Dialogue with Marco Centorrino and Josephine Condemi

What if the arrival of the metaverse helped us all (or almost all of us) to become more human? This ‘counter-current’ question lingers after meeting experts in the human aspect of the metaverse and its impact on society: Marco Centorrino, Professor in the Sociology of Communication (who has been researching the metaverse phenomenon for several years), and Josephine Condemi, journalist and PhD candidate (with a project on the agency of human bodies in the metaverse) in the Humanistic Sciences, both at the University of Messina.

To understand where this question comes from and to consider it seriously (rather than dismissing it as a mere provocation), we need to look at what is actually happening with and within the metaverse. After the hype of 2022 created by the launch of Meta Horizon World, it has almost disappeared from common public debate: it’s time to revisit it.

The metaverse is moving towards us

As is the case with musicians and film stars, the metaverse has been overshadowed in the media by generative AI and in particular by ChatGPT, which in November 2022 made this type of technology accessible to everyone (and made sure we noticed). Despite not being in the spotlight however, the metaverse has continued to grow. As Centorrino points out, “it is moving towards us, we are not entering it”. Above all, in the world of virtual worlds, it seems that businesses are the most active.

In 2023, the Observatory of the of the Milan Polytechnic School of Management counted 130 public virtual worlds and 119 platforms for creating private environments (Metaverse as a Service Platform). Since 2018 there have been 736 projects developed within these platforms, 71 of which are in Italy. So, it really is moving towards us, and on several fronts. If we look at retail, tourism and especially in education, B2C (Business to Consumers) prevails, while manufacturing makes most use of B2B (Business to Business). In both cases, the number of sectors starting to use these technologies is expanding, but this advance should not be seen as just another phase we have witnessed or will witness.

“It is not an Internet 3.0 that lets users choose (or which at least started with this aim). The metaverse is emerging without user control, they are forced to play a much smaller role compared to other innovations”, in a certain sense they are restricted to choices determined by the constructor – explains Centorrino – and the metaverse is primarily developing and growing in the business sphere.” Italian data on the use of these technologies confirms this: although more than 50% of Internet users know at least one virtual world, only just over 25% accessed any in the past year, and almost always limited themselves to exploring only one of the many available. This is not merely a matter of cost (given that today the necessary hardware remains out of reach for many), but also of adaptation to its novelty: We are not used to this type of experience, neither physically nor psychologically. The lack of decision-making freedom however is not strongly perceived and therefore not an element that slows down its development, perhaps because we are already accustomed to not having it.

“What is emerging in the construction of the metaverse is just an evolution of what has already happened with the platformization of the internet. Born on open protocols on which anyone could build islands, the internet was a free ground for users and businesses. But today, most online interactions and searches happen within closed commercial platforms: the companies that own these platforms have accumulated the necessary capital to invest in the next step of the metaverse (the multisensory immersion of human bodies in an environment where physical and digital converge). This is an ongoing process involving the main existing technologies: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Current trends show a very strong risk of oligopoly in this new dimension. Along with unprecedented possibilities for remote action and sensory interaction, there are also growing concerns about new forms of bio-identification of bodies and thus of people.”

Digital and physical converge

While regulators timidly struggle to update laws to keep up with technological innovation (and suffer from the bravado of those who create and fund it), the digitalization of our human bodies advances in the metaverse. Here, digital and physical converge: sensors collect personal data and interact continuously with the environment, allowing for the creation and addition of digital layers. For example, you can ‘overlay’ a computer desk on your room that allows you to type and write, even if it does not physically exist. Evoking this image, Condemi explains that “you can also choose the degree of digitalization you move in, and with the use of holograms you further enhance the power of the experience. It’s not like video games where senses are only partially involved: the metaverse involves a historic leap forward, a complete multisensory immersion – followed by two examples that don’t involve the ‘usual senses’ (sight and hearing) but touch and smell – the first is recreated with motion recognition devices, which are already attracting attention from the automotive industry and banking world (for ATMs). The second uses AI-based systems to combine the right amounts of primary odors and reproduce whatever is needed”.

United, we remain human

Those who were peacefully watching the advancement of the metaverse, thinking of it as ‘a grown-up video game’, might change their minds with these latest examples. If they alone aren’t enough, they should also know that within the data collected in the worlds that make up the metaverse, we also find that which is used to understand and reproduce our way of moving: our gestures and our gait. Devices are becoming increasingly valid and less invasive, allowing us to glide into the metaverse world without much effort.

“We are building a world where the digital is becoming increasingly indistinguishable. Reality is already a composition of digital and physical, and technology has surpassed barriers, ‘gifting’ our personal parameters to companies that use them for their calculations,” explains Centorrino. He speaks of a datification that is out of control, because “the law is totally behind and now, more than anything, there is self-regulation by companies.”

Immersed in (and with) every sense in this context, what room for maneuver do we have? As both individuals and civil society we seem to be completely out of the game, but we have a secret weapon which is uniquely ours. Intergenerational dialogue.

Rather than an ace up the sleeve, this concept is often seen as a burden. I don’t know about elsewhere, but in the case of the metaverse it is not. Centorrino explains this well, describing a generational gap that is starting to narrow (in comparison with previous decades), but also a ‘phenotypically different’ younger generation with unprecedented familiarity with technology (thanks to video games). He explains that precisely because of this difference, the exchange between generations becomes a winner, “allowing us not to reduce everything to data, but to rediscover the value of the body and emotions. And of being together.” Indeed: being together and sharing.

The terms of this intergenerational exchange are clear. If sensory interactions are being reduced to data, young people struggle to perceive it because they lack direct analog life experience. They are ‘born immersed’. More mature generations can help them, showing through their own existence and history that people are not just data and that there is a continuity between digital and physical that must be maintained. In return, younger generations can infuse the older ones with some of their familiarity with devices and the dynamics of the virtual worlds they frequent, helping them become acquainted with the technologies that support them. “Intergenerational dialogue helps us to position digital experiences with equilibrium, and not just to replace physical ones. If this happens it will make the difference.”

(Image: Solarpunk meetup at the Museo del Metaverso in Craft)