Are we already living in a metaverse? Mark Zuckerberg wants to reinvent Facebook and take on Fortnite, the world's biggest game, in a battle to decide the future of the Internet.

This isn't the real pop star, but her digital avatarThe graphical representation of a player in a video game or a user on social media. Avatar comes from Hinduism where it means the form a god takes when it appears on Earth., performing this month to tens of millions of fans inside the game FortniteThe online game was released in 2017 as a first-person shooter, but evolved into a social space for sharing content. It is owned by Epic Games..

Its creators say it is "more than a game". Fortnite is "this thing called the metaverse - a social place". A virtual world where the "limits are non-existent" and gamers have already collectively spent 10.4 million years of playing time.

Now, Facebook says it will become a "metaverse company", using its Virtual Reality headsets to create an "infinite" virtual space where users can work, play and socialise. Microsoft is also talking about the potential of the "enterprise metaverse".

The word metaverse first appeared in in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash and in the book and film Ready Player One. It described an "imaginary place" where people escape a boring and broken world.

It's now a buzzword in Silicon ValleyA global centre of technological innovation in Northern California. It is home to many start-up and global technology companies including Apple, Facebook and Google. for the next stage of the Internet, as two billion more devices come online each year and our offline and online lives become more closely interconnected.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg wants to "bring the metaverse to life" but others fear Big TechUsually refers to the five largest information technology companies in the United States: Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. will be "dictators" and destroy the virtual utopiaThe word was coined by Thomas More (1478 - 1535) in his 1516 work of that name. In Greek, utopia means no place..

Many have tried to plan a perfect society. Plato's RepublicThe ancient Greek philosopher's most important work concludes that a utopian society would be ruled by a wise and fair philosopher-king. is the earliest example. And more recently the first American coloniesThe English philosopher James Harrington (1611 - 1677) wrote a plan for a utopia that influenced the founding of the colonies of Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia. and the 1960s hippie communes did the same - attempting to create fair and harmonious communities.

The Internet also began as a utopia. "The web is for everyone," said its inventor Tim Berners-LeeIn 1990, the English computer scientist designed the first website and web browser. There are now over 1.8 billion websites.. A place for free speech and the sharing of ideas. And virtual reality is being used in creative ways, to train surgeons, share art and build better cities.

Going meta

But it's also big business. On platforms Upland and Roblox, users buy and sell virtual propertyThese are called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They are unique and can't be copied. Digital artwork, land, music and films have all been sold as NFTs., like a digital Gucci bag that sold for £3,000, more than the price of the physical object. Ammon Runger, a 16-year-old developer, became an overnight millionaire with a game he made inside virtual reality.

So the tech giants want to get involved. Critics fear they will create closed environments that will stop creativity and the free flow of ideas. You will never be able to teleport between the worlds created by Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Marc Petit at Epic Games says the metaverse must be "open".

Some think this battle royaleA fight to the death, named after a Japanese film released in 2000. The online game Fortnite Battle Royale came out in 2017 and became the most played game of all time. is pointless. "The metaverse won't happen," says trend forecaster Sean Monahan. The pandemic forced us to live online. But we prefer "actual reality" and look forward to more time in the real world. A youth survey by Dazed reports that only 9% want to stay on social media.

Others say the metaverse is coming, whether we like it or not. We may be the last generation, warns science fiction writer William Gibson, to tell the difference between online and offline. Analyst Matthew Ball says there will be no "before" or "after", as we gradually enter a virtual reality that "never resets or pauses".

Are we already living in a metaverse?

Some say of course not. Virtual reality can never replace the real thing. We live in an age of authenticity where we want to experience life in the flesh. Live music will always be more memorable than a virtual concert. Sharing lovingly prepared food with friends we can hug will always be better than an online group chat. Tech companies will look for more ways to keep us hooked, but we are happiest when we disconnect.

Others say we are already citizens of the metaverse. We carry around smartphones that keep us permanently plugged into many virtual worlds. People born today will consider this normal. A total experience that uses sight, sounds and touch to hold our attention. And we are happier there because we can always be close to friends and family. We can relax and be ourselves, or whoever we want to be.