Story of Writing an Essay on VR in the UTV LT Meeting on July 16, 2022

[LT] at UT-virtual

Self Introduction

• Bluemo (@blu3mo) / Twitter
• 
• UTV 6th term student
• Going to a university in NYC from autumn
• Recently, I’ve been into radio calisthenics
  • I participate in the one held at a nearby park around 6:30 AM
  • Although I say that, I’m currently facing the challenge of keeping up with it
    • #yeah-everyday-radio-calisthenics..?

Topics to Talk About

• My experience writing an essay about VR in a humanities seminar
• Baji Seminar @ University of Tokyo Komaba “Exploring Realism in the Global Society” (@bajisemi) / Twitter
• 
  • There is a seminar called Baji Seminar
  • 
  • When I joined, I didn’t realize the intensity of writing a 10,000 to 20,000-word essay per semester…
• In this seminar, I just presented my essay yesterday.

What kind of essay did I write?

• 
• Outline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WCJBveU0_hGYyZxXQjtFfqe2RhRVrkHd/view?usp=sharing
• Essay: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QtJz-ksqPeG-M15x3bIdCckuIKhFn8nQ/view?usp=sharing
  • I would be happy to receive feedback, counterarguments, and comments on FB if you feel like it.
• Motivation
  • The vague argument that the “Metaverse” is a “Dystopia,” what’s up with that?
  • I wanted to counter these claims
    • The Metaverse Has Always Been a Dystopian Idea
    • Facebook’s metaverse plans labelled as ‘dystopian’ and ‘a bad idea’ - BBC News
    • The Metaverse: Dystopian Society Or Reality?
  • However, countering them based on emotions alone would be meaningless, so I wanted to clarify the ethical foundation and engage in a discussion.

Results/Impressions

• I don’t understand ethics at all, help
  • As an engineer, I have thought about creating “good” things, but I have never delved into the concept of “goodness.”
    • It was interesting to study and think about things I don’t usually consider.
  • However, when I delved deeper, I felt a sense of nihilism that there is no absolute morality/norm/ethics
    • In the essay, I assumed happiness as the basis of goodness, but there is no evidence for that.
  • I really don’t understand, what is ethics?
• Nevertheless, I think it was a good experience to feel like I don’t understand anything.
• Also, it was interesting to receive feedback and engage in discussions from people with a strong background in humanities.