Ethical Challenges in AR/VR
Software technology advances at an incredible accelerated pace, the smartphones we take now as normal, are more powerful that the computers that were used to send people to space at the time, and the better these systems become, the easier it is to create simulated worlds, be it in movies or videogames, this is where Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) come into place.
Believe it or not, AR and VR are not as new as one might think, in fact they date from the 60’s and 50’s respectively, and have come a long way in terms of functionality and awareness; today, they are used in a broad range of applications, from furniture planning to learning and even psychological treatment, but there are also concerns about the possible risks in the use of these technologies.
In this article, we will be looking at three of the risks that are present with the use and development involved with these two technologies.
Long-Term immersion
People spend a lot of their time staring at screens (Fottrell 2018), some do it for work and others are looking to relax and play, whatever may the reason be, spending that much time in front of a computer can have a wide range of effects, now imagine having the images blending with reality via AR or having the information occupying all your field of vision with a VR headset.
The human mind works in curious ways, it can be influenced by external factors and be completely unaware of it, behavior can be modified by extended exposure to continuous stimuli, even though the core personal characteristics tend to stay relatively the same. The effects of long-term immersion into these simulations are still unknown as researchers only conduct short-term immersion in their studies, but the concerns are still present, such as the way VR can manipulate the user’s sense of agency, this is because the VR system renders an avatar that moves like the player moves, this is not to say that the mind of the player “moves” to the avatar, rather they are two body representations interacting with each other.
The challenge here not only resides with the developers of AR/VR software, but also with consumers, to have moderation in the use of these technologies when they are made available to the public.
Risky Content
We are not only talking about that kind of content; normally, each piece of entertainment is rated by an organization according to its contents, for videogames usually is the ESRB and/or PEGI, for movies it normally falls on the Film Ratings jurisdiction, these organizations are responsible to rate each work in their respective field to make sure they go to the right customer demography. Unfortunately this doesn’t stop parents from buying games that are not meant for children, or platforms and creators having trouble because children are watching their content without appropriate parent supervision.
Now, talking in AR/VR there is another factor to consider, the information is brought to you blended with reality (AR) or directly into your field of view (VR), this represents a problem for easily startled users or people who can handle certain things, look for example at the Silent Hill Franchise or the videogame Alien Isolation, those are excellent examples of the horror genre but are not meant for everybody.
These technologies are like a double-edged sword, on one side they can be used to help people overcome their fears, take for example phobias that could be treated with virtual representations that will never harm patients, PTSD could also be treated with the help of VR, these techs could also be used to create empathy, help journalism (Craig & Georgieva 2018) or to send a constructing message; on the other side, they could be used to create discord, worse relations between people or traumatize them; to mitigate this risk, moral standards and frameworks should be stablished for creators meant to protect customers without compromising their artistic liberties.
Neglect of the social and physical environment
People are bound to excess, the more classic examples are alcohol and chocolate, among these things, videogames has been abused as much that it comes to the point that a father had to hire a “virtual hitman” to hunt down his son’s avatar because he was spending too much time playing online, this becomes a problem because it affects others aspects of the person’s life. To address this issue, first we must seek the root cause of this behavior, some may use it as a coping mechanism to vent stress, some may have social anxiety and even suffer from depression and loneliness, add to that videogames which present experiences that otherwise would be impossible to live and you have a great way to escape problems. The real question here is not if AR/VR simulations would lead to people to forfeit everything for a virtual life, but more how can life be improved for people to prefer it over an elaborated fantasy.
Now, not to be pessimist or anything, but the world it’s not quite what it used to be, and major problems are concerning to say the least, countries around the world are having health and economic crisis due to recent… events… and this has a lot of people looking for ways to ease the stress and pain the crisis causes. What can be done here is educate people and AR/VR are excellent tools for education developers can make applications to create and develop consciousness about the use and abuse of these technologies; knowledge and imagination are mankind’s more powerful and versatile tools but if they’re not adequately trained and used, you may as well be using sticks and stones; or as Carl Sagan Said:
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
Conclusion
AR and VR are technologies that can bring both development and progress, they bring opportunities no other tech is able to achieve and with the ever-evolving nature of software development, new benefits and concerns are there to be found. There are always risks involved with progress, new policies and ethical standards must be created with the protection of people as the highest priority, because with the opportunities for learning, research, development, science and entertainment these two technologies have to offer, we may be able understand a little bit more about ourselves and our reality.
References
- Fottrell Quentin. People spend most of their waking hours staring at screens. Market Watch 2018. Url <https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-are-spending-most-of-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens-2018-08-01>
- Legg Timothy J. Negative effects of technology: What to know. Medical News Today 2020. Url <https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/negative-effects-of-technology>
- Craig Emory, Georgieva Maya. VR and AR: The Ethical Challenges Ahead. Educase 2018. Url <https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2018/4/vr-and-ar-the-ethical-challenges-ahead>
- Madary Michael, Metzinger Thomas. Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology. Frontiers in Robotics and AI Virtual Environments 2016. Url <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2016.00003/full>