“Menschlichkeit” in the Metaverse?
Abstract
The German meaning of “Menschlichkeit” captures the essence of being human, humanity and human kindness, all at the same time. With an emerging array of metaverse worlds for business, leisure, human interactions, the process of digitalization continues, which started well in the late 80’ies and 90’ies of the previous century. But virtual communities and worlds have evolved since then, and the exponential curve continues at full speed. We live a tech lifestyle on steroids. But the fundamentals have not changed. Humans (mostly) like (some) humans, but increasingly many discover the appeal to speak with an AI, or bond with a virtual movie or game character as avatars.
In the metaverse, the promise of VR/AR allows for more immersion, while AI enables all of us to speak a universal language, just like Esperanto, i.e., a global language that anyone understands, thanks to real-time language translation. The world finally becomes a village. But will this deep tech adventure leave ‘Menschlichkeit’ as unnecessary debris behind? Which cultures and lifestyles will become dominant, and which ones vanish or gracefully decline, while new cyberpunk & metaverse subcultures and tribes emerge. This ain’t all news: back in 1985 Donna Harraway published her Cyborg Manifesto.
Since then, technologies advanced further, with neurolinks, cyborg bodies, ectogenesis, cryonics and, ultimately, transhumanism the question becomes immanent: What will be left of us humans? When AIs simulate the dead and created loved and cherished personas, while newborns benefit from longevity tech and may not need to worry anymore about physical death. Or will they?
The balance between analogue flesh and digital circuits remains fragile. A vinyl record will never lose its appeal, but 80% of earth’s population can’t afford 20, 25 US$ just to listen to music. Today they stream their daily fix from free online services or hoard large libraries of old – technically illegal and outdated – MP3 collections. But the metaverse may allow for affordable, shared experiences and virtual communities beyond socio-cultural borders, across languages and continents. The metaverse will allow anyone to become an overnight music star, or an astrophysicist, who attended lectures at the most renowned universities almost for free, or then work half-way across the world in a prestigious corporation, without ever having visited the headquarters, or even speak the corporate language.
This suggested panel is based on a previous panel & dialogue held at SNGLR.NFT’s Art Basel event in summer 2023 between philosopher Oliver Mauer (cryptobus.fm) and tech-sociologist Daniel Diemers (SNGLR.GROUP). The panel composition is wide open and should comprise at least these two disciplines and any other person that feels energized by the theme and wants to contribute.
My individual expertise: I’ve been researching this topic since the 90’ies – wrote 1 book, a couple of articles and attended various academic conferences on above subjects (e.g., AoIR in Kansas/US, Silicon Valley, etc.), also wrote my Ph.D. on “trust & knowledge in virtual communities” drawing on my primary research and experience in that field, plus all the academic research available at the time. The last 10+ years worked mostly in the blockchain space, so kept close to stuff that’s happening and at SNGLR.GROUP we are deep in the rabbit hole around Metaverse/ blockchain, but also AI, smart cities, smart mobility, and longevity
submitted by: Daniel Diemers from SNGLR Group
see also: SNGLR.NFT SNGLR Group