possess independent thought and who have souls, and thus would have a right independent of their “creators” to assert their own rights. In the latter instance, avatars and other things
would be but objects, “valued” by external agents to be bought and sold according to market dictates.
Suddenly, we find ourselves on a slippery slope as past experiences with concepts of
ownership and slavery echo in our collective memory. As far back as 2016, simulation platforms have had to address perceived sexual harassment and assault in virtual worlds, with books being written and scholarly articles being
published on appropriate responses ranging from removing bias in coding to creating virtual “safe zones,” suggesting a “Bill of Rights” for avatars, to recommending legislation to make it a new offence under the law, to actually passing legislation (in France) to make virtual harassment a crime.33 And such charges continue today. As recently as January 2022, charges of “groping” by other avatars known as “griefers” have been documented. So, might one question go to the core of the issue: who would claim recompense for the wrong committed, the “owner” of the avatar or the avatar him- or herself?
These are the dangers of an unregulated marketplace. Tony Fadell, creator of the Apple iPod, has pointed out the foundation of risk: the metaverse removes the ability “to look into the other person’s face.” He explains: “When you can't look into the other person's face, you can't see their eyes, you don't have real humanistic ways of connecting. It become disintermediated and you have the ability at that point to create more trolls, people who hide behind things and then use that to their advantage to get attention.” It is the basic reality that “if you put technology between that human connection that’s when the toxicity happens.”34 It is for this reason, among others, that tech companies
need to be regulated in more than one regard.
Additional Costs
There are, of course, additional costs to humanity outside of the personal. Chief among these are the costs to the environment.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst conducted a study in 2019 to determine energy consumption of the metaverse. Given that one artificial intelligence language processing model’s “estimated carbon footprint and electricity cost was over 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide,” the study concluded the metaverse energy consumption and emissions would “be through the roof.” Moreover, analysts at Intel have suggested that global computing infrastructure “needs to be 1,000 times more powerful to sustain the metaverse.”35
Meta and other companies have claimed that the metaverse will achieve net-zero emissions, but no clear pathways for achieving such have been confirmed. What is known is that simply to create the massive hardware to support such platforms would require ever-increasing mining of precious metals for the production of chips and other products, which will not only deplete the resources but threaten environments.
According to an article in the Harvard International Review:
When you can't look into the other person's face, you can't see their eyes, you don't have real humanistic ways of connecting. It become disintermediated and you have the ability at that point to create more trolls, people who hide behind things and then use that to their advantage to get attention.
— Tony Fadell, creator of Apple iPod
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