One of the more controversial topics revolving around the Metaverse, Virtual Reality, and Full Dive VR (i.e., the type of systems you would see in Sword Art Online, like the one shown above) are the ethics behind the technology and the virtual environments people will be playing/living in. In this first post, I will be mainly focusing on the technology that would allow for a Metaverse to exist. Looking into the future, where the possibility of putting your body in a dream state to enter the virtual metaverse and do various activities there, the technology that would allow for that to happen would need to have access to the brain directly and manipulate it in a way that makes the virtual world seem like it is real life. For example, emulating the five main senses into the virtual world and even detecting electrical signals to allow for the brain to control one’s virtual avatar are some of the many inputs the “controller” will have to recognize and analyze. However, this by itself raises a lot of questions. This BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) controller, while detecting signals coming from the brain, will allow the company/companies who developed this technology to have a direct view into the inner workings of people’s psyche. While it may not be as accurate as to literally be able to read people’s minds and thoughts, the kind of technology to allow for a proper Metaverse would have advanced enough to be able to sense electrical signals and the mental states of the user’s brain, as a safety precaution. If this is the case, then the privacy of every participating user on this Metaverse would have a serious risk regarding their privacy, so to ensure this doesn’t happen, major restrictions and sanctions need to be pushed against the companies to protect the activity of the brain and allow only the most essential signals to be detected to play/live in the Metaverse properly. In the next post, I will dive deeper into the ethics of the virtual world of the Metaverse itself and how that can possibly play into the real world in various ways.