The latest report from the World Economic Forum outlines a vision of the blending of the physical world with the virtual metaverse dystopia, and claims digital identity is a necessary step in this direction.
On March 12, the World Economic Forum released a new report titled, Metaverse Identity: Defining the Self in a Blended Reality which is ostensibly aimed at exploring the apparent need for a “metaverse identity”. The document, written in partnership with corporate firm Accenture, calls for “collaborative, interdisciplinary strategy to navigate identity challenges”. The metaverse is a term that is commonly meant to describe the future of the internet, where digital and physical worlds intersect.
“The metaverse, poised to redefine the internet, intertwines the digital and physical, emphasizing the pivotal role of “identity” in shaping immersive, human-centric experiences,” the report states.
The WEF report features insights from 150 “global experts”, including executives from Amazon, Microsoft, PayPal, Sony, LEGO, Meta, Magic Leap, Mastercard, Walmart, Qualcomm, and Google. Other contributors include representatives of The Atlantic Council, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the United Nations, Council of the European Union, European Council, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates Government.
The new report is building off an effort launched by the WEF in May 2022 known as the “Defining and Building the Metaverse Initiative”. The WEF says this initiative is focused on an “integrated approach to the development and governance of the metaverse”.
As is typical with WEF reports, this one is replete with the usual buzzwords about the need to build a metaverse that is “responsible, equitable, inclusive, diverse and accessible”. The WEF also pays lip service to protecting privacy in the metaverse.
“As the convergence of extended reality (XR) technologies blur the boundaries between physical and virtual worlds, it becomes imperative to address the topic of “identity” to ensure an inclusive, equitable, accessible, secure and privacy-preserving metaverse,” the report states.
In regards to the metaverse, the WEF’s version of equity and inclusion is about ensuring that each person has the opportunity to create a digital avatar as realistic or cartoonish as they prefer. They claim that the key to redefining identity systems is “creating inclusive, diverse digital presentation in a new medium… that may mirror real-world aspects of identity or embrace entirely new, imaginative forms”.
However, when we take a closer look at the nature of this “blended reality” we can see that the WEF is describing the same future dystopian vision promoted by WEF Founder Klaus Schwab under the name the 4th Industrial Revolution, or, more recently, The Great Reset.
In a section titled “A story about metaverse identity” the WEF offers a vision of one future:
Morning sun filters through the blinds as future-you rises from bed. Your virtual assistant, sensing you’re awake, runs your pre-scripted morning wake-up routine. The companion authenticates you – not just from a password but from your unique voice pattern. Once you are verified, it runs the routine you’ve requested and reads out both your personal schedule and your work calendar; then, it prioritizes, summarizes and shares messages that were sent to your work email overnight. This morning’s read-out puts you in the right mindset to tackle an early meeting in the office.
While prepping for your day, you put on your smart glasses, and they display a message from your mother. You consent to opening the messages, and rather than her text showing, her digital avatar (a close likeness to her real self) appears beside you in AR, relaying the message about a change in dinner plans. Using your smart mirror – and AI filters to make you more presentable so early in the morning – you send a video reply. Meanwhile, your virtual assistant updates your itinerary for the evening and schedules an autonomous vehicle to pick you up after work to drive you to dinner.
Throughout your day at the office, your smart glasses serve a dual purpose. They bring the work-from-home employees into the meeting room to improve accessibility. Additionally, when you speak with colleagues, real-time data overlays provide context – real-time subtitles, recent emails exchanged, upcoming shared events or even mutual contacts – aiding in smoother communication. All this is made possible because your co-workers have given tiered permission access as part of their professional digital identities.
While this sci-fi future may sound exciting and harmless, the reality is much darker. As we have highlighted in previous reports on The Great Reset, the WEF has been promoting the idea of the 4th Industrial Revolution for years. The 4IR was first announced in 2016 by WEF Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab.
It is in this potential future that the WEF says we will all be using autonomous vehicles (as opposed to personally owning a vehicle); robot assistants powered by Artificial Intelligence; drone delivery of food and other items; and using virtual headsets, contact lenses, or implants where we interact with augmented, virtual, and so-called extended reality systems. All of this would be powered by 5G and 6G networks.
Of course, what the WEF leaves out is that the creation of this alleged utopia will involve the loss of privacy, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, and, ultimately, individual liberty.
Not only does the WEF and their ilk assume that the people of the world want to live in a “blended reality”, but the push towards this digitization and tokenization of the physical world is likely to have the effect of further separating humanity from our physical reality.
At one point the report acknowledges that “unfettered augmentation” may “incidentally promote reality dysmorphia and/or depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR)”. It notes that research on DPDR has shown feelings of detachment in VR, with the technology blurring the lines between objective reality and virtual reality.
“Some individuals might find it difficult to integrate their online persona(s) with their real-world self, leading to struggles in self-perception and understanding,” the report warns. “Virtual environments might further reinforce or aggravate existing feelings of unreality, contributing to a cycle that further entrenches the disorder.”
Without a hint of irony, the WEF report also suggests that pushing people further into the digital world with the creation of a metaverse identity is a “means of crafting digital belonging and presence”.
The WEF says a metaverse identity “extends beyond a tangible human to include digital entities”, such as simple text-based chatbots to complex, human-like avatars and photo-realistic digital doppelgangers, or digital replicas. The WEF claims that a “metaverse identity connects and anchors a person to the physical and virtual world”.
Digital Identity is Central to the Metaverse Digital Dystopia
About half way through the report it becomes clear that at least one goal of the document is to further the push for digital identity programs. The WEF report makes it clear that the virtual world is yet another area where the public can be encouraged to participate in digital ID systems and the overall digitization of humanity. The WEF says a metaverse identity “highlights that the movement of a person’s identity – across digital and physical spaces – makes identity central to the future of the blended world”.
As TLAV has extensively reported, there is a concerted effort to corral the world into digital ID systems by groups like the Better Identity Coalition, the Thales Group, the European Union, and the United Nations. These systems are promoted under the guise of helping the “unbanked” of the world, speeding up healthcare, protecting the environment, or simply as a means for entertainment and convenience. However, the use of digital ID’s stored in digital wallets with digital money controlled by governments or corporations will be the end of privacy as we know it.
The report also discusses what they call the “identification gap”, which they describe as the “number of individuals who do not have a form of ID”. The WEF claims this ID gap is an important reminder that as “society progresses into the digital era” efforts should be made to be “inclusive and mindful of those who, by choice or circumstance, remain outside the formal bounds of identification”.
Still, although they appear to acknowledge that not everyone is going to be interested in a digital metaverse identity, the report notes that, “Metaverse identity is integral to future internet interactions”. They also note that the choice to opt out of digital identities could “negatively influence social mobility in physical worlds, given the reliance economies have on digital platforms”. This could be an admission that while the metaverse and a blended reality might be optional and voluntary in the beginning, over time the technology could become vital for everyday life just as smart phones and credit cards have become for billions of people.
The WEF also notes that whether or not you want a metaverse identity, you may have already left behind a “collection of digital crumbs that accumulate to form a metaverse identity”. The WEF claims that because the metaverse is “an extension of and an evolution of today’s internet” anyone can have a metaverse identity composed of “a photo, a Facebook profile, a Reddit account, a picture, an IP address, a gamer tag, digital wallet address” etc.
Inferred Data About Your Real Physical Life
The World Economic Forum also makes it clear that their vision of the metaverse identity is connected to an individual’s actions in the physical world.
“Metaverse identity extends beyond possessing an avatar and encompasses an individual’s behaviours, preferences, movements, actions and decisions made in digital realms – whether they be AR, VR, MR, 2D webpages or something else,” the report states.”Given this potential traceability between an individual’s identity in the digital world and their “real-life” identity in the physical world, stakeholders should consider the tension between privacy, safety, regulation, and individual identity choices.”
The report says metaverse identity will go beyond traditional ID, and extend “into the intricacies of an individual’s behaviours, actions and choices”. The report notes that the way an individual speaks, including unique tonal inflexions or cultural idioms, or a person’s “distinctive movements” will “offer insights into their background and upbringing”. The WEF says these attributes can generate what is known as “inferred data”, which derives insights by using pattern recognition within data.
The WEF acknowledges that when combined with AI or machine learning this “sophisticated analytical process” can examine “seemingly unrelated behaviours, actions and choices” to draw meaningful conclusions about a person’s preferences, background and, even, intentions. The report points out that a 2020 study suggests that five minutes of VR tracking data can produce “information that can identify a user out of a pool of 511 people with an accuracy of 95.3%”.
It’s not hard to imagine a situation where governments, corporations, or insurance companies pay for access to this “inferred data” only to use it against a citizen, client, or potential customer.
The report itself states that this data could be used to decipher a person’s “real-world identity or preferences” and used for “targeted advertising or other purposes without their consent”. It states that governments might use inferred data for “surveillance, monitoring dissidents or suppressing certain groups without their active consent”.
Further, the report says this “level of data aggregation and data processing of identifiers and quasi-identifiers” may allow profiling people in “ways individuals did not intend or anticipate when onboarding to environments or experiences”.
The History of the Metaverse
The term metaverse was originally coined in the popular science fiction novel Snow Crash. In Snow Crash, the main character, Hiro Protagonist, exists in a futuristic landscape where people hop in and out of the alternative universes made up of augmented reality and virtual reality.
While Snow Crash isn’t the first or the only novel to imagine an alternative reality where humans use technology to interact with a virtual world and the physical world augmented with heads up displays, Snow Crash was the first one to use the term Metaverse. From Snow Crash:
“So Hiro’s not actually here at all. He’s in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. In the lingo, this imaginary place is known as the Metaverse. Hiro spends a lot of time in the Metaverse.”
Despite the utopian promises from the WEF and Meta (formerly Facebook) executives, there have been numerous critics of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to shift the public from actual reality to a simulated virtual reality. Tom Valovic at CounterPunch described the Metaverse plans in the following way:
“I want to be careful not to mince words in describing what this technology coup is really all about: nothing less than an attempt to fabricate an alternate “reality” other than the physical one we now inhabit. This new reality can be accessed, of course, only by paying customers and those in a position to afford and understand it. It is a technology designed by elites and for elites and implicitly leaves behind much of humanity in its wake.”
“The metaverse appears to be part of a larger effort to implement technocratic governance and dovetails nicely with the agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This organization is the official mouthpiece of the billionaire class.
The first wave of transhumanism’s new invasiveness will come with so called wearable devices i.e., headbands, virtual reality glasses, body attachments, skin implants, and others. The next phase will be an attempt to physically wire our bodies into an electronic alternate reality where privacy and individual autonomy will be nonexistent.”
Valovic is correct in his estimation of the WEF vision. For the billionaire class and their puppet organizations, including the WEF and the United Nations, the Metaverse offers up the potential to commandeer all life into digital prisons where the people can be charged for services and products in the digital realm. Also, the public will likely be fed the narrative that being in the Metaverse is better for the planet, or that there are no viruses to fear in the Metaverse. Of course, the potential for a digital virus to infect the hardware and software of the Metaverse — as well as the minds jacked in — is more than a little terrifying.
With the understanding of the true plans and intentions of those driving humanity towards theMetaverse, it’s not hard to imagine a world which reflects something akin to the 2009 Hollywood film, Surrogates. In the film, Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent investigating a death involving a surrogate, humanoid avatars that people choose to live in rather than their own bodies. While in Surrogates the avatar is an alternative physical being, in the Metaverse the avatar is a digital being. Regardless, the end result is that most people choose to live in their Surrogates rather than in their real human bodies. Is this what we will see with the Metaverse? Time will tell.
If the Technocrats have their way, we will have a physical world made up of smart cities where you will own nothing and be happy, with privacy and individuality a thing of the past. The smart cities could potentially lock people in their homes and shutdown essential services during Climate Lockdowns or flare ups of the latest COVID variant. Meanwhile, in your smart home you could ignore the problems of the physical world by wearing goggles, contact lenses, or, eventually, an implant that plugs you direct into the metaverse. With the people of the world safely tucked into their digital beds, the Technocrats could complete their total takeover of natural resources, the economy, and humanity itself.
“…to address the topic of “identity” to ensure an inclusive, equitable, accessible, secure and privacy-preserving metaverse,” the report states”
Privacy preserving?? Lol, damn, just damn the idiocy!