At GEOINT, Space Force and NGA lean into the metaverse, whatever that means
“I would probably even argue that metaverse in itself is overplayed. It's a construct. It really is distracting in many cases from what we're trying to achieve," said Michael Torres, chief of digital infrastructure and SpaceVerse at the Space Force's Chief Technology and Innovation Office
By THERESA HITCHENS
on May 26, 2023 at 7:24 AM
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The theme of this year’s annual GEOINT conference: “From Maps to Metaverse.” (Photo credit: USGIF)
GEOINT 2023 — While Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft already may have abandoned the metaverse as yesterday’s news, the Defense Department and Intelligence Community continue to embrace the concept — with the theme of this year’s annual US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) here in St. Louis, “GEOINT: From Maps to Metaverse.”
The only rub is that no one seems to have precisely the same definition for what the metaverse is, how exactly to get there or what to do once inside. To hear officials here and in the past tell it, sometimes it’s all about the data, data fusion and how data is delivered. Sometimes it’s about real-time man-machine teaming. And while for some the term is most closely associated with creating realistic synthetic training environments, for others it is a kind of digital “theory of everything” at the heart of the future way of war.
Here, even those with a clearer vision of what the metaverse could be were wary about suggesting it’s an all-in-one panacea for next-gen problems — and in one case, wary of calling it anything more than a “buzzword.” Rather, officials suggested the real value, for now, is to leverage the individual pieces of technology involved and slowly build from there towards something more in line with the sci-fi vision of the future battlefield.
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/05/at-geoint-space-force-and-nga-lean-into-the-metaverse-whatever-that-means/
