live events structure and
audience engagement.
Nasdaq outlines how decentralized web3 technologies will increase transparency, create more
believable randomness, and speed up transactions in sports betting.

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What makes a city unique? Is it the location, the architecture, or the people?

As water levels rise over the next few decades, cities like New York, Mumbai, and Tokyo might need to
move to a different location. Before we relocate cities — or build new ones from scratch — we’ll use
powerful 3D simulations to understand where to go, what to keep, and what to leave behind. These
digital twin city simulations will help governments choose optimal locations for new cities taking
energy, water, and food sources into account. They will be able to test run different configurations like
15-minute neighborhoods, the ratio of business to residential places in the work from home era, and
the strategic use of green spaces to keep streets cool, reduce crime, and improve mental health to
alleviate healthcare strain.

Robust digital twins might also help us maintain and/or design new cultures. Does New York need
Broadway and bodegas to still be New York? What could be added or taken away to New York to make it
more itself?

Even with lots of planning, unintended consequences might occur. Special interest groups may bribe
politicians to choose the options that best suit them. Climate change might not allow us to retain all the
aspects of culture and civilization we want to keep.

Who Should Care:

Federal Governments: Creating new cities and moving threatened cities is a complex undertaking
that federal governments should start planning for now.
Municipal Governments: Establish and create digital twins of your cities for future purposes.
Architects and Urban Designers: How would you preserve or redesign our cities?

Evidence:

Indonesia plans to move its capital city by 2024 due to climate change.
Orlando and Unity will collaborate to create the world’s first multi-use digital twin of an entire
region.
A group of Concordia Institute of Co-operative Education student interns are designing a video
game where the player assumes the role of both city planner and citizen who can make
fundamental changes to a city at the intersection of livability and sustainability.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers will collaborate with Fujitsu Limited to develop social digital
twin technology. The twin will reproduce the relationships and connections between people, goods,
the economy, and society to offer a simulation, prediction and decision-making environment for
solving diverse and complex social issues.

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Begging your kids to eat broccoli is a thing of the past, thanks to the brand new Billie Eilish superfood
candy. Using 3D simulations to design new superfoods, the candy has been refined in every way:
nutritionally, visually, and digitally. It includes all major vitamins, minerals, and key vegetable nutrients,
but looks and tastes like candy, and even triggers mini-games for kids to play when they eat.

It’s the latest in a series of such products, from optimized bioprinted foods to VR “flavor hacks” to
chewing placebos that simulate eating without any pesky calories. In these simulations, the
ultrawealthy find a new host of white glove services and opportunities, from having optimum meals and
diets designed specifically for them, applicable in every environment and altitude (even outer space).
Influencers start “flavorgraphing”: how they experience flavors in order to recreate them and sell
through their lifestyle brands. Rockstar food designers develop flavor profiles for plants and animals
that are impossible to eat (i.e., coral reef salt, lion filets, sequoia bark). Meanwhile, healthcare
professionals also make use of simulated foods, using in-depth patient data from their digital twins to
design against disease and disorders. Not longer after, black market nutrition makes its way into every
professional sport, and counterfeit superfoods flood online marketplaces. On the other hand, simulated
foods also give chefs the power to rapidly test novel flavors, ingredients, plating combinations, and
even decor in restaurants. Molecular gastronomy is back in force.

These simulations also allow us to test and design species more resilient to environmental damage
(read: Simulated Seeds and Species). In an era of increasing food insecurity and species extinctions,
these options let people get a taste of food that no longer exists — remember tuna, shrimp, and snow
crabs?

Who Should Care:

Parents: nutrition has never been more plugged into pop culture!
Game developers: new opportunities for physical-digital product tie-ins.
Chefs: what new recipes might you imagine using a data-driven approach to food?
Nutritionists, dieticians, and healthcare providers: food will become more interesting and complex.

Evidence:

USDA approves a purple tomato that has a longer shelf life than red tomatoes and offers additional
health benefits.
Physicist Albert-László Barabási and his lab use networks to gain insight into the fundamental
principles behind ingredient pairing preferences.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is sending seeds to the International Space Station in
hopes that cosmic radiation will mutate seed strains to become more resilient to the negative
impacts of climate change on Earth.

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Is your kid the next Mozart or Maya Angelou? As AR and VR education programs take off, interactive
simulations help identify natural talents and affinities that might otherwise go unnoticed. It begins with
EdTech companies promising outsized results (and strategic donations), with school districts signing
trial agreements to serve as beta testers for new LSAs, or “learner simulation assessments.” A few
early success stories guarantee more school districts opt in, and soon, the practice becomes
commonplace: incorporating simulations to train and test students for all kinds of skills —
interpersonal, intellectual, logical, artistic, and more. Each year of school adds crucial new data, charting
not only latent abilities but progress across different verticals (or lack thereof). The reports produced
for each student are meant to function as recommendations to guide them as they imagine their work
lives, but soon they inevitably make their way into college admissions packets and resumes in work
applications.

New data, new problems: parents might be obsessed with uncovering prodigal talents, kids with talents
might be forced to develop them even if they don’t enjoy them, and the cost of hardware and software
might unfairly advantage wealthier learners.

Who Should Care:

Educators: the rise of assessment-based learning radically changed education in America in the
early 2000s — simulations-based learning could bring about as many or more changes in
pedagogical practices.
Parents: how will you help your children navigate new learning environments that you didn’t grow up
with?
Recruiters: new sources of data might offer you a chance to source great talent, but they also
might mislead you if you’re not careful about how the data is gathered and analyzed.

Evidence:

Maryland’s Vehicles for Change program uses VR training to help solve the mechanic shortage in
the United States.
Emteq launched a public research study at London Science Museum to analyze the factors that
influence how we respond to new experiences, including emotional states.
University of Waterloo offers XR for Empathy Training course.

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As Hollywood struggles to come up with fresh new ideas, they turn to audiences to compensate for
their creativity gaps. More and more, audiences become participants rather than passive consumers in
their favorite stories. In the world of franchises and cinematic universes, locking in fans is critical, and
it’s harder than ever to accomplish as both incumbents and buzzy newcomers roll out new offerings.

Savvy studios recognize the opportunity to leverage existing fanbases by creating open worlds and
preloaded “story generators” — simulations that allow fans to create their own storylines within a
studio’s IP. Fanfiction is no longer a separate community — it’s a place where the most invested
audience members become creators, adding a storyline, world, character, or experience that the studio
might use in films and TV shows — if they’re good enough. Some studios cultivate and engage the
fandom by hiring community participants as writers, narrative designers, concept artists, and more.
They use token structures and reputation scores to (cautiously!) add some decentralized ownership to
the equation, in hopes of increasing brand loyalty, and broaden appeal to include speculators. Some
studios go as far as inviting players into simulation spaces like volumes (LED walls) to create immersive
experiences with real-time rendering, and avatars/digital twins to capture gameplay.

Having your work canonized is the ultimate status symbol. Some fanfic is good enough to launch
entirely new franchises. When these worlds become popular enough, studios use them to beta test
storylines or characters to understand what will work best on the market, creating a virtuous — or,
depending on how you see it — vicious circle.

Who Should Care:

Writers: participating in fan fiction communities is a new moonshot factory — it only takes one
great turn to capture the attention of a franchise.
Actors: all the virtual world’s a stage, no matter where in the physical world you may happen to be.
Studios: a new generation of scouts and talent reps could set you apart from the competition.

Evidence:

Shazam! director says that fans could determine if the titular character becomes part of the DC
Universe.
The Expanse evolved from a massively multiplayer online role-playing game to a pen-and-paper role-
playing game to a book series, which was then adapted to a TV show, making new creative
decisions for each medium and audience.
Open-world Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy introduces first-ever transgender character,
despite J.K. Rowling’s transphobic commentary.

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Science fiction has long imagined the prospect of lab-grown organs becoming substitutes for failed
counterparts in a given person’s body — but reality has become stranger than fiction. Why are we trying
to replicate features of an imperfect body when we could design better, enhanced organs that help us
evolve into humans 2.0?

Simulations and digital twins help us design ideal, personalized organs, some of which have added
benefits — for a price. Replacing failing organs with healthy substitutes is the tip of the iceberg. Organ-
jacking becomes a hot topic, especially among athletes and performers. Larger, more efficient lungs
grant the opera singer unprecedented vocal capabilities, but do they have adverse effects? Is it fair if
some athletes swap their aging joints for those of their younger selves? Travelers dreaming of Mars
use simulations to evaluate if they should upgrade to organs better suited to the harsher, lower-gravity
environment. Unfortunately, for the early adopters, there isn’t enough data to get it quite right. Good
thing they can swap out for new, upgraded organs when they make the return trek.

But sci-fi didn't anticipate the mess of it all — the inequality, the bureaucracy, and things like storage,
insurance, and licensing. Life extension is lucrative! To manage consequences — and ensure maximum
profit — insurance companies develop simulations to determine how these new upgraded organs will
impact us individually and collectively. For patients to receive one of these potentially lifesaving
organs, biotech companies are strong-armed into using these simulations. It helps mitigate the
inevitable prospect of future lawsuits. It’s all a wash for the wealthy, who are able to reap the benefits
of higher quality of life spread out over longer lifespans (80 is the new 50!). Things are messier for the
rest of us. Confusing pricing tiers and subscription models lead to mismatches and disappointment.

Who Should Care:

Doctors: how will you navigate the guidance you give to patients who can afford expensive but
potentially life-enhancing bodily upgrades, vs. the ones who can’t?
Ethicists: what ethical and moral lines might people cross using these new tools and capabilities?
What should people consider before making these types of changes to their bodies?
Insurers: optimized organs present new liabilities and exposures to factor in plans and pricing.

Evidence:

Sparta develops ‘Ormi implant’ made of the hydrogel Galene, synthetic cartilage that is stronger
and more durable than natural cartilage.
Form Bio develops genome sequencing toolset to help scientists analyze vast amounts of
bioinformatics data and reach breakthroughs faster.
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service’s RESTORE program’s lab-grown red blood cells
become the first in the world to enter clinical trials for blood transfusions.

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The metaverse is a time machine. The ability to create powerful 4D simulations gives us unprecedented
insight into the past and future. Like Star Trek’s holodeck, we can render locations and situations from
any place and point in time.

Aggregating and layering data from multiple perspectives allows us to paint immersive pictures of the
past that reveal new details. These simulations reshape our understanding of how we arrived at the
present. We can spend time in the Jurassic Era to observe dinosaur behavior, decolonize our
understanding of the Spanish invasion of the Americas, and reconstruct the ancient wonders of the
world. Simulations help us find truths written out of history. Digital tools become staples in archeology,
sociology, history, and more.

These time machines allow us to inhabit the future too. We can run immersive drills for climate
catastrophes before they happen, play out the consequences of policy decisions before we commit to
them, and inhabit a future city before we build it.

Not everyone agrees on what the past and future are. Some people seek to revise the truth for their
own sinister purposes like Nazis who want to retell the holocaust or climate change deniers who want
to downplay our destructive impact on the planet. They find ways to manipulate the algorithms in their
favor.

Who Should Care:

Historians: How might our understanding of significant historical events change with a holodeck?
Educators: If our understanding of history changes, updating curriculums should follow.
Governments: What is the role of “an official history,” and how do you manage those who fabricate
and weaponize it? Consider how this would affect social cohesion.

Evidence:

The Auriga Project will help uncover the history of the galaxy with the largest ever simulation.
The NCAR Community Climate System Model simulates warming of the Earth from 1870-2100.
Electromagnetic remnants in soil can uncover old walls, metallic implements, and ancient
campfires. This technology could help us create digital twins of the past.

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 The future is emerging...

In many ways, the contention and hype around the metaverse has subsided. While the public discourse
has quieted, many of the ideas that the metaverse hype introduced persist behind the scenes. More
organizations than ever are turning to VR for training, brands are focusing on rolling out “digital
collectibles” and token-based loyalty programs (they just don’t mention that they’re NFTs), and the rise
of so-called generative AI tools are drawing more attention to the creation of 3D assets and worlds
(notably in the growing popularity of neural radiance fields, or NeRFs). Use cases like the XRAI Glass for
the hearing impaired and Universal Studios' The Bourne Stuntacular are beginning to emerge, and we’re
seeing a positive response to immersive simulations…when the word "metaverse" isn’t used.

Make no mistake: this is a crucial moment for the development of metaverse technologies and
practices. The metaverse is a long-term play. The decisions made today will inform the realities that
emerge in 5, 10, and 20 years. This is why SIMULATING THE FUTURE looks further into the future than
PORTALS. With PORTALS, we hoped to respond to the immediate realities the metaverse discourse was
facilitating — and, yes, many of our forecasts came true. With SIMULATING THE FUTURE, we push a bit
deeper into the speculative, imagining the convergences and clashes that might occur across
industries. The two reports sit on a continuum and, together, they frame a critical discussion—one near
future (and often alarming), the other toward the longer view, with forecasts meant to invite curiosity
and imagination today.

What’s fun about the metaverse is its scope and scale — it’s a summation of many different
technologies and practices that will inform the rise of a virtual universe, of which we only have glimpses
today. If you or your organization hope to better prepare for these realities, whether with a narrow
scope of work or for the big picture, we hope you’ll reach out.

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Leah Zaidi
Executive Director, Multiverse Design

Leah is an award-winning strategic foresight practitioner and researcher, with over

15 years of strategy experience. She has consulted for a wide variety of prestigious
organizations, including the United Nations, Fortune 100 companies, Stanford
University, and the OECD. As a futurist, she has accurately warned of a Covid reality,
a Trump incited militia attack, and Russia’s experimentation with a non-linear war
(including the annexation of Ukraine), and more. She is currently serving as an
advisor to the federal foresight divisions of Canada and Finland. Leah has an MDes.
in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University.

Jesse Damiani
Executive Director, Postreality Labs

Jesse is a writer, curator, and advisor in new media and emerging technologies. He
is the founder of Postreality Labs, a strategic sensemaking studio based in Los
Angeles, CA. He is Arts and Culture Advisor for Protocol Labs; Curator and Director
of Simulation Literacies at Nxt Museum; and the Host of Adobe’s Taking Shape, a
hub for 3D art and design. An Affiliate of the metaLAB at Harvard, his writing
appears in Adweek, Big Think, Billboard, Entrepreneur, Forbes, HuffPost, NBC News,
Quartz, The Verge, and WIRED.

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Contact us for questions and custom work:

Leah Zaidi
Multiverse Design
[email protected]

Jesse Damiani
Postreality Labs
[email protected]

© 2023