Ever since Facebook announced that they were rebranding and renaming their company META my newsfeed has been flooded with articles about the coming METAVERSE and METAREALITY. As someone who values the physical world and prefers to be outdoors in nature the coming paradigm shift is a little unsettling. Part of what is unsettling is that I experienced virtual reality at this conference first hand and I can tell you that it is extremely easy for the mind to become totally immersed in this technology.
At this conference a VR headset transported me around the world where I witnessed cultural rituals that were happening all around me in a 360 degree radius. I was also transported to locations that I personally could not survive such as the depths of the ocean where I was able to swim among whales and hear the magical sounds or the outer rings of Saturn and Jupiter. I can only imagine how much better the technology has become especially now that haptic suits are arriving that recreate the sensation of touch to go along with sight. I can see how someone could get addicted to a virtual world very easily.
My response to all this has been to dive into philosophy and explore the debates between rationalism and empiricism and to relearn about Kant’s Copernican Revolution that blends the two.
As I trace these philosophical traditions and arguments I get into reading about the debates about what is reality and ideas related to theories of mind. Is the constructed reality within the mind as valid as the physical realities of nature? Does the three dimensional physical world even exist outside the mind?
There are philosophers who argue that nothing exists without the concept in the mind and therefore dreams, augmented and virtual realities are deemed to be every bit as real as the three dimensional physical world we inhabit.
In my research I have also come across a relatively new branch of philosophy that is based upon emerging technologies. In this field of study it has been noted that computer simulations are seen as not only calculating existing data but also creating new data and therefore new knowledge that did not previously exist. Just this week I read about a biological robot that has managed to reproduce cells in ways that have never been observed in any plant or animal!
Historically, epistemological and ontological explorations were limited to seeking to understand the world as it already exists. Now we are taking on the task of actually creating new realities. CS Lewis would have been well suited to this new world as it would make his story of Alice in Wonderland a mainstream reality!
It is at this moment that I am grateful for having grown up in the physical world before the internet to have a foundation that is grounded in the physical reality. I think it will take greater self discipline to operate in a virtual world. We have already witnessed the negative impact of the echo chamber that is created by social media and I think that the trend of seeking out and finding people who share similar beliefs and attitudes while ignoring or even despising the rest will continue to screen out any knowledge that isn’t in alignment with what we already agree with.
I think that Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason illustrates the need for divergent (counter intuitive) thinking as a means to expand our knowledge in ways that move us from a flat earth perspective to recognizing that the universe doesn’t revolve around us. It is also the pathway toward creativity that is so necessary for solving the increasingly complex problems we face.
I think that exposure to information that is opposed to our worldview can help us grow. My fears for the ease with which we can ignore divergent thinking in a virtual world are related to a sermon I heard many times at weddings. In one particular Priest’s wedding sermon he would quote Paul when he writes, “when I was a child I spoke as a child…” He would then go on to personalize it by describing the common experience of a child asking for a cookie and throwing a temper tantrum if they didn’t get it.
When I read, watch, and listen to the politcal debates that plague us now I am reminded of that image of the child throwing a temper tantrum at the grocery store when their parent told them no as they reached from some sugar coated treat.
This new reality is also reminding me of the myth about pandora’s box that has played out over and over in history in examples such as the first nuclear bomb blasts.
Knowledge and technology combine to create both good and bad modifications to our existence. There are always unintended consequences to each new technological development.
While I am sure there will be wonderful new advances to our culture with virtual and augmented reality combined with haptic suits and exoskeletons that may transcend physical disability and illness, I am also very afraid of the way this technology can empower us to ignore climate change or any other negative vision we don’t want to look at in the world such as poverty.
I grew up during the start of the environmental movement and know first hand how important the clean water act was to our ability to preserve a healthy planet and I know that it was only after facing the medical crisis associated with lead, and the overflowing waste that industrialization created that we tackled these problems and found solutions.
I can’t help but wonder how these latest technical advances will make up for the increase energy demands to support electricity consumption 24/7 and the precious metals that must be extracted to build the ever changing circuitry that we will continue to be expected to buy as upgrades every 12-18 months. The iPhone was first released in 2007 and we are now on version 13!
A migration to a virtual reality workplace will be accompanied with an economic system built on crypto currencies that are already drawing huge amounts of additional power at a time when we are at risk of heating up the planet beyond its ability to support biodiversity. The percentage of animal species that have become extinct in the last 100 years is mind boggling.
On top of this we are seeing cryptocurrencies rise and fall and come and go because they are no longer tied to a government as a stabilizing force that will offer any form of economic protection such as that found with an FDIC insured bank account within a federal banking system. What might the next economic depression look like. Will it dwarf those of the 20th century?
I am at an age where I can sense the world speeding up beyond my ability to keep up. This is the experience of the middle aged and elderly in any generation. There are new ways of making a living that I will not be able to understand based upon past experience. I can either evolve or get out of the way of the next generation.
This is not to minimize the role my generation and older needs to play in society. I think it is our role to perfect living and to pass on the wisdom that comes from slowing down and reflecting upon all of life’s experiences in hopes of achieving wisdom that will guide us safely into the future.
I am not resistant to the technological future ahead, but rather I am resolute in my effort to encourage technological literacy and to encourage a balanced and positive approach to technology that ensures that we do not abandon this earth in favor of virtual worlds.
My personal response to all this has been to start learning how to grow plants from seeds and to seek out wisdom from the past to face the ethical dilemmas of the present.
As the METAVERSE trend continues to grow in momentum I am taking a renewed dedication to photographing the people I love and the natural landscape of the three dimensional world. I think we will need to bring these with us into the METAVERSE in order to preserve our humanity in a world full of avatars and artificial intelligence.
