6G, Next G, and the Metaverse: Toward the Peak-Experience Machine

Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1450 revolutionized society and heralded 300 years of renaissance. While Gutenberg’s invention gave birth to printing, the Internet’s full potential still remains to be unleashed in the years to come. We do not yet know what the Internet truly is, though its impact is anticipated to be eventually similar or even superior to that of the printing press. Measured in Gutenberg time, we stand today at about the year 1481 with the progression of disruption in society. Note that Luther was born in the year 1483. Hence, the Internet’s Martin Luther is yet to come. This paper aims at developing an overarching narrative for future 6G and Next G networks, which go beyond the incremental 6G= 5G +1G mindset of past generations of mobile networks and also involve major over-the-top Internet players, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, as well as Facebook. We focus particularly on the emerging Metaverse, the anticipated successor to today’s mobile Internet, which will be about being inside the Internet (rather than simply looking at it from a phone screen) and producing peak-experiences. This is in contrast to only printing & pamphlets about them, as Luther had to do in a pre-Internet era.