Imagine a 3D world online where you teleport from your London office to a meeting room in Singapore, shop at a digital replica of your favorite clothing store, then join a friend for a round of virtual golf. For some, this aspirational version of the Internet known as the metaverse is the future of human interaction. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has renamed the company Meta Platforms Inc. and is pouring billions of dollars a year into efforts to master this “next frontier.” But it’s not clear what a unified virtual universe would look like, or whether people really want it.