仿佛在一夜之间，“元宇宙”突然间成为热词，相关概念形成很多热点话题。
随着扩展现实、数字孪生、3D渲染、云计算、人工智能、高速网络、区块链等技术的发展及终端设备的迭代，“元宇宙”建设和演变可能远超人们的预期，多维度、全感官、沉浸式的人机交互新互联网形态，将有望成为现实。
揭开“元宇宙”面纱
■戴斌 熊雄 孙浩
“元宇宙”可让用户自由穿梭于现实世界和虚拟世界。 吕欣彤 制
何为“元宇宙”
what's a meta-cosmos
“元宇宙”，英文为“Metaverse”。该词出自1992年的科幻小说《雪崩》。小说中，人类通过“Avatar”（数字虚拟化身），在一个虚拟三维世界中生活，作者称这个空间为“Metaverse”，即“元宇宙”。
"Metaverse," in English. The term is from the science fiction novel "Avalanche" in 1992. In the novel, humans live in a virtual three-dimensional world through the "Avatar" (digital virtualization), which the author calls the space "Metaverse" or "Metaverse."
从科幻走进现实，人们对“元宇宙是什么”还未能达成一个绝对标准的共识。因为时代的演变、技术的变革，“元宇宙”仍是一个不断发展的概念，“一千个人眼中就有一千个哈姆雷特”，不同参与者以自己的方式不断丰富着它的定义，“元宇宙”特征和形态的可能性也在不断变化。不过，我们可通过“元宇宙”现有的呈现形态来探究一二。
It has not been possible to reach an absolute consensus on what the meta-cosmos is. Because of the evolution of the times, technological changes, the meta-cosm is still an evolving concept, with “a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people”, the definitions of which are constantly enriched by different participants in their own way, and the possibilities for the character and shape of the meta-cosm are changing.
目前，“元宇宙”概念产品主要集中于网络游戏、VR/AR、社交等领域。
At present, the concept of the meta-cosmos is mainly focused on areas such as network games, VR/AR, social networking, etc.
网络游戏被业界普遍认为是最有可能实现“元宇宙”的领域，因为它本身就具有虚拟场景和玩家的虚拟化身。如今，游戏功能已超出游戏本身，游戏边界正在扩展，甚至不只是游戏了。
Network games are widely recognized by industry as being the most likely to achieve the meta-cosm, because they themselves have virtual scenes and players. Now, games are more functional than games themselves, and the boundaries of games are expanding, not just games.
知名歌手在游戏《堡垒之夜》中，以虚拟形象举办一场虚拟演唱会，吸引了全球超过1200万玩家参与其中，打破了娱乐与游戏的边界；因为疫情影响，美国加州大学伯克利分校、中国传媒大学动画与数字学院不约而同地在沙盘游戏《我的世界》里重建校园，学生们以虚拟化身齐聚一堂，完成“云毕业典礼”，实现了虚拟游戏和现实社交的融合。
Distinguished singers organized a virtual concert in a virtual image in the game of Fortress Night, which attracted more than 12 million players around the world, breaking the boundaries of entertainment and play; because of the epidemic, the University of California at Berkeley, the Chinese Media University Animation and Digital Institute were together to rebuild campuses in Sandboard Game My World, where students came together in virtual form to complete the “Cloud Graduation Ceremony” and to integrate virtual games and real socialization.
新一代“VR社交（虚拟线下社交）”已在逐渐发展和流行。它是线下社交（现实面对面）、线上社交（通过微信等社交软件）的融合产物。一些知名VR社交平台，提供自由的社区环境，不仅成为玩家在线活动与虚拟面对面聚会的场所，也成了一种与目前“元宇宙”概念密切相关的社会文化现象。
The new generation of VR socializations (virtual underline socialization) has evolved and become popular. It is the product of a combination of underline socialization (real reality face-to-face), online socialization (through social software such as micro-mail).
以上这些“元宇宙切片”，都是对构建“元宇宙”的重要探索，用多种看得见、摸得着的方式，诠释了“元宇宙”将会如何改变我们的现实生活。
These meta-cosmos slices are important explorations for the construction of the meta-cosmos, interpreting how the meta-cosmos will change our real life in a variety of ways that can be seen and touched.
在通常研究中，一般形成了这样的共识：“元宇宙”是整合多种新技术而产生的新型虚实融合的互联网应用和社会形态。它基于扩展现实技术提供沉浸式体验，基于数字孪生和3D渲染技术生成虚实场景，基于云计算、人工智能和高速网络搭建基础软件硬件服务，基于区块链技术搭建经济体系，将虚拟世界与现实世界在经济系统、社交系统、身份系统上密切融合。同时，允许每个用户进行内容生产和编辑，具备完整的自我驱动和迭代能力。
In normal research, there is a general consensus that the meta-cosmos is a new form of virtual integration of Internet applications and social patterns resulting from the integration of a variety of new technologies. It provides a immersion experience based on extended reality technologies, creates a virtual scene based on digital twine and 3D rendering technologies, builds basic software hardware services based on cloud computing, artificial intelligence and high-speed networks, builds economic systems based on block-chain technologies, closely integrates the virtual world with the real world in economic systems, social systems, and identity systems. At the same time, it allows each user to produce and edit content, with complete self-driversity and iterative capabilities.
“元宇宙”发展走向
当今的移动互联网，实际上仍是平面信息交互状态，通过文字、声音、图片、视频方式在移动终端进行呈现。新闻资讯、电子商务、社交聊天、视频直播等形态，虽然满足了人们使用网络的需求，但隔着手机屏幕，显然无法达到现实生活中面对面交流、全感官体验所能达到的效果。随着社会发展，人们需要更为原生和丰富的体验与互动。
Today’s mobile Internet is virtually still an interactive form of information in plain form, presented at mobile terminals through text, sound, pictures, and video. News, e-commerce, social chats, live video, etc., while meeting people’s needs for access to the network, stand-alone screens clearly fail to achieve the benefits of face-to-face communication and full sensory experience in real life. With social development, people need to have more raw and rich experiences and interactions.
新冠疫情让人们生活场景从线下更多地移到线上。这种被迫的转变，让大家对“元宇宙”有了更多思考、讨论和关注。特别是“元宇宙”最核心的特征，在于沉浸式体验，它可将一个平面变成一个立体、多维、实时的交互空间，极大地丰富、还原真实物理世界和人类各种关系。因此，“元宇宙”被人们寄予厚望。
This forced shift has led to more reflection, discussion, and attention on the meta-cosmos. In particular, the central feature of the meta-cosm is the immersion experience, which transforms a plane into a stereo, multi-dimensional, real-time interactive space that greatly enriches and restores the real physical world and human relationships.
纵观过往信息技术和媒介的发展历程，人类不断改变认知世界的方法，乃至于后来开始有意识地改造和重塑世界。从报业时代、广播电视时代，到互联网时代、移动互联网时代，“元宇宙”概念下的工具和平台日益完备，通往“元宇宙”的路径逐渐清晰。
Throughout the development of information technology and media, humans have changed their way of understanding the world, and even later have consciously transformed and reshaped it. From the press, radio and television, to the Internet, to the mobile Internet, the tools and platforms under the concept of the meta-cosmos have become more complete and the path to the meta-cosmos has become clearer.
2020年以来，各国互联网大厂围绕扩展现实、数字孪生、3D渲染、云计算、人工智能、高速网络和区块链等前沿科技，展开紧密布局，通往“元宇宙”终极闭环生态的大门被一点点打开。在移动互联网用户“红利”已经见顶的今天，不少专家学者表示，“元宇宙”将是下一代互联网的终极形态。
Since 2020, major Internet companies in various countries have developed a tight layout around cutting-edge technologies such as expanding reality, digital twinkling, 3D rendering, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, high-speed networks and block chains, opening the door to the ultimate closed environment of the meta-cosm. Today, the “dividend” of mobile Internet users has come to the fore, with a number of expert scholars saying that the meta-cosm will be the ultimate shape of the next generation of the Internet.
如同20年前难以精准预测互联网的发展一样，人们也无法精准预判未来“元宇宙”的形态。但是，结合当今相关产业发展趋势可以看到：互联网改变人类生活，将人与人交流数字化，而“元宇宙”将把人与社会关系数字化；“元宇宙”相关技术将呈现渐进式发展，单点技术创新将不断出现和融合，从产业各方面向“元宇宙”终极形态靠近；“元宇宙”将涌现海量用户创作内容，同时显现数字资产价值问题。
As it was 20 years ago that it was difficult to predict with precision the development of the Internet, one could not refine the shape of the future meta-cosmos. But, in the light of today’s trends in related industries, it can be seen that the Internet changes human life and digitizes human-to-people communication, while the meta-cosm will digitize human-to-social relations; that technology associated with the meta-cosm will evolve in a gradual manner, that single-point technological innovations will continue to emerge and become integrated, moving from the industrial side towards the ultimate form of the meta-cosmos; and that the meta-cosm will generate content from the sea of users, while at the same time showing the issue of digital asset values.
概括地讲，“元宇宙”将以虚实融合的方式，深刻改变现有社会的组织与运作，形成虚、实两极的新型生活方式，催生线上、线下一体的新型社会关系，并从虚拟维度赋予实体经济新的活力。
In summary, the metacosystem will bring about a profound change in the organization and functioning of existing societies in a way that is genuinely integrated, creating a new way of life that is virtual and bipolar, giving rise to new forms of social relations that are on-line and under-line, and giving new dynamism to the real economy from the virtual dimension.
未来实体化的“元宇宙”，将类似于科幻电影《头号玩家》里描述的场景：在未来的某一天，人们可随时随地切换身份，自由穿梭于现实世界和虚拟世界，在“元宇宙”中学习、工作、交友、购物、旅游等。通过沉浸式体验，让虚拟世界进一步接近并融入现实世界。
The future physical “megaspace” will be similar to the scene described in the science-fiction film Player One: one day in the future, people can change their identities wherever they want, travel freely across the real world and the virtual world, learn, work, make friends, shop, travel, etc., in the “megacocomos.” Through soaking experiences, the virtual world will be brought closer and integrated into the real world.
在这个虚拟世界里，将有自我不断发展的内容和经济系统，并始终保持安全稳定运行，满足个体的社会需求。
In this virtual world, there will be self-evolving content and economic systems that always operate in a safe and stable manner to meet the social needs of individuals.
“元宇宙”的媒介作用
Media function of the meta-cosmos
“把‘元宇宙’想象为一个实体互联网，你在那里不只是观看内容，整个人都身在其中。”这是一个形象描述。可就现状而言，这些能让“整个人都身在其中”的“元宇宙”，内容是相对匮乏的。它需要更多可以独立成篇、自我迭代、多维立体地吸引用户参与体验甚至参与创作的内容。
“Imagine the ‘megaspace’ as a real Internet, where you're not just watching content, where the whole human being is in it.” This is an image description. But as far as the status quo is concerned, these ‘metacosystems’, which allow “the whole human being” to be in it, are relatively scarce. It requires more content that can be self-contained, self-evolving, multi-dimensionally engaging users in the experience and even in the creation.
“元宇宙”势必成为媒体内容生产的崭新平台。内容生产者通过丰富的内容生产，可将“小宇宙”演变成“大宇宙”。短期内，“元宇宙”的突破口是沉浸式内容。随着“元宇宙”概念的发展和渗透，沉浸式虚拟内容（如游戏、卡通等）与沉浸式实体内容（如媒体、社交、影视等）的融合程度将会越来越高。换句话说，“元宇宙”将发挥出更大的媒介作用。
By producing rich content, content producers can transform “small universes” into “large universes.” In the short term, the breakthrough point of the metacosystems is immersed content. As the concept of the metacosystem evolves and permeates, the integration of immersion virtual content (e.g. games, cartoons, etc.) with immersion material content (e.g. media, socialization, visualization, etc.) will grow.
今年9月，北京师范大学新闻与传播学院教授喻国明在由清华大学新闻学院新媒体研究中心发布的《2020-2021年“元宇宙”发展研究报告》发布会议上指出：“如今媒介所发挥的作用大体上都是认知方面的信息给予，但媒介的作用正在完成一个从给予认知到给予体验的过程。整个媒介和技术从认知发展到体验是个巨大转换，‘元宇宙’这个目标一经确立，对传播技术、传播形态、传播方法甚至传播效果，都能起到一个定向作用。”如果说“元宇宙”是下一代互联网的终极形态，那么它就是一个超级媒体渠道，将展现媒体融合的终极形式，并给予最佳的沉浸式体验。
In September of this year, at the launch of the study on the development of the “MegaCosmos” 2020-2021, published by the Centre for New Media Studies of the Qinghua School of Journalism, Beijing Pedagogical University, it was stated: “The role of the media today is largely informed by cognitive information, but the role of the media is completing a process from recognition to experience. The entire media and technology from cognitive development to experience is a great shift, and the goal of the “Megacosmos” can, once established, provide a directional effect on communication technology, modes of communication, methods of communication and even dissemination effects.” If the “Megasmos” is the ultimate form of the next generation of the Internet, it is a supermedia channel that will display the ultimate form of media integration and give the best immersional experience.
从理论上讲，最好的传播体验必然是基于真实场景。如看球赛，理想情形是在球场上亲身观看。在“元宇宙”里，随着显示交互、高速通信和计算技术的发展，建构无限逼近真实的传播场景将成为现实，用户能在立体化、多感官接收情境中，成为新闻事件的“目击者”和“实地观察者”。
The best dissemination experience, in theory, is necessarily based on real scenes. The ideal scenario, for example, is to watch it on the field. In the meta-cosmos, as interactive, high-speed communication and computing techniques develop, it becomes a reality to construct an immeasurable, near-real transmission scene that allows users to become “wits” and “observers” of news events in the context of stereosification, multi-sensor reception.
因而，“元宇宙”媒体可实现真正的“多媒体化”，人类的各种感官如视觉、嗅觉、听觉、味觉、触觉等，都能发挥作用，甚至完全展开、相互配合，实现“沉浸式”的媒体应用。
Thus, the “Multimedia” media can be truly “multimedia” and human senses, such as vision, smell, hearing, taste, touch, etc., can play a role, even fully spread and interact with each other to achieve “impregnated” media applications.
当今媒体内容在不断进化和创新，其发展趋势也似乎正在向“元宇宙”概念靠拢。媒体内容将不再局限于电视、电脑、手机屏幕等平面式的呈现方式，媒体内容制作将更多考虑全息化呈现，重视营造现场环境氛围，使用户有身临其境之感。社交也将不再局限于文本留言评论，可即时用语音、肢体动作来抒发感受，现场虚拟化面对面交流。
Media content will no longer be limited to graphics such as television, computers, mobile screens, etc. Media content will be produced in a more holologue-based way, with an emphasis on creating an on-site environment in which users can feel themselves. Socialization will no longer be limited to text-message commentary, which allows immediate voice, body movement, and virtual face-to-face communication.
设想一下，如果新闻报道能还原战争现场，打造“战场元宇宙”，使人如身临其境，实时感受到战争对于人类文明造成的巨大创伤，这份震撼会更能刺激人类社会对于和平的渴望与向往，媒体内容将具备更加强大的影响力和传播力。
Imagine that media content would have greater influence and dissemination if news stories could restore the scene of the war and create a “basis universe”, so that people could feel, in real time, the enormous trauma that war inflicted on human civilization, a shock that would fuel the aspirations and aspirations of human society for peace.
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