Publications

All too real metacapitalism

Author(s)
Mark Coeckelbergh
Abstract

Current techno-utopian visions of metaverse raise ontological, ethical, and political questions. Drawing on existing literature on virtual worlds but also philosophically moving beyond that body of work and responding to political contexts concerning identity, capitalism, and climate, this paper begins to address these questions by offering a conceptual framework to think about the ontology of metaverse(s) in ways that see metaverse as real, experienced and shaping our experience, technologically constituted, and political. It shows how this non-dualist political-ontological approach helps to better identify, understand, predict, and evaluate some real and potentially dangerous ethically and politically relevant phenomena, including what I call ‘metacapitalism’’s environmentally problematic dream.

Organisation(s)
Department of Philosophy
Journal
Ethics and Information Technology
Volume
26
No. of pages
9
ISSN
1388-1957
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-024-09768-4
Publication date
04-2024
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
603122 Philosophy of technology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Library and Information Sciences, Computer Science Applications
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/all-too-real-metacapitalism(521490a5-b734-453d-9353-333240426708).html