In 1992, Neil Stephenson created a virtual parallel to the real world, the Metaverse, in his science fiction novel Avalanche. Since then, although the concept of the meta-universe has not left the public's vision, it has not been widely concerned and accepted by people. It was not until March 2021 that the first Roblox shares of metauniverse were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which exploded the world financial circle. In October of the same year, Facebook, with more than 3 billion users, changed its name to "Meta", making the concept of the meta-universe "fire" officially enter the public's view and become a hot issue in the social and theoretical circles.
So, what is the meta-universe? The meta-universe is a technology set formed by a variety of modern technologies after breakthroughs in 5G/6G communication, artificial intelligence and big data, especially revolutionary leaps in virtual reality, digital technology and perception technology. The meta-universe is an intelligent virtual world highly integrated with the real world. This virtual world has several salient features. First, it is highly intelligent. With the help of intelligent technology, the meta-universe can constantly evolve itself, which is called "digital vitality". The other is infinite satisfaction. The meta-universe can infinitely satisfy people's yearning and imagination in the heart, but can not meet the desires and demands in the real world. For example, when people cannot travel due to the epidemic, the meta-universe allows them to travel around the world without leaving home. They can go wherever they want to go, experience the beauty and food of different parts of the world, and achieve spiritual and sensory satisfaction. Third, there is no obstacle to shuttle. Through perception technology and brain-computer connection technology, the meta-universe can seamlessly connect with the real world and people, and people can switch back and forth between the real world and the meta-universe at will. The fourth is the digital character. The subject of the meta-universe is "digital man". Digital man is not only a reflection of the individuals in the real world in the meta-universe, but also a highly intelligent digital existence that surpasses the individuals in the real world and can learn independently. Therefore, we can regard the meta-universe as a "digital universe" parallel to the real universe, a new species of digital integration.
The emergence of the meta-universe is the result of mankind's continuous innovation of modern technology to satisfy their own desires and imagination. In a Brief History of Mankind, Yuval Harari argues that the fundamental driving force behind human history is a cognitive revolution driven by imagination. The emergence of the metasemes shows that man is far more capable of fulfilling his own imagination than he ever imagined. However, while people are hailing the arrival of the metadverse era, they also have to face the reality of how we can deal with a series of ethical issues that the metadverse may bring. In his speech on the anniversary of the founding of The People, Marx once pointed out, "In our age, everything seems to contain its own reverse side... The triumph of technology seems to have been bought at the cost of moral corruption." Compared with the influence of previous technological development on social ethics, the influence of the meta-universe is more profound. Because the meta-universe is not only an intelligent virtual world parallel to the real world, it can also break through the limitations of material, resources, time and space, and infinitely meet human desires that cannot be obtained and satisfied in the real world. This will produce more profound ethical changes than the impact of capital on social ethics. At the beginning of the age of the meta-universe, the ethical problems brought by it have appeared in some aspects, which requires us to attach great importance to this problem.
The ethical problems brought about by the meta-universe can be understood from both individual and social levels.
From the individual level, the meta-universe brings about the problem of emotional ethics and human alienation. In terms of emotional ethics, the meta-universe creates numerous "happiness whirlpools" according to people's needs through intelligent scene simulation. In the "happiness vortex", people can feel, perception, psychological infinite to meet all their desires, thus falling into the "happiness vortex" and unable to extricate themselves, unwilling to return to the real world, resulting in individual emotional loss, emotional indifference between people. In terms of human alienation, individuals can switch between "real man" and "digital man" at will in the meta-universe era. Because the meta-universe is more attractive than the real world, individuals are more willing to live and act in the meta-universe, so that individuals often present the existence state of "digital man". Highly intelligent and self-learning "digital man" will further weaken the individual's subjective consciousness and value concept, so that individuals lose their ability to think and are completely controlled by the role of "digital man", evolving into what Marx called "dull material force".
From the social level, the meta-universe will bring about ethical problems such as technological hegemony and world imbalance. In terms of technological hegemony, the meta-universe is fundamentally a new species generated by the integration of modern technologies. The key core technologies and underlying architectures of this new species are all in the hands of world-class scientific and technological enterprises, which have the supreme authority in the meta-universe with their unique technological and data advantages. Because the meta-universe breaks through the traditional physical control and has a high degree of freedom, it makes it difficult for the government, social organizations and individuals to have the right to speak in the meta-universe. This will result in the technological hegemony of world-class technology enterprises. In terms of world imbalance, the meta-universe breaks time and space, and everything is present. There are both living "digital people" and inanimate intelligent bodies, which is a more complex intelligent virtual world than the real society. In the age of the meta-universe, the biggest ethical question is how to deal with the possible imbalance between the meta-universe and the real world. People are willing to stay in the meta-universe. Who will build the real world? Can the order of rules in the metasverse seamlessly connect with the rules of the real world? Therefore, how to construct the regular order of the meta-universe, so that the meta-universe can operate orderly, especially to construct a new order between the meta-universe and the real world orderly connection, is an urgent social ethical problem to be solved.