Ethical Issues in the Metaverse
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How to distinguish between a machine-driven avatar and a human?
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How do we make sure that humans are in control of the metaverse?
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Which data is collected about you – especially the ‘new’ data like biometric data (iris, movements etc)
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How do we make sure that humans are in control of their data?
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What about rights to data – can you participate without giving up on your privacy?
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Copyrights and ownership – if you create stuff in the metaverse, who owns it?
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How do we avoid big tech black box ownership in which people can be monitored, manipulated, and monetised?
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Will there be a formal “right to opt out” of this dystopian “place”.
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Will children be allowed in the metaverse
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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
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Should we allow brain-scanning headsets – or even implants in the skull – that allow interaction with the virtual world by pure thought?
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Will users be able to be anonymous?
Do send us more at info@dataethics.eu
Solutions
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Always declare if a digital avatar or service is run by a machine
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Use anonymous age verification to keep children out of grown up places
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Don’t give robots the same rights af humans
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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
- Meta’s Metaverse will likely be filled with Marketing and Manipulation, DataEthics.eu, February 2022
- Metaverse – a Dystopian Future, DataEthics.eu Nov 2021
- The Virtuality Industry really has a Kid’s Problem, DataEthics.eu Nov 2021
- Neal Stephenson, the novelist who coined the Metaverse 30 years ago, says we must build open decentralised meta verses – NOT controlled by big tech. Financial Times.
- The Free, The Nerd, The Disunited or Just ONE King of the Metaverse? Dataethics.eu Sept 2022
- The Three M’s of the Metaverse, DataEthics.eu Oct 2022
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