Bibri Simon Elias, Allam Zaheer
Department of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Sem Saelands veie 9, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway.
Department of Architecture and Planning, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Alfred Getz vei 3, Sentralbygg 1, 5th floor, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway.
Comput Urban Sci. 2022;2(1):22. doi: 10.1007/s43762-022-00050-1. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
Recent advances in computing and immersive technologies have provided Meta (formerly Facebook) with the opportunity to leapfrog or expedite its way of thinking and devising a global computing platform called the "Metaverse". This hypothetical 3D network of virtual spaces is increasingly shaping alternatives to the imaginaries of data-driven smart cities, as it represents ways of living in virtually inhabitable cities. At the heart of the Metaverse is a computational understanding of human users' cognition, emotion, motivation, and behavior that reduces the experience of everyday life to logic and calculative rules and procedures. This implies that human users become more knowable and manageable and their behavior more predictable and controllable, thereby serving as passive data points feeding the AI and analytics system that they have no interchange with or influence on. This paper examines the forms, practices, and ethics of the Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart cities, paying particular attention to: privacy, surveillance capitalism, dataveillance, geosurveillance, human health and wellness, and collective and cognitive echo-chambers. Achieving this aim will provide the answer to the main research question driving this study: What ethical implications will the Metaverse have on the experience of everyday life in post-pandemic urban society? In terms of methodology, this paper deploys a thorough review of the current status of the Metaverse, urban informatics, urban science, and data-driven smart cities literature, as well as trends, research, and developments. We argue that the Metaverse will do more harm than good to human users due to the massive misuse of the hyper-connectivity, datafication, algorithmization, and platformization underlying the associated global architecture of computer mediation. It follows that the Metaverse needs to be re-cast in ways that re-orientate in how users are conceived; recognize their human characteristics; and take into account the moral values and principles designed to realize the benefits of socially disruptive technologies while mitigating their pernicious effects. This paper contributes to the academic debates in the emerging field of data-driven smart urbanism by highlighting the ethical implications posed by the Metaverse as speculative fiction that illustrates the concerns raised by the pervasive and massive use of advanced technologies in data-driven smart cities. In doing so, it seeks to aid policy-makers in better understanding the pitfalls of the Metaverse and their repercussions upon the wellbeing of human users and the core values of urban society. It also stimulates prospective research and further critical perspectives on this timely topic.
计算和沉浸式技术的最新进展为Meta（前身为Facebook）提供了机会，使其能够跨越或加速其思维方式，并设计出一个名为“元宇宙”的全球计算平台。这个虚拟空间的假设性3D网络正日益塑造出与数据驱动的智能城市想象不同的替代方案，因为它代表了在虚拟宜居城市中的生活方式。元宇宙的核心是对人类用户的认知、情感、动机和行为的计算性理解，这种理解将日常生活体验简化为逻辑以及计算规则和程序。这意味着人类用户变得更易于了解和管理，其行为更具可预测性和可控性，从而成为为人工智能和分析系统提供数据的被动数据点，而他们与该系统没有交互或影响。本文探讨了元宇宙作为数据驱动的智能城市的虚拟形式的形式、实践和伦理，特别关注：隐私、监控资本主义、数据监控、地理监控、人类健康与福祉，以及集体和认知回音室。实现这一目标将为驱动本研究的主要研究问题提供答案：元宇宙对疫情后城市社会的日常生活体验会有哪些伦理影响？在方法论方面，本文对元宇宙、城市信息学、城市科学以及数据驱动的智能城市文献的现状，以及趋势、研究和发展进行了全面回顾。我们认为，由于相关全球计算机中介架构所基于的超连接、数据化、算法化和平台化的大量滥用，元宇宙对人类用户将弊大于利。因此，需要以重新定位对用户的构想方式来重塑元宇宙；认识到他们的人类特征；并考虑旨在实现具有社会颠覆性技术的益处同时减轻其有害影响的道德价值观和原则。本文通过强调元宇宙作为推测性虚构作品所带来的伦理影响，为新兴的数据驱动智能城市主义领域的学术辩论做出了贡献，这种虚构作品说明了数据驱动的智能城市中先进技术的普遍和大量使用所引发的担忧。这样做旨在帮助政策制定者更好地理解元宇宙的陷阱及其对人类用户福祉和城市社会核心价值观的影响。它还激发了对这一及时话题的前瞻性研究和进一步的批判性观点。
