Metaverse and its effect on human society
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    Abstract:

    In the year of 2021, the whole world heard the roar of metaverse which is seen as the stimulant of the capital market and the focus of the academic field. Scholars hold different opinions on the definition of metaverse. Based on metaverse’s operation mechanism and former researches, metaverse can be defined as a mixture of the mirror image of the physical world and a recreated virtual world with the help of internet and communication technology and smart devices as well as supported by the internet, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Compared with the traditional network space and the physical space, metaverse has some obvious characteristics: technological superposition, virtual and reality integration, physical immersion and real-time interaction. Like the internet which has been thriving for more than 30 years, metaverse will exert effect on human society and on the new formation of human civilization. First, metaverse will demonstrate time and space from new aspects. Metaverse will create a new virtual universe which will co-exist with the natural universe. As the virtual twin and extension part of the physical world. Metaverse will simulate the real life and change it. When Metaverse comes, human will gain opportunities of taking part in the past affairs, experiencing limitless possibilities in limited lifetime, rehearsing the future life, replicating the physical world, erasing borders lying among different physical spaces when entering into virtual spaces, harboring virtual spaces as a supplement of physical spaces and obtaining a space where imagination can be embodied at a virtual level. Second, metaverse will form a new lifestyle for human society. As a result of the close integration of multiple technologies, metaverse will reshape human’s life. Human’s labor, consumption and spiritual life will be changed, represented by that virtual labor may become an important part of labor, virtual property and virtual service may become popular, and virtual culture may become a new form of spiritual life. Third, it will shape human’s thoughts and behaviors which present new features. When the lifestyle brought by metaverse becomes universal, human’s thoughts and behaviors will be changed that extroversion and introversion, immersion and degradation, moderation and antagonism, striving and imagination, and creativity and dependence meanwhile exist. In the digital world, metaverse will reach an unattainable human society in reality, and become what Marx called "the union of free people" in the virtual world. Metaverse is both an opportunity and a challenge for human. The "immersive" experience created by the metaverse is not a "degenerate" life and cannot be an excuse for addictive game life. The deep virtualization of social relations and interpersonal relationships in metaverse cannot cut off the inevitable connection with the real physical world. The virtual identity, virtual products, virtual markets, virtual business, virtual life, and virtual economy constructed by metaverse cannot be separated from the constraints of ethics, morality and law. To ensure that metaverse can play the role of "benefiting" in human society rather than instigating the crisis of "alienation", it is an important task and mission for metaverse builders to refine and improve the underlying technology to ensure the smooth landing and energy-saving application of metaverse, and lay and consolidate the top-level system to prevent metaverse from violating morality and laws.

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蒲清平,向往.元宇宙及其对人类社会的影响与变革[J].重庆大学学报社会科学版,2023,(2):111~123

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  • Online: May 08,2023
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