From Pandemic to Metaverse: The Rise and Risks of Data-Driven Society

Year 2023, , 11 - 23, 01.07.2023

Zübeyde Demircioğlu

https://doi.org/10.29224/insanveinsan.1283746

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Recent advances in technology are changing the way we interact with the physical world, and digital transformation is accelerating this process even further. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has also taken digitalization one step further by enabling convergence of the physical and digital, promoting the centralization of data. The Metaverse, as the current ultimate state of digital transformation, has emerged with the mission of bringing on the digital experience of time and space in a way closer to the physical world by eliminating the contradictions between the virtual and physical worlds. Furthermore, at the center of this new universe of reality underlies a data-driven approach that allows user behavior become knowable, predictable, and even controllable, bringing the daily life experience down to procedures and calculations. In this regard, this study argues that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the rise of digitalization and data-centricity as a mindset that paved the way for the Metaverse, and that the data-centric understanding of the Metaverse will deepen ethical issues such as privacy, surveillance and control.

Keywords

digitalization, datafication, COVID-19 pandemic, Metaverse, surveillance, privacy

Pandemiden Metaverse’e: Veri Odaklı Toplumun Yükselişi ve Riskleri

Abstract

Teknolojideki son gelişmeler fiziksel dünyayla etkileşimimizi değiştirmekte, dijital dönüşüm bu süreci daha da hızlandırmaktadır. Yakın dönemde yaşanan COVID-19 pandemisi de fiziksel ve dijital dünyanın yakınsamasına vesile olarak dijitalleşmeyi bir adım öteye taşımış, verinin merkezi hale gelmesini mümkün kılmıştır. Dijital dönüşümün mevcut nihai aşaması olarak Metaverse ise, sanal dünya ile fiziksel dünya arasındaki karşıtlığı ortadan kaldırarak dijital zaman ve mekân deneyimini fiziksel olana yaklaştırma misyonuyla ortaya çıkmıştır. Öte yandan bu yeni gerçeklik evreninin merkezinde kullanıcıların davranışlarını bilinebilir, öngörülebilir ve hatta kontrol edilebilir kılan, günlük yaşam deneyimini prosedürlere ve hesaplamalara indirgeyen veri odaklı bir anlayış bulunmaktadır. Bu çerçevede, bu çalışma Metaverse’e giden yolu açan dijitalleşmenin ve zihniyet olarak veri odaklılığın yükselişinde COVID-19 pandemisinin önemli bir etkisi olduğunu, Metaverse’ün veri odaklı anlayışının mahremiyet, gözetim ve kontrol gibi etik sorunları derinleştireceğini ileri sürmektedir.

Keywords

dijitalleşme, verileştirme, COVID-19 pandemisi, Metaverse, mahremiyet, gözetim

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