Metaverse: Its Potential Negatives

元宇宙的潜在弊端

By Ayomike

文/阿约迈克

译/曾逸

The Metaverse is a pretty cool tech. But just like every other innovative tech, there are negatives to this.

元宇宙是一项很酷的技术。但正如其他所有新技术一样，元宇宙也存在弊端。

Addiction

成瘾

You know how we already complain that humans spend too much time on the internet playing games, watching movies, and even streaming videos? Well, the idea of Metaverse will amplify that by a whole lot.

人们已然抱怨，花费了太多时间在互联网上玩游戏、看电影甚至刷视频。知道吗，元宇宙会使人们网上冲浪的时间在此基础上成倍增加。

Think about it, who’d like to quickly leave a space he/she designed that seems perfect. I mean, the person is living his/her dreams, has the perfect body, goes to the best places, and does whatever he/she pleases.

试想，谁愿意从自己打造的看似完美的世界迅速抽身而去呢——我是说，元宇宙让人们梦想成真：拥有完美身材，打卡最佳景点，行事随心所欲。

It’s very easy to lose touch of reality and began to prefer staying in the virtual world and even prefer it to your personal life.

这样一来，人们很容易脱离现实，开始更愿意待在虚拟世界，甚至喜欢虚拟世界胜于真实的个人生活。

Inferiority Complex and Depression

自卑与抑郁

We already see how social media pictures make people dislike parts of their body. Over the couple of years, the numbers of plastic surgeries to correct parts of the body has grown among teens globally. But, what happens when you live in a fantasy world where you design the perfect body and come back to reality to see that you’re still you?

社交媒体上的照片让人们对自己的身体不甚满意，这一点大家有目共睹。过去几年间，全球青少年进行整形手术的数量不断增加。不过，如果你在幻想世界中为自己设计了完美身材，回到现实中却发现自己仍是原来的样子，会怎么样呢？

It’s simple, reality check comes in the moment you come out of the metaverse and realize you’re not actually what you designed yourself to be in the virtual world. In real life, you’re still not as tall or as chubby as you wish. Gradually, depression will set.

很简单，当你走出元宇宙，现实就是一面“照妖镜”，让你意识到自己实际上并非虚拟世界中自我设计的那样。在现实生活中，你仍然没有理想的身高或者健硕的身形。渐渐地，抑郁情绪就会出现。

Data and Security

数据和安全

Another potential negative of this world is access and sharing of data. I mean, joining the metaverse will require you sharing huge amount of data with Meta. Which include but not restricted to your behaviors, interest, patterns etc. on a much larger scale.

元宇宙的另一个潜在弊端是数据访问和共享。意思是，用户加入元宇宙就需要向元宇宙平台公司提供海量数据，包括但不限于个人行为、兴趣、生活方式等，共享数据规模会比现在大得多。

And judging from history, Meta is not very good at managing data. And giving all these information away is not such a good idea to say the least. Or, what if there is a data breach and someone else has access to those personal information?

而且就以往经验来看，元宇宙平台公司并不擅长管理数据。至少可以说，把以上所有信息全权交付该公司并不是个好主意。说白了，如果数据泄露，其他人可以访问这些个人信息，怎么办？

 

Denying Reality

否认现实

Truth is, you can actually create your own reality in metaverse but who defines what’s real and what’s not? I mean, one user can decide to remove some real things from their metaverse just because they don’t like it not because those things are not real.

诚然，人人都可以在元宇宙中创建自己的现实世界，但谁来定义何为真实、何为虚幻？我是说，用户可以仅凭个人喜好而非真实与否，就在自己的元宇宙中删除真实存在的东西。

Let’s say, you don’t like people from certain tribe, this means in your metaverse you can decide to remove them. Or you don’t like homeless people or hospitals, you can decide to remove these things. Point is, users can easily deny reality and build a different world in the metaverse and that is a problem.

举个例子，假设你不喜欢某一群体，你就可以决定在自己的元宇宙中剔除他们；如果不喜欢流浪汉或者医院，可以将其统统删除。关键是，用户很容易否认现实并在元宇宙中建立一个截然不同的世界，这就是问题所在。

Why is this a problem? Well the moment they come out of that virtual world, they’ll have to deal with these things. They can’t stay in the virtual world forever (or maybe they plan to?).

为什么这一点很有问题呢？因为，当人们走出那个虚拟世界时，将不得不面对现实中反感的人或事。他们不可能永远生活在虚拟世界中（也可能他们打算这样做？）。

Moderation

约束

Who is going to moderate this virtual reality against hate speech or racism? How will the moderation be carried out? I mean, moderating social media platforms is already stressful and moderating a whole universe built by different people is a whole new level of stressful.

谁来约束虚拟世界以防范仇视言论或种族主义？约束又将如何进行？要知道，约束社交媒体平台已是压力重重，而约束由各色人等构建的整个元宇宙将使压力上升到一个新的高度。

Will Meta be able to watch every single user and catch every single gesture, characters, speech and text that promotes hate, racism, false news and online bullying? Meta will need a huge work force to be able to implement this and even at that, it’ll still be very difficult.

元宇宙平台公司能否监视每一个用户的行为并且发现宣扬仇恨、种族主义、虚假新闻及网络霸凌的每一个手势和字符、每一条语音和文本？元宇宙平台公司需要大量人力才能落实这项工作，即便如此，仍然非常困难。

And if moderation is not properly done, the whole virtual world can easily turn into chaos. I mean, not everyone will be there to promote positive vibes only.

如果约束不到位，整个虚拟世界很容易会变得乌烟瘴气。要知道，元宇宙中，不是每个人都只传播正能量。

At the end, we’re still humans and we’ll have to eat, drink, and sleep in real life. So, even if we create this whole perfect world on metaverse, we’ll still have to come back and live our lives.

说到底，我们仍是人，我们还得在现实中吃饭喝水、睡觉休息。所以，即使我们在元宇宙中创造了完美世界，仍需回归现实生活。

What Meta is proposing is pretty cool and it seems like the future of social media where you get to interact more realistically. You can be whatever you want, do whatever you want and go wherever you want.

元宇宙平台公司的提议的确很酷，且貌似正是社交媒体的未来，因为它能提供更真实的互动。你可以成为想成为的任何人，做想做的任何事，去想去的任何地方。

But, it also amplifies the negative sides of using social media such as; addiction, harassment, depression and even security issues. And the speed of 5G connectivity is the main reason why this whole virtual universe seems even possible.

但是，它也放大了使用社交媒体的负面影响，例如成瘾、骚扰、抑郁甚至安全问题。此外，高速的5G互联是整个元宇宙看似可能构建成功的主因。

I mean, can you imagine using 2G or 3G to access such universe? The buffering alone would make it extreme difficult to use.

试问，你能想象使用2G或3G网络访问元宇宙吗？仅仅缓冲加载就会让使用极度困难。

So, while we’re all excited about the new idea of a Metaverse, it’s also okay for us to look critically at the negatives. This way, we’ll be able to better prepare ourselves for what’s coming “the future of social media”.

所以，在我们都为“元宇宙”这一新想法感到兴奋的同时，也可以批判性地了解其弊端。只有这样，我们才能做好更充分的准备去迎接即将到来的“社交媒体的未来”。

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者；单位：中南大学）