Emotional Intelligence, Human Centricity & the Metaverse
Throughout the ages, human communication has relied on our senses to be able to understand what is happening around us using a cognitive processing unit - our brain. Then using our brain we develop and develop a response to that stimulus. Whilst it is not as simple as I’ve put it, we usually rely on an observation to help us form a response as part of our communication repertoire. This mechanism also helps us to build the skills to understand, regulate and respond to our own emotional states and that of those around us for more effective communication.
Over the last few years, we have rapidly moved from a majority of face to face interactions to online, web and mobile/tablet application interactions using possibly more email, a lot more messaging components, and a lot more video calling applications to get us together and bridge the physical gap. Given the rate at which technology advances we may very soon be launched into what we call the metaverse - a virtual space for work and play. This is going to be an even more immersive experience, which is great for our sensory system because now instead of interacting with a person in 2d on a screen we can into a more immersive experience in 3d where we may be able to interact with our visual experience. Another possibility in the future is the use of haptic technology to add the sense of touch to the experience. This may allow us to pick up more accurately on signals that others are sending when communicating in the metaverse. We can also create scenarios where we can practice our communication delivery in safe settings that simulate the real thing. I love that! However…
My concerns or questions are focused on the reliance of representations of the self in the metaverse. In order for us to grow and maintain the skills that increase our emotional intelligence, a key performance indicator for human productivity and performance we need to continue observing and practicing these skills. How will we do this if our representations of ourselves are not accurate enough? So right now I know there are tech companies out there working on AI, machine learning, big data and really pulling these things together to try and build avatars that will be able to represent the human form as realistic as possible, but how accurate can we get?
Is it going to be enough to simulate micro expressions of human beings? How accurate can we get considering they're quite tiny differences?
Disclaimer: I am NOT taking a stab at the metaverse and movement into the future. I DO NOT claim to be an expert on the metaverse, nor do I think it is a terrible idea. After all progress is the name of the Human Game BUT I am asking questions - as we all should be!
Every step we take in our technological evolution has a compounding effect on our human evolution.
I am doing my own research on who is working on what for such a virtual infrastructure but I'd be so interested to continue conversations around these because I think that by not focusing on the human state, and our ability to communicate through our senses, body language, micro expressions, etc we are likely to be doing ourselves a big disservice. From my understanding we can get online in the metaverse and represent ourselves as anything. You can create an avatar of anything. You can be a cartoon character. You can be your transformer. You could be a pillow if you want but if you choose to be a human, how accurate is your human avatar. In order for you to be represented accurately and for people to be able to read your communication signals, your emotions and your expressions it will need to be pretty accurate.
If everyone does not use accurate representations of themselves, then how do we continue to practice this important skill of communication and pass it on to future generations? How does this impact the skills and capability of human communication? What are the impacts?
There are so many questions I have about what this means for human communication in the real world because we generally get together with people and socialise, have romantic relationships, build families, friendships, business relationships and other important relationships that keep us mentally fit and connected.
If we don't take all of this (and more) into consideration, if we don't maintain our communication skills, and continue to sharpen, improve and develop our communication and relationship management skills, could we be dulling the human centric component of communication, i.e. how we understand each other and learn?
How can we continue to nurture and grow the human centric aspect of our communication, our connection with ourselves, each other and the systems within which we operate, live and survive as a species?
How important is this to us and our future?