Making sense of digital worlds like the Metaverse — Are we losing our humanity?

Whenever new technology appears there seems to be a tendency to first decry it. See the dark side. One of our greatest fears is losing what makes us human.

Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio — the first “wireless communication” device — doubted his own invention. Shortly before his death he was invited to give a speech at St. Andrews University. He delivered the notes to Sir James Irvine were he asked himself if he had done any good to the world with his invention. The Glasgow Herald published Marconi’s concerns after his death. He feared that the radio would turn “a menace for the world” (read at Google News archive: https://bit.ly/37QKcNf)

From trains to the mobile phone. Everything was once demonized and used by doomsayers as a reason to predict the end of the world or our very human spirit.

We now know that trains don’t turn us into jelly or woman’s uteruses don’t fly out of the body (this were serious beliefs published back in the early 19th century). What about the Metaverse? Is this the final nail for our souls? Is this the feared creation of the Matrix?

This questions go beyond a philosophical point of view. Is the Metaverse necessary to human development or will it hinder our social interactions and undermine the forces that keep society together?

I am the CEO of a crypto tech company involved in the creation of what could be considered the “passport for things” (a digital universal identifier for real world items that can then be purported into digital worlds — see more on our company website: www. bitsliced.io). This means that I have to do endless presentations about this subject. I also grew up in the 80s, when technology had the aura of wonder and magic. The James Bond movies were so fascinating because of the tech gizmos, the sliding doors, the flying or swimming cars, which means I lived in a “pre-digital” age with analog communication and it was a lovely time. I can see the reason to fear a full-blown digital world. Especially to the generation of my parents.

It was in a recent conversation with a 78 year old interested investor that this question came up. What need or real world purpose actually exists for a world full of avatars and digital buildings? To him the mere idea of spending time in such a world is ludicrous and extremely bizarre! I was torn between the desire to answer him honestly, without falling into the trap of persuading him for the sake of making my company look important and questioning my own endeavour as entrepreneur in the crypto space.

This gentleman is from the beautiful town of Utrecht (The Netherlands), where you can visit the Speelklok museum which is full of colourful clocks with intricate mechanisms that play music and move miniature universes (if you are one day in The Netherlands and interested in the precursors of computers, don’t miss out on a visit to the museum: https://www.museumspeelklok.nl/).

There was one particular clock that caught my attention! It is a very elaborate copy of nature. A big tree with branches and birds. The complexity is astonishing, the birds flap, move around to the tune of a melody that plays at certain times. It is all mechanical. I called it a metaverse of some sorts. Humans always had a fascination in recreating the physical world. To bring it down to a manageable level.

It is part of our human psychology. We start with this “artificial world building” at young age. Lego kits and at my time Playmobil were physical, analog precursors to the upcoming digital metaverse. As a child we gain a sense of control over our self-created miniature world. We are a giant among small toy cars and dolls. The physical world and the universe are complex and huge — going beyond what our senses could grasp. So we create our own, small scale versions to make sense of the bigger world.

There is another element. The “simulation effect”. We see this come into play with video games. We might never be able to play at a World Championship Soccer cup, but we can do so in our simulated digital world. For a moment we are able to feel the excitement, the thrill of being a great soccer star. Our minds love to immerse into artificial worlds. This is part of our humanity: dreaming! Dreams are the biological version (or should I say: metaphysical?) of a metaverse. We can fly. We can swim like a fish. Our brain simulates, prepares and resets for the physical world.

This is how I see the “usefulness” of a digital metaverse. Will the metaverse ruin our humanity? Will it replace reality? I don’t think it will. There are certainly aspects that we need to be careful about (I will dive deeper into this subject in another article), but reality is reality. We are biological beings, so our connectedness to reality is undeniable. Both worlds can co-exist and actually one (the digital version) benefitting our Life in the other (the physical version).

It is not a device, a technological advancement that takes our humanity. Steam locomotives didn’t make us less human as much as a digital metaverse will do. It is up to us to stay true to our human nature to stay connected to ourselves and others.

Author: Pedro Ferreira