How can Science Fiction narratives help us explore ethical Virtual Reality development?
Part 1: Safeguarding and Protection
Part 2: Market Forces — check back soon
Many Sci-Fi narratives are full of moral conundrums over complete freedom in VR. The nature of VR makes crime and socially inappropriate behaviour a point of contention since both terms can be hard to define in VR spaces. Human rights and legislation to protect users are always playing catch-up with technology. This means that Sci-Fi narratives can help us to extrapolate current technology and consider its social effects.
Often, behaviours appropriate in the real world do not translate into a VR world. On the contrary, a VR world might have a different set of rules or social hierarchy to the real world, which is one of the reasons many people are drawn towards VR. The repercussions of behaving inappropriately in VR currently are usually limited to being kicked from a room or world, possible banning and maybe some hostile behaviour from other users. Today’s online culture often breeds a non-responsible attitude towards behaviours online, with many web users engaging in rants or harassment that they might not do in real life. As VR becomes more immersive these behaviours are likely to have greater ramifications to users.
You may be asking “aren’t you essentially describing online trolls? whats the big deal?”. The difference here is that in VR aggression can appear to be aimed more directly at our physical person due to the illusion of our presence in a virtual space. As mad as it sounds the psychological harm to users could be very real, as explored in the examples below.
Telepresence
One author that explores responsibility in VR is William Gibson in The Peripheral. In Gibson’s future, people are able to control androids via remote experience to remain anonymous
“I am inspector Ainsley Lowbeer, of the metropolitan police. You do understand that you are present here, legally, under the android avatar act?”
The Peripheral — William Gibson
By looking at the world through the lens of The Peripheral, we can raise some interesting questions about VR experience. What responsibilities should users have in VR? Is there such a thing as VR crime? And, if you see harassment in VR, do you have a responsibility as a witness?
Despite the obvious argument that VR is not actually real, VR pioneer Professor Robert J Stone defines Telepresence as
“sensing sufficient information about the teleoperator and task environment, and communicating this to the human operator in a sufficiently natural way, that the operator feels physically present at the remote site”.
If VR users have access to sensory faculties close to real life then this would suggest they should also have the same responsibilities as they do in real life.
Moral Behaviour
Another approach is to design VR worlds where you cannot commit crimes or morally reprehensible actions. Although this would work in theory, it doesn’t really address the problem as explained by Blay Whitby:
“VR designers can simply outlaw immoral behaviour within their system. Since the users are effectively denied the choice of whether or not to behave in a moral fashion, their behaviour cannot therefore be described as moral”.
So if enforcing morality of users at code level is out of the window, perhaps giving complete unrestricted freedom to users is the answer?
The Nether (2013) is a Sci-Fi play by Jennifer Haley that shows that this could also be a terrible idea. The play explores the dangers unrestricted VR and virtual child abuse. In the play, Cyberdetective Morris interrogate Sims and Doyle, two suspects of VR pedophilia. Sims and Doyle protest to Morris and the audience that the way they use VR prevents hurting real people.
The play raises very important issues about the future of VR development by exposing audiences to a “profoundly disturbing 80 minutes of theatre”. By choosing Theatre as a medium, Hayley puts audiences up close to an uncomfortable topic, forcing them into open a dialogue about preventing harm in VR.
Policing Cyberspace
While it seems clear that some form of policy should put in place to protect users, Black Mirror, the now wildly popular TV anthology looks at the other side of the coin and how VR can enable abuse of police powers. In Black Mirror: White Christmas, suspect Joe is unknowingly interrogated by Matt inside a virtual space designed to evoke his memories and guilt over the murder his wife's new partner.
This particularly Orwellian vision of VR is doubly chilling as Matt, despite his cooperation with police, is blocked from everyone visually with a red silhouette, signifying his status as a sex offender. This particularly dark narrative shows a dramatic departure from the idealist’s electronic agora . In fact, Black mirror: White Christmas envisions a world much closer to the Panopticon, the ultimate prison, where one guard can see all the prisoners but the prisoners can see no one.
Concerns about using VR to isolate users as a form of punishment is mirrored in the VR industry. Senior interface designer at Google, Mike Alger asks
“if you implement a social system that allows you to block people who are being abusive, how do you stop that system from being the method for the abuse?”
Alger’s statement in conjunction with White Christmas provides evidence that blocking or isolating other users in the traditional sense as with screen based interfaces will not sufficiently protect users. Since social isolation can have adverse effects on mental and physical health it is therefore important for VR designers to treat user welfare as a priority.
One thing I think Black Mirror does very well is show how advanced VR has a strong appeal to users despite the dangers, When specifically asked about the VR technology in Black Mirror: Alger posits that
“the interface is purely just communicative and functional in the way that a television audience who’s not even using the interfaces is able to pick up on its usefulness and meaning immediately.”
This is why Black Mirror is a particularly useful example of an ethical examination of VR. Unlike other Sci-fi narratives which often drop you into a world with little context how advances in VR were adopted, Black Mirror shows how the allure of advanced VR could be too great to resist, even if individual rights become eroded.
Turning a blind eye
Another Facet of VR that Sci-Fi explores is diffusion of responsibility and dehumanisation, specifically with Augmented Reality (AR)technology. AR is unique in its position as a system for manipulation when you alter a users perception of their environment. The short film Uncanny Valley written by Federico Heller takes this idea to the extreme. The film centres around a player of a first person shooter which he believes to take place in VR. After exploiting a glitch he realises the whole time he thought he was shooting “ghosts” he was actually shooting real people via a humanoid robotic drone.
It is through these techniques that Heller shows how AR could be used as a buffer to diffuse responsibility within warfare. Indeed, the issues raised by Uncanny Valley have a real life counterpart as the US Military has already recognised the application of video gamers’ skills in operating drones. This is pointed out by ex US Air Force Drone technician and whistleblower, Cian Westmoreland.
“right now we have people recruiting at video game conventions […] you’ve probably all read Ender’s Game […] they were able to, essentially pretend like they were training him for a war while he was in the middle of a war, I mean that’s kind of dystopian but I think it definitely brings a good question to mind as far as where this could go”
To sum up part one of the essay, the discussion has shown that the use of VR for safety and protection presents a lot of potential ethical challenges. Although VR provides new opportunities to communicate and socialise safely, there are many issues that needs to be considered, whether that be individual freedom, the protection of children or our human rights.
