'Into the Metaverse: Technical Challenges, Social Problems, Utopian Visions, and Policy Principles' by Vincent Mosco in (2023) Javnost - The Public (Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture) comments
The metaverse holds a prominent place in debates over the future direction of digital networks. Proponents claim that advances in virtual and augmented reality will shape every facet of social life. This article defines the metaverse, explores the state of the technology, and addresses its public policy significance. It makes use of a political economic perspective focusing on the concepts of commodification and spatialisation. Specifically, it considers how major platform and gaming companies plan to use the metaverse to expand market share. The article also addresses the cultural dimensions of the metaverse as the latest in a series of utopian visions of a digital sublime. It proceeds to take up the social problems associated with the metaverse and concludes by describing the essential policy principles that should guide public authorities in the regulating the metaverse. These principles include acknowledging that current concerns over implementation do not limit future deployment. Moreover, public policy should start by recognising that the metaverse is a public space and not the private property of the major platforms. Finally, policy must address specific social problems deepened by the arrival of the metaverse including crime, privacy, the impact on climate, and data ownership.
This Metaverse is going to be far more pervasive and powerful than anything else. If one central company gains control of this, they will become more powerful than any government and be a God on Earth. Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder of Epic Games
In 2021, with its social media revenues slowing appreciably, Facebook announced a major strategic change that would deepen its investment in virtual reality systems, or what is increasingly known as the metaverse. In addition to an enormous shift in personnel and budgeting, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg renamed the business he founded Meta and asserted that the metaverse is about “a time when basically immersive digital worlds become the primary way that we live our lives and spend our time”. Meta’s new strategy was quickly followed by Microsoft, as well as by gaming businesses and other Fortune 500 firms that planned to boost profits by investing in, and shifting some of their operations to, the metaverse. As Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO put it, “The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it—from the factory floor to the meeting room”.
Zuckerberg and Nadella were joined by leaders in the public and private sectors who view the metaverse as an opportunity to cut costs and expand products and services. In 2022, the elite World Economic Forum gave its blessing to the virtual world. Aside from a few caveats, the WEF argued that.
the Metaverse has a potential to play a broader role in society through its ability to open our horizons, interact with those that we could not have met in the real world, experience new places, access public services and healthcare, and, overall, create an extension of the real world that we live in, to help us discover ways to make it better.
The global financial company Citibank forecast that by 2030 the metaverse would be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion (all currency in US dollars), and up to 5 billion users would live, work, and play in these new immersive spaces.
By the end of 2022, Meta’s lofty aspirations appeared less likely to be realised than they were a year earlier. Nevertheless, it is important to focus less on the missteps of a specific company and more on the appeal of virtual world technologies, particularly those enhanced by artificial intelligence systems. Drawing on political economic and cultural studies perspectives, this paper defines the metaverse, assesses its social significance, and addresses key problems and public policy issues.
