I was a poli sci major in college and had to read many social literatures from the likes of Rousseau, Locke, and Macchiavelli to understand the philosophies and social contracts that shaped modern societies. I found the writings and their implication hard to grasp at the time, but I never would have expected that we would be discussing social agreements that need to be established for digital worlds.
When I read that Meta is adding "personal boundaries" to VR avatars to stop harassment, I wasn't surprised. I know it's not Meta's fault, it's human nature, which Meta leadership never misses to remind us. But just as they have yet to find a sustainable solution to a slew of problems like harassment, demeaning comments, misinformation, polarization that current platforms host and foster, I don't have much faith that they will figure out how to place norms and protections in a fully virtual world where risk factors will be heightened and control/definition over permissible behavior will become harder to manage.
Meta says it's a virtual reflection of the real world. There are enough problems in the real world. Do we really need another version of an imperfect world to try to live in?
Reference:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/4/22917722/meta-horizon-worlds-venues-metaverse-harassment-groping-personal-boundary-feature
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