The Metaverse – the Next Stage of the Internet

The article aims to investigate the development of a little studied in our country, but at the same time considered as one of the most promising, significant and rapidly developing technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the metaverse. Therefore, the object of the study is precisely the metaverse, and its subject – the appearance, essence, development, and perspectives of the metaverse. In order to achieve this goal, a descriptive approach is used to describe what the metaverse is, an explanatory approach is used to explain how the metaverse works, and then a prognostic approach is used to see the prospects of the metaverse. Following this logic, the article begins with the emergence of the idea of the metaverse and the first steps towards its realization. Then it goes with an explanation of what the metaverse is, examining the basic elements that are necessary for it to function, continues with the different realities through which the metaverse can reveal itself, with the digital twins and avatars through which the physical world is duplicated in the metaverse, and ends with the different types of metaverses in the context of the increasing competition between companies and the emergence of multiple metaverse projects. The article ends with the prospects for the development of the metaverse and ultimately with the conclusion that it implies many new perspectives and contradictions that humanity will somehow have to deal with.