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METAVERSE

Ethical Issues in the Metaverse

  • How to distinguish between a machine-driven avatar and a human?
  • How do we make sure that humans are in control of the metaverse?
  • Which data is collected about you – especially the ‘new’ data like biometric data (iris, movements etc)
  • How do we make sure that humans are in control of their data?
  • What about rights to data – can you participate without giving up on your privacy?
  • Copyrights and ownership – if you create stuff in the metaverse, who owns it?
  • How do we avoid big tech black box ownership in which people can be monitored, manipulated, and monetised?
  • Will there be a formal “right to opt out” of this dystopian “place”.
  • Will children be allowed in the metaverse
  • Will access to real world services: municipal, private, community, etc be mediated through the metaverse creating access disparitiee? Today, it is hard to function without a smartphone, but in the metaverse it could be worse in all sorts of ways
  • Should we allow brain-scanning headsets – or even implants in the skull – that allow interaction with the virtual world by pure thought? 
  • Will users be able to be anonymous?
Do send us more at info@dataethics.eu

Solutions

  • Always declare if a digital avatar or service is run by a machine
  • Use anonymous age verification to keep children out of grown up places
  • Don’t give robots the same rights af humans
  • We need standards, so we can bring our digital belongings and avatars with us – like the Metaverse Standards Forum and XRSI

Articles on the Metaverse

Research on the Metaverse

  • Follow Sofie Hvidved from Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies on the metaverse.
  • Experts split about the metaverse in 2040: According to Pew research, 54% of experts said by 2040 the metaverse WILL be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half billion or more people globally. 46% said by 2040 the metaverse WILL NOT be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half billion or more people globally.
  • Whitepaper on the Future of the Metaverse with 4 likely Scenarios from Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies
  • Paper: Regulating the Metaverse A Blueoprint for the Future
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