Magazine «berncapitalarea»

Dear reader,

Have you ever had the opportunity to try out virtual reality? Immersed yourself in an animated world with a VR headset? How did you find it? My first experience was both fascinating and confusing at the same time. My brain couldn’t quite engage with this virtual world and forget about reality. And I feel the same way about the hype surrounding the metaverse: my critical mind doesn’t want to surrender completely to the prophecies being made about it. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t doubt that some kind of metaverse will exist. But I am yet to be convinced that it will really have the disruptive effect many are promising. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, such as what the effective energy demand of the metaverse will be and how it will be met, how data protection issues will be handled, or how the various worlds will interface with each other.

It is quite right to raise and discuss these and other questions. They won’t stand in the way of the development of the metaverse or of technological progress in general.

But we don’t have that crystal ball that enables us to peek into the future. So in this issue we take you on a journey looking at how various Bernese companies are approaching the metaverse.

Happy reading!

Yours truly,
Dr. Sebastian Friess
Head of the Office of Economic Affairs
President, Bern Economic Development Agency