The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.
Alberts Einstein
How many times have you ever experienced the feeling of never learning enough until you realize you have to learn more?
At the Metavethics Institute, we always have the need to identify new research questions with the goal to provide case studies, examples, good practices, and solutions to design ethical, inclusive, safe, and accessible digital, virtual, and immersive environments.
When we talk about the metaverse, what it is, and what it represents, it is easy to find hundreds of different definitions as well as questionable statements that define univocally the metaverse as one single concept.
Research from the University of Cambridge reported that the metaverse can be seen as a new world where people will spend time differently than in the physical world, where a new language and new heuristics will be developed, and new interaction paradigms will have to be designed.
Through double-blind, peer-reviewed published research we've found that the metaverse can be imagined almost like a layer on top of the real world that doesn’t replace the real world which could enable users to better understand the real world by disclosing emotions, feelings, and ideas that with only human senses might be difficult to capture.
The metaverse appears to be a constantly evolving entity and what seems to be certain, is that there will be not just one metaverse, but there will be different digital, virtual, and immersive environments that will constitute potentially a galaxy of metaverses.
Once the concept of the metaverse will be more clearly understood, it will be important to create a series of learning and educational actions to ensure that users understand what it is and what avenues and opportunities it will create.
How might we evolve the definition of the metaverse and make sure it is understood by the community?
To share the message about the metaverse it is important to have different voices to talk about it, let people with a diversity of backgrounds and ideas seat at the table, embed them in the design process, let them try the technologies, and create learning support, material and knowledge about the metaverse by building analogies with what users already know.
We believe that to further develop the definition of the metaverse is key to first create awareness, develop knowledge, and design digital literacy programs for potential users of all ages, gender, culture, and abilities to make sure that they understand the full potential and implications with this new big thing.
To reduce the missteps people made in the past with the launch of certain technologies and to prevent undesirable impacts on people’s life there is a need to enlighten the concept of access, use, and benefits of the metaverse for a variety of users from different parts of the world, with particular emphasis on vulnerable groups and underrepresented communities.
To jump-start this process and accelerate the design of a good metaverse we created the Metavethics Institute, a community-driven independent think tank dedicated to establishing ethical policies, best practices, and standards across accessibility, integrity, privacy, safety, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Our vision is to enable sustainable ethical, and inclusive efforts for technology-driven organizations by securing access for people of different ages and abilities, guaranteeing socio-economical access for people from developing countries, improving its use in K-12 educational, working, or entertainment contexts, and addressing the needs of historically marginalized communities versus non-underrepresented minorities.
We believe that there should not be only a conversation about how big the door to access the metaverse is, but more about how the door could be opened by different people by emphasizing the sense of belonging and helping them to understand how they can be part of something new.
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