Jane wakes up in the morning. It is 6:00 AM in the X8A32@M291K. Today the work for Section 28 must finish. She has been improving the render quality of Section 28 for 16 weeks now. She expects a reward once the section is complete. A decent increase in her experience points, eighteen points on her savings, and a power-up on her health insurance. That should help her to acquire the entitlement to a few old videos. She is an avid collector of legacy media and technology. Then, she can take some time-off, logout of the metaverse, and go for a vacation. Workcation to be precise. She needs to find some inspiration from different objects, materials, textures, lighting, and sounds. The course she took on perspectives, light and sound is quite outdated. It does not help her to stay competitive in the design, build and rendering of new generation of sections.

She remembered her grandfather explaining low-poly animations of yesteryears. It was a revolution when Lumen and Nanite were introduced. It started a revolution on recreating experiences bit-by-bit, section-by-section, and world-by-world. It was a bit like in the real world - planning, architecting, building, occupying, extending cities. And doing it all over again through many generations, centuries, and millennia. Nobody cares much about building the real world. It is comfortable, efficient, and well-automated. You need to get into meta-world to get things done, experience living, and to generate wealth.

She sat down for an energy shot. “I am a world builder.”

The economics of meta-world is in building it. We need to make it a pleasing experience, and most importantly, render it ultra-realistic and fast. Funny that ultra-realistic means realism of a distant planet called Earth! There are people are living there, even now. But it is like a protectorate, nothing can be built or improved. They are in a state of rewind, moving the clock back so that it can be rebuilt all over again. I wish to visit once to experience the reality. After all, the genes are programmed appreciate that beauty.

Grandfather once told, “Development is like rolling down a slippery slope! Modern world is advanced by cycles of building and rebuilding cities and infrastructure. Every generation made things better, faster, and cheaper, until it couldn’t be done anymore”. But the economic progress had to continue. So, we moved to meta worlds. We are still building cities, making them better, faster, and cheaper. When grandfather started building the meta worlds it was just gaming and entertainment. The economic model was built on simple trades of cards, coins, and costumes. Then it became larger contracts. Today the sustenance and development of meta world itself is an economic activity. Glitzy entertainment, stunning visuals, smooth renders, all out of void, a desert! Everyone contributes and generates value - artists, performers, operators, administrators, and builders.

She loaded an old media clip.

The video from 2021 played on the wall. Neo and Trinity introducing Unreal Engine 5. “What would identity mean in a completely digital world? And what would reality mean, when a world we can build feels as real as our own?”