Will the Metaverse Reduce or Exacerbate Bias and Prejudice

I was asked two questions at the MKAI event: Human Rights in the Metaverse - and I wanted to share the thoughts I shared.

Questions:

• What are the biases and how businesses or any agencies can help reduce the bias or prejudices?
• From a social sense, is it possible to remove the biases, like achieving gender equality using tools in Metaverse or the Web 3.0?

My starting position is that everyone knows bias exists and it's important to keep vocalizing its existence because without everyone accepting it - it is harder to make a change - this applies even in the evolving Web3 ecosystem where we are seeing the development of a range of new tools that can help us.

I personally wonder if sometimes bias continues to exist because in the main those speaking out and trying to change the world views are people who experience, the prejudice and discrimination that comes through bias, either our entire life or on single or numerous occasions.?

I’ve shared four quotes about the current presence of women and women of colour in the emerging ecosystem. I just saw a shocking one from Patricia during Nova’s session.?I’m disappointed that I can not share with you % regarding representation of people with disability in the evolving Web3 ecosystem - but I or the Disability Policy Centre in the UK could not find any. If you are reading this and have any links please do send me a DM.

I’ve been talking with others a lot about this question and I wanted to share a couple of their comments with everyone today.??

Joyce, an artist and poet in the WEb3 ecosystem sent me some words - which I wanted to share - Bias is such a small word..but in essence, colour's a person's world:?in some cases, it shuts out light by closing their mind and blinding their subconscious to hold the panoramic view of all truth be told. It puts them in a corner of their own sense of righteousness…

I liked her statement and have shared it because I’ve noticed over the years with all the talk about bias - it is difficult to get people to move from their corner?- yes we can create legislation, regulation, and policy - and yes this moves us forward in securing behaviour change but it often only that - behaviour change rather than belief change????

I learned when I trained and practised as a therapist that there is a connection between our feeling self, our thinking self and our behaviour self.?When I sought to assist people to secure the change in behaviour they sought I noticed many might change behaviour through thinking themselves into that new behaviour but when people thought and felt and believed themselves into the behaviour they got lasting change.????

This is what we have been striving for throughout my lifetime?- permanent behaviour change to eliminate bias, not behaviour change secured through laws being enacted.

And this is why I think businesses/agencies have a different chance in Web3.??

Web 3 is yes about reading, writing and owning - but in Web3 we have a coming together of the physical world and the virtual world, and not just one but many metaverses.

So whichever metaverse we are in - it is the tools that are being used to build and grow the metaverse that can be utilised to remove and eliminate bias.?

I’m sure all of us have walked into one of the many metaverses.?I imagine - like everyone I have taken into the metaverse, and I’ve taken a few hundred people into it, for the first time your mind is blown because you are in the space and it is engaging all your senses - your feeling and thinking all at the same time.???

We could talk about engaging people's senses and how that instigates change for a long time - another topic Robert for the future.?

But the question was what could businesses and agencies do - and I wanted to share a few thoughts from our General Counsel Sara when I asked her this question

Sara said there are new tools but those tools can only benefit companies willing to get involved and participate in Web3 or in the metaverse, with all that that implies.?

For instance, if companies in Web3 intend to establish the same hiring parameters that they currently apply (based on characteristics and personal data as well as on academic or professional merits recognized by entities in the analogue world), then the biases will be the same as those in the analogue world.?

But if the company, on the other hand, accepts the rules of these new ecosystems where users provide the personal information they choose and companies can find themselves in the position of selecting candidates solely based on their abilities to perform a specific job, then the influences they will be determined by ability and merit (and the internet accessibility and "digital" tools those candidates have) and not by personal, sociological or economic issues.??

This practice can be helped by the blockchain.?And the blockchain can give businesses confidence. Through the blockchain we all know it is possible to lock someone's identity along with evidence of competence - I like to think of it as their own little portfolio in a draw?- which can not be altered by others and it can not be lost.?People with chaotic lives often lose or were never given important documents about their identity or never had someone record their achievements - and for this they were disadvantaged.??

If we give everyone the means to have a filing cabinet (block) on the blockchain to keep their important data safe and accessible whether they are in the world we help to eliminate bias.

For instance, this accessibility to their own important information means that migrants could land in a safe country and not have to take roles they are over skilled for because they would have immediate access to the data that is needed to start a new life.??

Again another topic for us to talk further about: Blockchain as an empowering Web3 tool.

I’ve touched on the social sense of removing bias and some of the opportunities this opens for securing equity for groups that have been disadvantaged and disaffected and I wanted to finish with a few slides from a poll I put out on LinkedIn and Twitter ahead of this event.??

So the question was DO YOU THINK THE METAVERSE WILL REDUCE OR EXACERBATE OUR BIAS AND PREJUDICE?

So we have different outcomes for different social platforms.?But the thoughts that were shared are very similar - to bring the change we need people to want change but the tools of Web3 are there now and can help us to do that.