The Metaverse’s Thirtieth Anniversary: From a Science-Fictional Concept to the “Connect Wallet” Prompt

SMETHURST, Reilly; BARBEREAU, Tom Josua; Nilsson, Johan

doi:10.1007/s13347-023-00612-z

Request a copy

Article (Scientific journals)

The Metaverse’s Thirtieth Anniversary: From a Science-Fictional Concept to the “Connect Wallet” Prompt

SMETHURST, Reilly; BARBEREAU, Tom Josua; Nilsson, Johan

2023 • In Philosophy and Technology, 36

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10993/55879

DOI
10.1007/s13347-023-00612-z

Files (1)Send to Details Statistics Bibliography Similar publications

Files

Full Text

s13347-023-00612-z.pdf

Publisher postprint (1.38 MB)

Request a copy

All documents in ORBilu are protected by a user license.

Send to

RIS BibTex APA Chicago Permalink X Linkedin

Details

Keywords :

Techno-capitalism; Simulation; Science fiction; Digital wallet; Blockchain; Avatar

Abstract :

[en] The metaverse is equivocal. It is a science-fictional concept from the past; it is the present’s rough implementations; and it is the Promised Cyberland, expected to manifest some time in the future. The metaverse first emerged as a techno-capitalist network in a 1992 science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson. Our article thus marks the metaverse’s thirtieth anniversary. We revisit Stephenson’s original concept plus three sophisticated antecedents from 1972 to 1984: Jean Baudrillard’s simulation, Sherry Turkle’s networked identities, and Jacques Lacan’s schema of suggestible consumers hooked up to a Matrix-like capitalist network. We gauge the relevance of these three antecedents following Meta’s recent promise to deliver a metaverse for the mainstream and the emergence of blockchain-oriented metaverse projects. We examine empirical data from 2021 and 2022, sourced from journalistic and social media (BuzzSumo, Google Trends, Reddit, and Twitter) as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This latest chapter of the metaverse’s convoluted history reveals a focus not on virtual reality goggles but rather on techno-capitalist notions like digital wallets, crypto-assets, and targeted advertisements. The metaverse’s wallet-holders collect status symbols like limited-edition profile pictures, fashion items for avatars, tradable pets and companions, and real estate. Motivated by the metaverse’s sophisticated antecedents and our empirical findings, we propose a subtle conceptual re-orientation that respects the metaverse’s equivocal nature and rejects sanitised solutionism. Do not let the phantasmagorical goggles distract you too much: Big Meta is watching you, and it expects you to become a wallet-holder. Blockchain proponents want this as well.

Research center :

Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) > FINATRAX - Digital Financial Services and Cross-organizational Digital Transformations

Disciplines :

Philosophy & ethics
Communication & mass media
Management information systems

Author, co-author :

SMETHURST, Reilly ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > FINATRAX

BARBEREAU, Tom Josua ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > FINATRAX

Nilsson, Johan; Stockholm School of Economics > Centre for Market Studies, SSE Institute for Research

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

The Metaverse’s Thirtieth Anniversary: From a Science-Fictional Concept to the “Connect Wallet” Prompt

Publication date :

22 July 2023

Journal title :

Philosophy and Technology

ISSN :

2210-5441

Publisher :

Springer

Volume :

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Focus Area :

Security, Reliability and Trust

FnR Project :

FNR13342933 - Paypal-fnr Pearl Chair In Digital Financial Services, 2019 (01/01/2020-31/12/2024) - Gilbert Fridgen

Funders :

FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche [LU]

Available on ORBilu :

since 04 September 2023

Statistics

Number of views

78 (8 by Unilu)

Number of downloads

1 (1 by Unilu)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

Bibliography

Abbinnett, R. (2008). The spectre and the simulacrum: History after Baudrillard. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(6), 69–87. 10.1177/0263276408095545. DOI: 10.1177/0263276408095545
Adams, C.C. (1994). The knot book. American Mathematical Society.
Ahlberg, O., Coffin, J., & Hietanen, J. (2022). Bleak signs of our times: Descent into ‘Terminal Marketing’. Marketing Theory, 22(4). 10.1177/14705931221095604.
Alcantara, A.C., & Michalack, D.L. (2023). The metaverse narrative in The Matrix Resurrections: A semiotic analysis through costumes. In Meeting of research in music, arts and design (pp. 260–268). Springer.
Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., & Yu, C. (2019). Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Research & Politics, 6(2). 10.1177/2053168019848554.
Amaya, A., Bach, R., Keusch, F., & Kreuter, F. (2021). New data sources in social science research: Things to know before working with Reddit data. Social Science Computer Review, 39(5), 943–960. 10.1177/0894439319893305. DOI: 10.1177/0894439319893305
Android, J.,; Protagonist, H. (2022). About. https://www.thesimulationnation.com/about.
Aoki, D.S. (1995). Using and abusing French discourse theory: Misreading Lacan and the Symbolic order. Theory, Culture & Society, 12(4), 47–70. 10.1177/026327695012004004. DOI: 10.1177/026327695012004004
Bailenson, J.N., Swinth, K., Hoyt, C., Persky, S., Dimov, A., & Blascovich, J. (2005). The independent and interactive effects of embodied-agent appearance and behavior on self-report, cognitive, and behavioral markers of copresence in immersive virtual environments. Presence, 14(4), 379–393. 10.1162/105474605774785235. DOI: 10.1162/105474605774785235
Ballard, J.G. (1973). Crash. Jonathan Cape.
Ballard, J.G. (1975). High-Rise. Jonathan Cape.
Baudrillard, J. (1990 [1979]). Seduction (B. Singer, trans.). New World Perspectives.
Baudrillard, J. (1994 [1981]). Simulacra and simulation (S. F. Glaser, trans.). University of Michigan Press.
Baudrillard, J. (2001 [1999]). Impossible exchange (C. Turner, trans.). Verso.
Baudrillard, J. (2003 [2000]). Passwords (C. Turner, trans.). Verso.
Becker, K. (2022). Göttliche Protokolle, Bitcoin-Jünger und schattenhafte Herrscher: Über die religiösen Anwandlungen und ideologischen Verstrickungen der Blockchain-Technologie. In A. Friedrich, P. Gehring, C. Hubig, A. Kaminski, & A. Nordmann (Eds.) Kunst und Werk: Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie 2022 (pp. 177–194). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748913160-177.
Belk, R., Humayun, M., & Brouard, M. (2022). Money, possessions, and ownership in the Metaverse: NFTs, cryptocurrencies, Web3 and Wild Markets. Journal of Business Research, 153, 198–205. 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.031. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.08.031
Benjamin, G. (2018). ‘Virtual reality’ reconsidered. In Virtual and augmented reality: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 138–162). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5469-1.ch007.
Benjamin, R., & Wigand, R. (1995). Electronic markets and virtual value chains on the information superhighway. Sloan Management Review, 36(2), 62–72.
Berente, N., Hansen, S., Pike, J.C., & Bateman, P.J. (2011). Arguing the value of virtual worlds: Patterns of discursive sensemaking of an innovative technology. MIS Quarterly, 35(3), 685–709. 10.2307/23042804. DOI: 10.2307/23042804
Best, K. (2010). Living in the control society: Surveillance, users and digital screen technologies. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(1), 5–24. 10.1177/1367877909348536. DOI: 10.1177/1367877909348536
Bishop, R., & Phillips, J.W.P. (2007). Baudrillard and the Evil Genius. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(5), 135–145. 10.1177/0263276407081287. DOI: 10.1177/0263276407081287
Bjerg, O. (2014). Making money: The philosophy of Crisis Capitalism. Verso.
Bjerg, O. (2016). How is Bitcoin money? Theory, Culture & Society, 33(1), 53–72. 10.1177/0263276415619015. DOI: 10.1177/0263276415619015
Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., & Van Lente, H. (2006). The sociology of expectations in science and technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18(3-4), 285–298. 10.1080/09537320600777002. DOI: 10.1080/09537320600777002
Bourlakis, M., Papagiannidis, S., & Li, F. (2009). Retail spatial evolution: Paving the way from traditional to metaverse retailing. Electronic Commerce Research, 9(1-2), 135–148. 10.1007/s10660-009-9030-8. DOI: 10.1007/s10660-009-9030-8
Breton, T. (2022). People, technologies & infrastructure – Europe’s plan to thrive in the metaverse. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_22_5525.
Brown, A. (2021). What is the metaverse – And why does Mark Zuckerberg care so much about it? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/11/03/zuckerberg-facebook-metaverse-meta-virtual-reality-oculus/.
Bruns, A., & Stieglitz, S. (2013). Towards more systematic Twitter analysis: Metrics for tweeting activities. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(2), 91–108. 10.1080/13645579.2012.756095. DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2012.756095
Caballar, R.D. (2022). What is the Uncanny Valley? https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-is-the-uncanny-valley.
Çalışkan, K., & Callon, M. (2009). Economization, part 1: Shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economization. Economy and Society, 38(3), 369–398. 10.1080/03085140903020580. DOI: 10.1080/03085140903020580
Callon, M. (1986). The sociology of an actor-network: The case of the electric vehicle. In Mapping the dynamics of science and technology (pp. 19–34). Spinger, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07408-2_2.
Campbell, C. (2022). AI by design: A plan for living with artificial intelligence. CRC.
Chalmers, D.J. (2016). The Matrix as metaphysics. In S Schneider (Ed.) Science fiction and philosophy (pp. 35–54). Wiley, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118922590.ch5.
Chalmers, D.J. (2022). Reality+: Virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy. Penguin.
Chaturvedi, A.R., Dolk, D.R., & Drnevich, P.L. (2011). Design principles for virtual worlds. MIS Quarterly, 35(3), 673–684. 10.2307/23042803. DOI: 10.2307/23042803
Clegg, N. (2022). Making the metaverse: What it is, how it will be built, and why it matters. Medium. https://nickclegg.medium.com/making-the-metaverse-what-it-is-how-it-will-be-built-and-why-it-matters-3710f7570b04.
Constable, C. (2013). Adapting philosophy: Jean Baudrillard and the Matrix trilogy. Manchester University Press.
Corbo, J., Henke, N., & Ostojic, I. (2022). Here are the top 10 trends in tech. World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/top-10-trends-in-tech/.
Cornwall, A. (2007). Buzzwords and fuzzwords: Deconstructing development discourse. Development in Practice, 17(4-5), 471–484. 10.1080/09614520701469302. DOI: 10.1080/09614520701469302
Coulter, G. (2007). Jean Baudrillard and the definitive ambivalence of gaming. Games and Culture, 2(4), 358–365. 10.1177/1555412007309530. DOI: 10.1177/1555412007309530
Cronin, J., & Fitchett, J. (2022). Consumer culture theory and its contented discontent: An interview with Søren Askegaard. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(1-2), 127–144. 10.1080/0267257X.2021.2016157. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2021.2016157
Davidson, J.D., Rees-Mogg, W. (1999). The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the transition to the Information Age. Touchstone.
Davis, A., Murphy, J.D., Owens, D., Khazanchi, D., & Zigurs, I. (2009). Avatars, people, and virtual worlds: Foundations for research in metaverses. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 10(2), 90–117. 10.17705/1jais.00183. DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00183
Declercq, F. (2006). Lacan on the capitalist discourse: Its consequences for libidinal enjoyment and social bonds. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 11(1), 74–83. 10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100068. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100068
De Filippi, P., Mannan, M., & Reijers, W. (2020). Blockchain as a confidence machine: The problem of trust & challenges of governance. Technology in Society, 62, 101284. 10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101284. DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101284
Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (1994 [1991]). What is philosophy? (G. Burchell and H. Tomlinson, trans.). Verso.
Dincelli, E., & Yayla, A. (2022). Immersive virtual reality in the age of the metaverse: A hybrid-narrative review based on the technology affordance perspective. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 31(2). 10.1016/j.jsis.2022.101717.
Dionisio, J.D.N., Iii, W.G.B., & Gilbert, R. (2013). 3D Virtual worlds and the metaverse: Current status and future possibilities. ACM Computing Surveys, 45(3), 1–38. 10.1145/2480741.2480751. DOI: 10.1145/2480741.2480751
Dotson, T. (2012). Technology, choice and the good life: Questioning technological liberalism. Technology in Society, 34(4), 326–336. 10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.10.004. DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.10.004
Dugan, K.T. (2022). Zuckerberg has burned $500 billion turning Facebook to Meta. New York Magazine. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/zuckerberg-has-burned-usd500-billion-turning-facebook-to-meta.html.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Hughes, L., Baabdullah, A.M., Ribeiro-Navarrete, S., Giannakis, M., Al-Debei, M.M., & Wamba, S.F. (2022). Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. International Journal of Information Management, 66. 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102542.
Egliston, B., & Carter, M. (2021). Critical questions for Facebook’s virtual reality: Data, power and the metaverse. Internet Policy Review, 10, 4. 10.14763/2021.4.1610. DOI: 10.14763/2021.4.1610
Egliston, B., & Carter, M. (2022a). ‘The interface of the future’: Mixed reality, intimate data and imagined temporalities. Big Data & Society, 9. 10.1177/20539517211063689.
Egliston, B., & Carter, M. (2022b). ‘The metaverse and how we’ll build it’: The political economy of Meta’s Reality Labs. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221119785.
Egliston, B., & Carter, M. (2022c). Oculus imaginaries: The promises and perils of Facebook’s virtual reality. New Media & Society, 24(1), 70–89. 10.1177/1461444820960411.
Elmasry, T., Hazan, E., Khan, H., Kelly, G., Srivastava, S., Yee, L., & Zemmel, R.W. (2022). Value creation in the metaverse: The real business of the virual world. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com.
Erickson, L. (2022). Building the metaverse with open source. https://opensource.com/article/22/6/open-source-metaverse.
Faulkner, W. (2000). Dualisms, hierarchies and gender in engineering. Social Studies of Science, 30(5), 759–792. 10.1177/030631200030005005. DOI: 10.1177/030631200030005005
Floridi, L. (2022). Metaverse: A matter of eXperience. Philosophy & Technology, 35, 73. 10.1007/s13347-022-00568-6. DOI: 10.1007/s13347-022-00568-6
Fogg, B.J. (2003). Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do. Morgan Kaufmann.
Fuchs, C. (2019). Karl Marx in the age of Big Data capitalism. In D. Chandler C. Fuchs (Eds.) Digital objects, digital subjects: Interdisciplinary perspectives on capitalism, labour and politics in the age of Big Data (pp. 53–71). University of Westminster Press.
Fuchs, C. (2021). Social media: A critical introduction. 3rd edition. Sage.
Gamble, J.R., Brennan, M., & McAdam, R. (2016). A contemporary and systematic literature review of user-centric innovation: A consumer perspective. International Journal of Innovation Management, 20(1). 10.1142/S1363919616500110.
Gane, M. (1991). Baudrillard’s bestiary: Baudrillard and culture. Routledge.
Germain, T. (2022). Meta’s new headset will track your eyes for targeted ads. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/meta-quest-pro-vr-headset-track-eyes-ads-facebook-1849654424.
Ghose, R., Bantanidis, S., Shah, R.S., Surendran, N., Master, K., & Singhvi, P. (2022). Metaverse and money: Decrypting the future. Citi Bank. https://icg.citi.com/icghome/what-we-think/citigps/insights/metaverse-and-money_20220330.
Gilbert, S. (2022). Policy brief: Crypto, Web3, and the metaverse. Cambridge University. https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Policy-brief-Crypto-web3-and-the-metaverse.pdf.
Goanta, C. (2020). Selling LAND in Decentraland: The regime of non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain under the Digital Content Directive. In A. Lehavi R. Levine-Schnur (Eds.) Disruptive technology, legal innovation, and the future of real estate (pp. 139–154). Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52387-9_8.
González-Campo, C.H., García Solarte, M., & Murillo Vargas, G. (2013). Avatar (A’): Contrasting Lacan’s theory and 3D virtual worlds. A case study in Second Life. Psicología desde el Caribe, 30(2), 309–324.
Gray, J. (2007). Black mass: Apocalyptic religion and the death of Utopia. Allen Lane.
Gray, J. (2020). The realism of magic. The New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2020/08/realism-magic.
Hamilton, I.A. (2022a). The inventor of PlayStation thinks the metaverse is pointless. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/playstation-inventor-metaverse-pointless-2022-1.
Hamilton, I.A. (2022b). Meta just suffered the largest one-day wipeout in US corporate history. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-q4-earnings-largest-ever-one-day-wipeout-190-billion-2022-2.
Hari, J. (2022). Stolen focus: Why you can’t pay attention. Bloomsbury.
Harviainen, J.T., & Frank, K. (2018). Group sex as play: Rules and transgression in shared non-monogamy. Games and Culture, 13(3), 220–239. 10.1177/1555412016659835. DOI: 10.1177/1555412016659835
He, Q. (1999). Knowledge discovery through co-word analysis. Library Trends, 48(1), 133–59.
Heister, S., & Yuthas, K. (2020). The blockchain and how it can influence conceptions of the self. Technology in Society, 60. 10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101218.
Heuser, S. (2003). Virtual geographies: Cyberpunk at the intersection of the postmodern and science fiction. Brill.
Hietanen, J., Ahlberg, O., & Botez, A. (2022). The ‘dividual’ is semiocapitalist consumer culture. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(1-2), 165–181. 10.1080/0267257X.2022.2036519. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2022.2036519
Hietanen, J., Andéhn, M., & Wickström, A. (2020). The inhuman challenge: Writing with dark desire. Organization, 27(5), 742–754. 10.1177/1350508419838691. DOI: 10.1177/1350508419838691
Hirschheim, R. (2008). Some guidelines for the critical reviewing of conceptual papers. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 9(8), 432–441. 10.17705/1jais.00167. DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00167
Hong, S. (2021). Architecture story in movies – 1999 Matrix vs 2021 metaverse. Korean Architects, 629, 98–101.
Ilyina, I.A., Eltikova, E.A., Uvarova, K.A., & Chelysheva, S.D. (2022). Metaverse – Death to offline communication or empowerment of interaction?. In 2022 Communication strategies in digital society seminar (ComSDS) (pp. 117–119), https://doi.org/10.1109/ComSDS55328.2022.9769144.
Imagining the Internet Center. (2006). Metaverse Roadmap Summit. https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/event-coverage/metaverse/.
Jaakkola, E. (2020). Designing conceptual articles: Four approaches. AMS Review, 10 (1), 18–26. 10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0. DOI: 10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0
Janko, R. (1987). Aristotle: Poetics. Hackett.
Jasanoff, S., & Kim, S.H. (2009). Containing the atom: Sociotechnical imaginaries and nuclear power in the United States and South Korea. Minerva, 47 (2), 119–146. 10.1007/s11024-009-9124-4. DOI: 10.1007/s11024-009-9124-4
Jeffries, S. (2022). Best metaverse coins to buy for 2022. Nasdaq. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/best-metaverse-coins-to-buy-for-2022.
Khader, J. (2022). Welcome to the metaverse: Social media, the phantasmatic Big Other, and the anxiety of the prosthetic gods. Rethinking Marxism, 34(3), 397–405. 10.1080/08935696.2022.2111957. DOI: 10.1080/08935696.2022.2111957
Kim, J. (2021). Advertising in the metaverse: Research agenda. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 21(3), 141–144. 10.1080/15252019.2021.2001273. DOI: 10.1080/15252019.2021.2001273
Kliestik, T., Novak, A., & Lăzăroiu, G. (2022). Live shopping in the metaverse: Visual and spatial analytics, cognitive artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms, and immersive digital simulations. Linguistic & Philosophical Investigations, 21, 187–202. https://doi.org/10.22381/lpi21202212.
Lacan, J. (1970). Radiophonie. Scilicet, 2/3, 55–99.
Lacan, J. (1973). L’étourdit. Scilicet, 4, 5–52.
Lacan, J. (1975 [1973]). Le séminaire, livre XX, Encore (1972–1973). J.-A. Miller (Ed.). Seuil.
Lacan, J. (1978 [1972]). Du discours psychanalytique: Discours de Jacques Lacan à l’Université de Milan le 12 mai 1972. In G.B. Contri (Ed.) Lacan in Italia/En Italie Lacan, 1953–1978 (pp. 32–55). Salamandra.
Lacan, J. (1991 [1970]). Le séminaire, livre XVII, L’envers de la psychanalyse (1969–1970). J.-A. Miller (Ed.). Seuil.
Lacan, J. (2005 [1976]). Le séminaire, livre XXIII, Le sinthome (1975–1976). J.-A. Miller (Ed.). Seuil.
Lacan, J. (2007 [1971]). Le séminaire, livre XVIII, D’un discours qui ne serait pas du semblant (1971). J.-A. Miller (Ed.). Seuil.
Lacan, J. (2011 [1972]). Je parle aux murs: Entretiens de la chapelle de Sainte-Anne. J.-A. Miller (Ed.). Seuil.
Lacan, J. (2014 [1974]). Entretien au magazine Panorama. La Cause du Désir, 3(88), 165–173. (The interviewer’s name is misspelt in the text. The interviewer’s name is Emilia Granzotto, not Emilio Granzotto).
Lacity, M.C., & Treiblmaier, H. (2022). Blockchains and the token economy: Studies in theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford University Press.
Law, J. (1987). On the social explanation of technical change: The case of the Portuguese maritime expansion. Technology and Culture, 28(2), 227–252. 10.2307/3105566. DOI: 10.2307/3105566
Law, J. (1992). Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy, and heterogeneity. Systems Practice, 5 (4), 379–393. 10.1007/BF01059830. DOI: 10.1007/BF01059830
Lee, L.H, Braud, T, Zhou, P, Wang, L, Xu, D, Lin, Z, & Hui, P. (2021). All one needs to know about metaverse: A complete survey on technological singularity, virtual ecosystem, and research agenda. arXiv preprint.
Luckey, P. (2022). If you die in the game, you die in real life. http://palmerluckey.com/if-you-die-in-the-game-you-die-in-real-life/.
Madiega, T., Car, P., Niestadt, M., & Van de, Pol L. (2022). Metaverse: Opportunities, risks and policy implications. European Parliamentary Research Service, PE 733.557, 1–12.
Maharg, P., & Owen, M. (2007). Simulations, learning and the metaverse: Changing cultures in legal education. Journal of Information, Law, Technology, 1.
Manjoo, F. (2022). My sad, lonely, expensive adventures in Zuckerberg’s V.R. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/opinion/facebook-meta-zuckerberg-virtual-reality.html.
Marantz, A. (2019). Antisocial: Online extremists, techno-utopians, and the hijacking of the American conversation. Penguin.
Martin, B.A.S., Chrysochou, P., Strong, C., Wang, D., & Yao, J. (2022). Dark personalities and Bitcoin: The influence of the Dark Tetrad on cryptocurrency attitude and buying intention. Personality and Individual Differences, 188. 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111453.
Marx, K. (1844). Zur Kritik der Hegel’schen Rechts-Philosophie: Enleitung. Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 1–2, 71–85.
Merrin, W. (2005). Baudrillard and the media: A critical introduction. Polity.
Meta. (2022a). Eye tracking privacy notice. https://www.meta.com/en-gb/help/quest/articles/accounts/privacy-information-and-settings/eye-tracking-privacy-notice/.
Meta. (2022b). Introducing new tools for creators to build businesses on Facebook and Instagram. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/new-creators-tools-facebook-and-instagram/.
Meta. (2022c). Introducing the Meta Avatars Store. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/06/introducing-the-meta-avatars-store/.
Meta. (2022d). Meta Q1 2022 earnings call. https://investor.fb.com/investor-events/?section=pastevents.
Milgram, P., & Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed reality visual displays. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, 77(12), 1321–1329.
Montaigne, M.d. (1965). The complete essays of Montaigne (D. M. Frame, trans.). Stanford University Press. Translation based on editions from 1588–1595.
Morozov, E. (2013). To save everything, click here: The folly of technological solutionism. PublicAffairs.
Morozov, E. (2019). Capitalism’s new clothes. The Baffler, 4. https://thebaffer.com/latest/capitalisms-new-clothes-morozov.
Morttiz, C.Z.T. (2013). Snow Crash: An analysis of postmodern identities in Cyberpunk. In Navigating cybercultures (pp. 103–111). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881631_011.
Moy, C., Gadgil, A. (2022). Opportunities in the metaverse: How businesses can explore the metaverse and navigate the hype vs reality. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm/treasury-services/documents/opportunities-in-the-metaverse.pdf.
Muniz, N., Segall, L. (2022). Full interview: Yuga Labs CEO on Bored Ape Yacht Club and the future of Web3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehw2iM0A5H4.
Murphy, H. (2022). Facebook patents reveal how it intends to cash in on metaverse. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/76d40aac-034e-4e0b-95eb-c5d34146f647.
Murphy, H., & Stacey, K. (2022). Peter Thiel plans to leave board of Facebook owner Meta. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/82774b98-965d-4ed8-9876-cd250ed1448c.
Mystakidis, S. (2022). Metaverse. Encyclopedia, 2 (1), 486–497. 10.3390/encyclopedia2010031. DOI: 10.3390/encyclopedia2010031
Narin, N.G. (2021). A content analysis of the metaverse articles. Journal of Metaverse, 1(1), 17–24.
Nellis, S. (2022). Nvidia embraces the metaverse with new software, marketplace deals. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-embraces-metaverse-with-new-software-marketplace-deals-2022-01-04/.
Nelson, J. (2022). Can Seth Green still make his NFT show if his Bored Ape was stolen? Decrypt. https://decrypt.co/101283/seth-green-nft-show-bored-ape-stolen.
Nguyen, T.N. (2022). Toward human digital twins for cybersecurity simulations on the metaverse: Ontological and network science approach. JMIRx Med, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.2196/33502.
Nicolle, E. (2022). Minecraft developers confront gaming giants’ NFT love affair. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/minecraft-developers-challenge-game-industry-s-nft-love-affair.
Nobus, D., & Quinn, M. (2005). Knowing nothing, staying stupid: Elements for a psychoanalytic epistemology. Routledge.
Oakley, G. (2017). Engaging students in inclusive literacy learning with technology. In Inclusive principles and practices in literacy education (pp. 159–176). Emerald, https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620170000011011.
Paavilainen, J., Korhonen, H., Alha, K., Stenros, J., Koskinen, E., & Mayra, F. (2017). The Pokémon GO experience: A location-based augmented reality mobile game goes mainstream. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2493–2498). ACM, https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025871.
Pauwels, M. (2019). The most hysterical of masters: Lacan’s capitalist discourse and contemporary styles of interpellation. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 24(1), 53–71. 10.1057/s41282-019-00117-9. DOI: 10.1057/s41282-019-00117-9
Pflueger, D., Kornberger, M., & Mouritsen, J. (2022). What is blockchain accounting? A critical examination in relation to organizing, governance, and trust. European Accounting Review. 10.1080/09638180.2022.2147973.
Pignot, E. (2016). Ideological materiality at work: A Lacanian approach. In L. Introna, D. Kavanagh, S. Kelly, W. Orlikowski, & S. Scott (Eds.) Beyond interpretivism? New encounters with technology and organization (pp. 93–107). Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49733-4_6.
Pignot, E. (2021). Who is pulling the strings in the Platform Economy? Accounting for the dark and unexpected sides of algorithmic control. Organization, 28(1), 208–235. 10.1177/1350508420974523. DOI: 10.1177/1350508420974523
Pignot, E., Nicolini, D., & Thompson, M. (2020). Affective politics and technology buy-in: A framework of social, political, and fantasmatic logics. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(4), 901–935. 10.17705/1jais.00624. DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00624
Proto, F. (2013). Fatal objects: Lacan in Baudrillard part II (The third simulation stage: Post-modernity). International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, 10, 2.
Pupolizio, I. (2021). From Libra to Diem: The pursuit of a global private currency. Global Jurist. https://doi.org/10.1515/gj-2021-0055.
Ratan, R., Meshi, D. (2022). The metaverse is money and crypto is king – Why you’ll be on a blockchain when you’re virtual-world hopping. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/the-metaverse-is-money-and-crypto-is-king-why-youll-be-on-a-blockchain-when-youre-virtual-world-hopping-171659.
Rauschnabel, P.A., Felix, R., Hinsch, C., Shahab, H., & Alt, F. (2022). What is XR? Towards a framework for augmented and virtual reality. Computers in Human Behavior, 133. 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107289.
Rauschnabel, P.A., Rossmann, A., & tom Dieck, M.C. (2017). An adoption framework for mobile augmented reality games: The case of Pokémon GO. Computers in Human Behavior, 76, 276–286. 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.030. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.030
Renwick, R., & Gleasure, R. (2021). Those who control the code control the rules: How different perspectives of privacy are being written into the code of blockchain systems. Journal of Information Technology, 36(1), 16–38. 10.1177/0268396220944406. DOI: 10.1177/0268396220944406
Riches, S., Bird, L., Chan, N., Garety, P., Rus-Calafell, M., & Valmaggia, L. (2020). Subjective experience of paranoid ideation in a virtual reality social environment: A mixed methods cross-sectional study. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 27(3), 337–345. 10.1002/cpp.2431. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.2431
Robinson, J. (2017). The sci-fi guru who predicted Google Earth explains Silicon Valley’s latest obsession. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/neal-stephenson-metaverse-snow-crash-silicon-valley-virtual-reality.
Rodriguez, S. (2021). Facebook’s Meta mission was laid out in a 2018 paper declaring ‘The metaverse is ours to lose’. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/30/facebooks-meta-mission-was-laid-out-in-a-2018-paper-on-the-metaverse.html.
Rolla, G., Vasconcelos, G., & Figueiredo, N.M. (2022). Virtual reality, embodiment, and allusion: An ecological-enactive approach. Philosophy & Technology, 35(4). 10.1007/s13347-022-00589-1.
Rosenberg, L. (2022). Mind control: The metaverse may be the ultimate tool of persuasion. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/virtual/mind-control-the-metaverse-may-be-the-ultimate-tool-of-persuasion/.
Rospigliosi, P. (2022). Metaverse or simulacra? Roblox, Minecraft, Meta and the turn to virtual reality for education, socialisation and work. Interactive Learning Environments, 30(1), 1–3. 10.1080/10494820.2022.2022899. DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2022.2022899
Ryskeldiev, B., Ochiai, Y., Cohen, M., Herder, J. (2018). Distributed metaverse: Creating decentralized blockchain-based model for peer-to-peer sharing of virtual spaces for mixed reality applications. In Proceedings of the 9th augmented human international conference (pp. 1–3). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3174910.3174952.
Sadowski, J. (2020). Too smart: How digital capitalism is extracting data, controlling our lives, and taking over the world. MIT Press.
Santisteban, S.C., & Jones, C. (2022). Ordinary entrepreneurial psychosis. Organization. 10.1177/13505084221079007.
Sartoshi. (2022). What are mfers. https://mirror.xyz/sartoshi.eth/QukjtL1076-1SEoNJuqyc-x4Ut2v8_TocKkszo-S_nU.
Saul, D. (2022). Meta is the S&P 500’s worst performer of 2022 as losses near 75%. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/11/03/meta-is-the-sp-500s-worst-performer-of-2022-as-losses-near-75/.
Sax, M., & Ausloos, J. (2021). Getting under your skin(s): A legal-ethical exploration of Fortnite’s transformation into a content delivery platform and its manipulative potential. Interactive Entertainment Law Review, 4(1), 3–26. DOI: 10.4337/2021.0001
Serada, A., Sihvonen, T., & Harviainen, J.T. (2021). CryptoKitties and the new ludic economy: How blockchain introduces value, ownership, and scarcity in digital gaming. Games and Culture, 16(4), 457–480. 10.1177/1555412019898305. DOI: 10.1177/1555412019898305
Sharon, T., & Zandbergen, D. (2017). From data fetishism to quantifying selves: Self-tracking practices and the other values of data. New Media & Society, 19(11), 1695–1709. 10.1177/1461444816636090. DOI: 10.1177/1461444816636090
Skarbez, R., Smith, M., & Whitton, M.C. (2021). Revisiting Milgram and Kishino’s reality-virtuality continuum. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2(27). https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.647997.
Smart, J., Cascio, J., & Paffendorf, J. (2007). Metaverse roadmap: A cross-industry public foresight project.
Smart, P. (2022). Minds in the metaverse: Extended cognition meets mixed reality. Philosophy & Technology, 35(4). 10.1007/s13347-022-00580-w.
Smith, H., & Burrows, R. (2021). Software, sovereignty and the post-neoliberal politics of exit. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(6), 143–166. 10.1177/0263276421999439. DOI: 10.1177/0263276421999439
Stephenson, N. (1992). Snow Crash. Bantam.
Stephenson, N. (1999). Cryptonomicon. Random House.
Stone, Z. (2017). How HBO’s Silicon Valley perfectly skewers the VR unicorn in the form of Haley Joel Osment. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zarastone/2017/06/12/the-truth-of-hbos-silicon-valley-perfect-skewering-of-the-vr-unicorn/.
Sunyaev, A., Kannengießer, N., Beck, R., Treiblmaier, H., Lacity, M., Kranz, J., & Luckow, A. (2021). Token economy. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 63(4), 457–478. 10.1007/s12599-021-00684-1. DOI: 10.1007/s12599-021-00684-1
Swanstrom, L. (2010). Capsules and nodes and ruptures and flows: Circulating subjectivity in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Science Fiction Studies, 37(1), 54–80.
Takahashi, D. (2021). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang weighs in on the metaverse, blockchain, and chip shortage. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/games/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-weighs-in-on-the-metaverse-blockchain-chip-shortage-arm-deal-and-competition/.
Taplin, J. (2017). Move fast and break things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon have cornered culture and what it means for all of us. Pan Macmillan.
Thiel, P., & Masters, B. (2014). Zero to one: Notes on startups, or how to build the future. Virgin.
Turkle, S. (1978). Psychoanalytic politics: Freud’s French revolution. Basic Books.
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. Simon & Schuster.
Turkle, S. (2004 [1984]). The second self: Computers and the human spirit. 2nd edition. MIT Press.
Turkle, S. (2009). Simulation and its discontents. MIT Press.
Turkle, S. (2017). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. 3rd edition. Basic Books.
Universal Music Group. (2022). 10:22PM buys Bored Ape #5537 and joins the Bored Ape Yacht Club community. Universal Music Group. https://www.universalmusic.com/1022pm-buys-bored-ape-5537-and-joins-the-bored-ape-yacht-club-community/.
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2018). Antisocial media: How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. Oxford University Press.
Vanheule, S. (2016). Capitalist discourse, subjectivity and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01948.
Vargo, L. (2022). How the metaverse is shaping consumer behavior. Forbes Business Development Council. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/.
Vighi, F. (2015). Ontology of crisis and Lacan’s discourse of the capitalist. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 20(1), 1–19. 10.1057/pcs.2015.13. DOI: 10.1057/pcs.2015.13
Vitzthum, S., Kathuria, A., & Konsynski, B. (2011). Toys become tools: From virtual worlds to real commerce. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.02921.
von der Leyen, U., Šefčovič, M. (2022). State of the Union 2022: Letter of intent. European Commission. https://state-of-the-union.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-09/SOTEU_2022_Letter_of_Intent_EN_0.pdf.
Wang, C. (2021). The passivity of seeing: A Lacanian perspective on pornographic spectatorship in virtual reality. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 26(2), 217–233. 10.1057/s41282-021-00215-7. DOI: 10.1057/s41282-021-00215-7
Wegner, P.E. (2009). Greimas avec Lacan; or, from the Symbolic to the Real in dialectical criticism. Criticism, 51(2), 211–245. 10.1353/crt.0.0099. DOI: 10.1353/crt.0.0099
Weick, K.E. (1990). Technology as equivoque: Sensemaking in new technologies. In P.S. Goodman L.S. Sproull (Eds.) Technology and organizations (pp. 1–44). Jossey-Bass.
Weking, J., Desouza, K.C., Fielt, E., & Kowalkiewicz, M. (2023). Metaverse-enabled entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 19. 10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00375.
Wiederhold, B.K. (2021). Social media and mental health: Weighing the costs and benefits. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24 (12), 775–776. 10.1089/cyber.2021.29232.editorial. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2021.29232.editorial
Willcocks, L.P., & Mingers, J. (Eds.) (2004). Social Theory and Philosophy for Information Systems. Wiley.
Williams, R., & Edge, D. (1996). The social shaping of technology. Research Policy, 25(6), 865–899. 10.1016/0048-7333(96)00885-2. DOI: 10.1016/0048-7333(96)00885-2
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics?. Daedalus, 109(1), 121–136.
Woodbury, R. (2021). What happens when you’re the investment: Social capital is becoming economic capital. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/financialization-everything-investment-system-token/620804/.
Youyou, W., Kosinski, M., & Stillwell, D. (2015). Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans. Proc Nat’l Acad Sci, 112(4), 1036–1040. 10.1073/pnas.1418680112. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1418680112
žižek, S. (2001). No sex, please, we’re post-human! Lacan Dot Com. https://www.lacan.com/nosex.htm.
žižek, S. (2016). Can one exit from the capitalist discourse without becoming a saint? Crisis and Critique, 3(3), 481–99.
žižek, S. (2020). Hegel in a wired brain. Bloomsbury.
žižek, S. (2022a). A muddle instead of a movie. The Philosophical Salon. https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-muddle-instead-of-a-movie/.
žižek, S. (2022b). Surplus-enjoyment: A guide for the non-perplexed. Bloomsbury.
Zuboff, S. (2015). Big Other: Surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1), 75–89. 10.1057/jit.2015.5. DOI: 10.1057/jit.2015.5
Zuckerberg, M. (2021). Founder’s letter, 2021. Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/.
Zuckerberg, M. (2022a). Interview with Jim Cramer. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/22/mark-zuckerberg-envisions-1-billion-people-in-the-metaverse.html.
Zuckerberg, M. (2022b). Introducing Meta Pay. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/zuck/.
Zuckerberg, M. (2022c). Keynote and Developer State of the Union. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/RealityLabs/videos/keynote-and-developer-state-of-the-union/1425118524564060/.
Zuckerberg, M., & Bilyeu, T. (2022). The most important skill to learn for the future: Mark Zuckerberg on Impact Theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N04_EHprO4.
Zuckerman, E. (2021). Hey, Facebook, I made a metaverse 27 years ago. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/10/facebook-metaverse-was-always-terrible/620546/.