Potential Risks and Governance Principles of the Metaverse

The mobile Internet has opened up an independent spiritual life world outside the real physical world. The emergence of new technologies represented by the metaverse means that the attractiveness of the virtual spiritual life world may surpass the real physical world for the first time, and the attributes of people and society may face another major reconstruction. Professor Lv Peng from the School of Public Administration of Central South University wrote an article in "National Governance" Weekly, pointing out that the Metaverse can play a huge role in stimulating individuals and social vitality, but it will also bring far-reaching structural impacts to society, involving social security. , political security, economic security and other major issues, if they are allowed to develop freely, there may be risks of loss of control and alienation. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to advance research on metaverse governance.

With the development of social productive forces, great changes have taken place in the form of human life. Since modern times, science and technology have gradually become the primary productive forces, and the changes in human attributes and social forms have become more drastic. With the rapid development of the Internet, human beings have accelerated their entry into the network society and digital society. A major change is that the mobile Internet has opened up an independent spiritual life world outside the real physical world. The emergence of new technologies represented by the Metaverse in 2021 means the arrival of the "singularity", the attraction of the virtual spiritual life world may surpass the real physical world for the first time, and the attributes of people and society may face another major reconstruction. It is foreseeable that the Metaverse will have a profound impact on individuals and society. Our country should study and judge in advance, fully rehearse, and reserve countermeasures to ensure the healthy development of the Metaverse.

The Metaverse will intensify the trend towards individuation
Based on the continuous improvement of social productivity and material living standards, people's spiritual and cultural needs have become more and more important. The core feature of the metaverse is to create an independent spiritual life field in addition to the individual material life, and the individual's physiology, psychology, personality, interaction, etc. will undergo major changes. in particular:

The Metaverse creates "first-person" parallel worlds. The creation of parallel worlds is the most significant change brought about by the Metaverse, and the logical starting point for our discussion of its impact. In the PC Internet era, human beings create a virtual society through technology. In the era of mobile Internet, people have created a mobile virtual society. Although the degree of social virtualization continues to deepen, and the convenience and mobility continue to improve, it still cannot solve the problem of individuals fully integrating into the virtual society. In the pre-metaverse era, the virtual society was indirect and objective, and was a primary development form. We need terminals such as PC screens, tablet computers, and smart phones to access the virtual society and conduct social activities. In the metaverse era, the virtual space has been upgraded to an advanced form, with directness and subjectivity, that is, a "first-person" parallel world. Individuals can directly enter the virtual space, and the content and form of the virtual space are extremely rich, beautiful and full of creativity. As a result, the individual enters a parallel world that is relatively independent from the real physical world, that is, living in two worlds. Physiological, material and survival needs are solved in the real physical world, and spiritual and cultural life is mainly carried out in a parallel world.

Metaverse deepens the risk of individual atomization. In the pre-metaverse era, there was the problem of individual atomization. The so-called "individual atomization" refers to the degradation of individual social interactions, social support systems and functions. Individuals can maintain a basic and normal work and lifestyle to a large extent by relying only on themselves and without people in need. In the era of mobile Internet, this trend has become more obvious, and it is prominently reflected in the aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation. Smartphone applications can cover most of the needs. For example, through take-out apps, online car-hailing apps, online shopping apps, etc., people can meet their basic needs without leaving their homes. It is common for news reports that some people rely on take-out food to stay at home for several months. This is a microcosm. The problem of individual atomization in the mobile Internet era has become very serious. Only by solving basic and survival needs, the mobile Internet has caused major atomization risks in individual life, and to a large extent fragmentation and obstruction The ability, desire and inclination of individual social activities are stagnant. In the metaverse era, this trend will continue, and the level of risk will be further deepened. On the basis of satisfying the needs of material life, the metaverse may completely lead individuals to a virtualized parallel world, raising the risk of individual atomization to the highest level.

The metaverse breeds reality alienation. People often say "ideal is full, reality is very skinny". When an individual lives in the real physical world, there will always be unsatisfactory, unfree, and unsatisfactory. Because of the real physical world, resources are always scarce, opportunities are always limited, and life is always irreversible. But in the metaverse society, people can ignore the "skinny" experience of reality (real physical society), directly embrace the "full" spiritual world, and indulge in a beautiful parallel world full of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and happiness. . It is human's instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. It is an inevitable trend that individuals like the metaverse more and more and spend more and more time in parallel worlds. This will lead to individuals becoming more and more alienated from the real world (the real physical world), which will be manifested in both the subjective psychological level and the objective time distribution, which will bring negative effects in two aspects: the first is the further reduction of the individual's pro-social tendency , because the main source of happiness has been transferred to the metaverse, the "society" here refers specifically to the real society, that is, the real physical world; the second is that the threshold of individual happiness is raised, and as the individual is immersed in the metaverse, the number of times they obtain happiness The number of stimuli, frequency, and occasions increases, people need more and more stimuli to feel happy, and it becomes more and more difficult for people to feel happiness and happiness.

The Metaverse causes individual disputes and family ethical issues. In the parallel world created by the Metaverse, many players are active and interacting in it. The main players are real people, and the interpersonal relationships, interpersonal disputes, and family ethics issues in traditional society will also be projected into the metaverse society. The manifestations may vary slightly, but the nature of the problem remains the same. The first is interpersonal disputes. For example, players will interact with teams and joint tasks in the metaverse, which will inevitably lead to interpersonal disputes, including but not limited to abuse, slander, personal attacks, and team leadership disputes. The second is the issue of marriage, friendship and family ethics. Metaverse society can be considered as a special form of real society. The communication between members of the society also has the attributes of emotional communication and value communication, which will inevitably bring about problems of marriage, love and friendship. And because the metaverse hides the individual attributes of individuals in the real society, the mechanisms of personal pressure and social pressure in the real society no longer play a role, and related marriage, love and friendship behaviors are more common, purer, more subjective, and more frequent. For example, two players fall in love in a virtual metaverse world and become husband and wife. How is this defined in a legal, social sense? Issues such as marriage, dating, and family in the Metaverse will become major ethical issues in the new era.