The Problem with the Metaverse

The Problem with the Metaverse
I have written in past articles about how I see the calls to establish a Metaverse can be problematic, with the idea mainly being propounded by Mark Zuckerberg and his aspirations as to what our future digital world should look like. For those that are still catching up with this idea, the Metaverse is the augmentation of our physical worlds through virtual and augmented reality technology to create a new reality for everybody to live in. Now while this idea has its merits, it seems to be dominated by Zuckerberg tendencies dictating on us what this new digital reality should include. 
He has become so obsessed with his ideas that he created the new ‘Meta’ umbrella brand, pledging to spend $10 billion US dollars to build his version of the Metaverse, claiming the he will develop the fastest AI computer in the world during 2022. My concerns with this is that Metaverse pretends that life is a game which presents numerous problems including technology overload as the Metaverse impedes into everything; disassociation from reality and the challenges that face our real world, psychological problems surrounding a false sense of reality, and addiction to this new digital world where the ‘game’ never ends. I am afraid that with many new opportunities the Metaverse will bring, it hides many of these ugly realities especially if the vision of one man dominates its creation.
My daughter, Jumana Abu-Ghazaleh has written an excellent piece on this and how the Metaverse pretends that life is a game on Medium.com. She is an innovator of a business productivity application that boosts employee collaboration called Zanie, a prolific technology writer, a patent owner and founder of Pivot for Humanity; a non-profit organization with the aim to professionalize Silicon Valley.
She highlights that the Metaverse promotes gamification in all aspects of our lives, making it an addictive world to be in, effectively turning our daily lives into games. Turning our lives into something that feels like a game has potentially dire consequences for our real world, particularly if it is not adequately regulated or reflects the ambitions of one man and his ego. There is a major problem when our lives at home, our relationships, our work and everything else turns into a game, which can really be disturbing as it will inevitably lead to withdrawal from reality, with each living in their own Metaverse customized to their habits, likes, opinions and online profiles.
Everyone living in their own immersive version of the Metaverse has some serious existential repercussions on our existence as social human beings that live in communal environments. If everyone is going to be stuck in their own Metaverse in a ‘coma’ like state, who will put the trash out and make sure the windows are cleaned! Will future, ‘Metaverse doped’, generations even be able to deal with real life situations?
Jumana discusses how the Metaverse promotes a concept called long-termism. In her own words:
“Long-termism, as a philosophy, basically states that the only thing that matters is to keep the human race going–not to keep it just, just keep it going…. long-termism trivializes real and present dangers, dismisses the foreseeable future, and minimizes anything that’s not literally apocalyptic as mere bumps on the road to glory of the most evolved.”
This is a truly frightening prospect, where the aim is to keep people ‘just alive’ so that they can continue their animation in the Metaverse, rather than live full, complete lives as human beings in the real world and deal with challenges that pose a real threat to our existence, Metaverse included! 
She goes on to make a link between the mutually enforcing idea of long-termism with another concept called ‘hypernormalization’; the idea that everyone know things aren’t working correctly and knows it is fake, but goes along with it as no one else has any alternative vision for a different Metaverse society. 
From Jumana’s writing and those of other technologists, my analysis shows that the Metaverse is coming. We must make sure that it is built in a collaborative fashion so that it is not dominated by one-person vision, doesn’t cause further digital divides and is a healthy, regulated environment that has boundaries as well as holds developers accountable for the wellbeing of people within the digital environments they render. 
There is no reason why the Metaverse cannot be a positive place for an augmentation of our realities to occur, but this must be done now using deliberate thought with the input of technology companies and regulatory bodies during its initial development; not something left to whims or chance. 
I believe it is important to bring the efforts of companies working in this space together to develop an integrated Metaverse, not silo spaces. Many minds are better than one and is something that may well mitigate some of the ill effects that one person’s tunnel vision may cause.
I would highly recommend those interested to learn more, to read Jumana’s informative article available at -  https://jumanaag.medium.com/the-metaverse-pretends-that-life-is-a-game-thats-the-whole-problem-3cf542137666
With outspoken technologists like Jumana, I believe the future of the Internet, the Metaverse and other technology is in the safe hands of the wise.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh