Ecological Thinking about the Metaverse from a Posthumanist Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT The metaverse is a burgeoning technological domain, ranging from data-driven algorithms to advanced artificial intelligence. Immersive virtual reality does not reflect the ecological crisis in fictional worlds through interactivity. In the footsteps of Félix Guattari, this article elaborates on ecological thinking in three categories, each of which reflects the ecological risk and potential positive improvement of the metaverse. In the first category, environmental ecology, the article argues that the technological infrastructure of the metaverse is intensely power-consuming and materialises data and information fluxes. Moreover, the structure of digitised societies promotes intangible production. In the second category, social ecology, it argues that cognitive capitalism further stimulates consumerism because of big data classification and user-targeted algorithms and further amplifies climate change due to the empowered logistics industry. Additionally, capitalism causes continuous competence in the culture industry, leading to a high elimination rate of device production and low efficiency of intellectual labour. In the last category, mental ecology, the article argues that by precisely targeting users, the attention economy of the metaverse empowers individuals who are eager to pursue valorisation. These digital dwellers overlook ecological issues and the foundations of their virtual lives. In the posthumanist approach, humans are flattened by capitalism and become surplus value as natural forces. Humans’ minds are alienated from the idea that nature and humans coexist. Instead, the metaverse is directed toward individual power that immerses itself in a capital-driven network of information technology. This article proposes the merit of forming a nature-culture continuum to promote an ecological ideology in the metaverse. On the one hand, the nature-culture continuum of the metaverse spreads ecological knowledge and praxis via interactivity. On the other hand, the key mediation of nature-human metabolism through human labour contributes to environmentally friendly products, which cultivate an ecological culture of consumerism. Thus, the metaverse functions in a posthumanist context that consumes nature and humans for profit; however, the metaverse can also arouse thoughts of sustainability.