The new Caesar of the virtual Metropolis Origin City, Metakovan, with a purple crown, threw a grand party last year to celebrate his most prized art acquisition, a series of images that cost $2.2 million (about Rs 16 crore). more). American digital artist Beeple (real name, Mike Winkelmann). Guests danced on the floor of their new gallery or floated above it via its anti-gravity abilities. Not only did he exhibit his collection, he sold tokens, giving buyers a stake in his artworks.
MetaCoven is the digital avatar of real-life cryptocurrency investor Vignesh Sundaresan, who operates and lives metaverse, an inter-connected three-dimensional (3D) virtual world where people can network with each other socially and professionally. In this digital world, he’s building his own art gallery and enough for another $69 million bid beeple piece At the British auction house Christie’s. This was the first time a major auction house sold a digital artwork as a new crypto asset, called a . is called non-fungible tokens (NFTs)A non-transferrable, digital certificate of ownership. But Singapore-based Sundarsan is not the only one living a double life. Multiverse-living, where you scramble between the real world and an alternate reality mankind is taking over.
South Korea officially has a “Metaverse Seoul” with cultural events, tourist spots, parks where you can run with Nike’s digital sneakers and even avatars solving governance issues (a digital self) can also be officers. A US couple married late last year in the Metaverse, where they were physically absent but digitally present. People are buying yachts and real estate in the virtual dream life, while large corporations are creating subsidiaries of their avatars.
The problem with creating another realm of reality is just that – it has been created. It is a man-made extension of wish fulfillment, where things are valued according to mutually agreed contracts and evaluated on actual utility and purpose. Simply put, what you can’t find in the here and now, you can get in a parallel universe by consciously surrendering your self-created myth.
Psychologists and social scientists around the world are now concerned whether the human mind can process conflicting binaries and maintain its balance. With a headset, will there be a voluntary suspension of disbelief? Psychiatrists and behavioral scientists are already predicting a loss of our emotional quotient (EQ), a loss of personality and a dulling of our sensitivity. Socializing via holograms, implanted chips that monitor everything from health to our whereabouts, downloading brain waves to computers to emulate our real-life thought patterns and robotic companions (humanoids) are a reality today .
For the first time, the human brain is not strong enough to respond and adapt to the speed of digital invasion. Will we become superhuman or humanoid robots? And more importantly, what happens to the present, real moment and what will be the psychological effect of this dual reality?
Ariana Choudhary and Disha Sharma, 13, from Gurugram, have been childhood friends, who are given to sleep in each other’s homes. But the pandemic prompted them to join the devices. With limited physical contact, they bonded and shared notes online, signing up for games where they joined another community of players their age. His parents hadn’t realized the exploitative web they met physically for the first time when the lockdown ended last year. “For the two, who previously went for cycling and swimming together, there was no enthusiasm to go out or have a normal conversation. They sat there until I told them they could play online games. I saw them retreat to a corner with their devices and animated conversations on it. She also practiced teen makeup with an online group. It bothered me that they needed devices to connect with each other,” says Ariana’s mother, Radhika Choudhary, a single parent who works in a multinational company.
But such cases are piling up on the desk of Sandeep Vohra, a digital mental health specialist at Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. “Digitalization has changed the way we react and behave. Since meeting on a social platform is easier than in person, our language of communication has changed, so have our reactions to intimacy,” he says. He also warned of how this new socialization is widening the generation gap as most seniors are digitally averse and still rely on one-on-one interactions.
Vohra says the pressures of a double life are already changing people’s mind patterns. “There is an emotional numbness, especially in young people. Everything is click based. Emoji, especially in the opposite case, are the accepted mode of expression today. This over-reliance on living in an artificially formatted universe impairs one’s growth potential in the real world. I have had cases where digitally addicted people have great difficulty in performing their roles and duties in the real world. It manifests itself in the form of anxiety disorders and depression, simply because you do not like the present reality. This is because simplification leads to predictable forms of problem-solving,” says Vohra.
in present, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) The cases are increasing due to the addiction of gadgets, Porn and gaming. It is not uncommon to hear people complain of physical disorientation, nightmares, erratic sleep cycles and personality disorders.
Chennai-based psychotherapist Mohan Raj has young patients who are so involved in role-playing in the gaming world that hyper reality has swallowed up their real lives. “People tend to underestimate the harmful effects of 3D images and how violent games can be to people. One avid gamer who came in for consultation reported dreaming, fantasizing, chewing and playing games all the time. He had also become a victim of road rage,” says Raj.
Vohra believes that the metaverse fundamentally affects brain development, stifling creative thinking and higher intelligence because it encourages homogeneity. “For young children, an AR/VR (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) scenario can affect language development. At worst, it can trap their personality and cause them to imitate under the pressure of a ‘cool’ image.” That could change,” Vohra says.
This paradigm shift in human responses is not the only precursor to multidimensional mental disorders. It will also uplift social structures by creating a new division of digital haves and don’ts. “In the digital realm, everything is perceived visually, there is no touch and experience. It undermines empathy and feelings anyway,” says Raj. So, while you may live in an isolationist bubble in the real world, The nature of the metaverse means you are part of group behavior and subject to peer pressure. Psychologists see this as a subjugation to technology but creators and innovators see it as a technology that can enhance our lives .
A metaverse also engenders its own elitism. For example, one might not be able to enter a big-ticket concert in real life, but could do the same as a digital avatar. Like Sundarson, you can live the millionaire dream, bet big on cryptocurrencies, make huge piles of imaginary money, collect NFTs, socialize with the diverse online communities that are currently in use. There is a shortage. And the best part of this tradable life is that there is no timeline for our digital avatars, they are timeless, everlasting and happy forever. Many consider this escapist matrix to be a coping mechanism and, for some, it is a form of empowerment. Instead they will be defined by their digital avatars as it allows them to have their El Dorado moment with no expiration date.
“People who are into it will use it to boost their offline self-worth,” says Avadhesh Saxena, a Noida-based techie. “Alternative worlds amplify your power of choice and allow a democracy that does not exist. If you are an Avatar citizen, it is very difficult to engage with non-Avatars and explain to them what innovation can do. This knowledge gap clearly has an impact on the people around you in the real world,” he adds. Simply put, if you haven’t uploaded your life, you haven’t arrived yet. So what does that mean? Is becoming a more consumerist society?
The Metaverse is the latest hunting ground for brands. India’s user base is a captive market, with around 16 percent of gamers worldwide. Some of the major brands already have their Metaverse collections, with Adidas selling around 30,000 NFTs for 0.2 Ethereum (equivalent to $800 or 59,000 rupees) and receiving $22 million worth of cryptocurrency. It has also bought “meta” land for several of its Avatar outlets.
Global celebrities are also using this new gold rush to increase their impressive potential. So, while footballer Lionel Messi and socialite Paris Hilton are busy launching their NFTs in India, this actor Amitabh BachchanNFT Collection of which sold for $9,66,000.
Bachchan’s NFT collectibles series includes his voice rendering of his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s famous poem Madhushala (1935) and autographed vintage posters of himself. Blockchain technology virtually prevents piracy, making celebrities feel confident about connecting with their fans, while monetizing their existing brand value in crypto terms. Not only this, every transaction and sale automatically gives them royalty. For the user, choosing celebrity memorabilia, which is nearly impossible in the real world, celebrity and brand NFTs lead him to be an exclusive club of ownership and a celebrity of his own.
As with all things in the metaverse, the fluidity of living experiences blurs the boundaries of who controls what. So does this mean that humans have lost the power of their agency? “The definition of madness is a break from reality. Are we not escaping from our current reality, becoming uninterested in the process? We must reclaim our right to step out of the world of belief,” Vohra says. He believes that Metaverse developers, creators and innovators should interact with doctors and scientists to use technology in a way that leads to human degeneration rather than progress.
Already, there is widespread acceptance of the growing financial strength of cryptocurrencies, NFTs and their exchange value in the real world, which has prompted negotiations of a legal regulatory framework, which the Indian government is carefully considering.
Raj, who has faced many issues with Alexa (Amazon’s cloud-based voice service), notices conversations with unpleasant consequences, he feels. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Access-controlled and selectively deployed requires that it not affect human consciousness, emotional stability, or relationships. This is why we need to develop digital literacy and cleanliness as early as possible, what scientists are now saying should be included in the school curriculum, to define the extent of engagement. The imagined reality is ultimately just imagined. Take the headset off and it vaporizes. Only then does the human touch feel comforting. a real thing.
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