It's On Us
“When will the Metaverse become a safe place?”
Someone asked this during Q&A in one of our Web 3 fundamentals workshops. It’s not the exact question for sure, but it’s how I remembered it.
“Probably never.” I said. Not very encouraging, and likely not a very popular opinion, but let me explain.
We’ve asked this question about most innovations across history — the kaleidoscope, the printing press, the automobile, radio, television, the personal computer, video games, the internet, mobile phones — the list goes on. We’ll ask the same question about future innovations long after we’re gone.
We stubborn old humans have been resisting innovation since the beginning of time, and while there are many reasons for this, we’ll focus on just one — fear.
It’s common knowledge that people fear what they don’t understand, but fear could also very well be a result of bad experience or trauma, and history is littered with such cases.
Credit card fraud. Cyber bullying. Online harassment. Internet brainwashing. Fake news. Hacking. Phishing. Gaming addiction. Doom-scrolling. The undefeated “Nigerian Prince” email scam. Lots more.
The distant past wasn’t a utopian place either. We’ve had to deal with simple annoyances like prank calls and snail mail chain letters, to more insidious things, like radio- and television-powered propaganda. There have been many others.
If we look closely, we’ll find these traumatic experiences are a result of actions, not by innovation itself. Spoiler alert: we are the actors, and technology is simply the tool.
The social media used to spread hate also enabled us to find our tribe and build thriving communities. The smart phone that isolates us from people also enables us to connect with people in our isolation. The internet that’s riddled with fake news is also used to create and distribute free educational content. The app-economy we have a love-hate relationship with has also empowered an entirely new economy of creators. The algorithm we blame for feeding us more of the stuff we (secretly) love also creates awareness for things that require our attention.
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Knives are tools used for cutting. Cutting what is entirely up to the user (us).
Back to the first question. Forget the Metaverse and Web 3.0 for a moment, and let’s ask something a little more essential: “When will the world be safe?”
Probably never. Because that’s the flawed nature of the human condition. Because there are bad actors and there are good actors, and we are both depending on the circumstance, depending on the motivation. Wave after wave of innovation will come, offering us countless opportunities, and this fact will remain unchanged.
The good news? I can think of one. Contrary to what others might think, we aren’t the victims here. That would be too easy. No, we are the actors, the users, the agents. The burden of choice — of action — is on our shoulders.
“Will the world ever be a safe place?”
Still probably never. But we can choose to bet against this probability. The onus, ultimately, is on us.