China Social Science Review

No.1, 2023

 

The Meta-Problems of the Metaverse: A Diagram of Critical Reflection

(Abstract)

 

He Bochao

 

A conclusive assessment of the intellectual debate on metaverse discourse since 2021 would need to address the meta-problems underlying these issues. From the meta-problems of extended intermediarism, postmodern rupture, the quest for equality, the critique of capital, existentialism and embodiment, we may be able to grasp the traditional logic underlying this fashionable concept; and these foundational questions provide a fundamental way of asking about the myriad of other phenomena and representations of the metaverse. By sorting through the various meta-problems, the immediate significance of the metaverse, as an important technological and cultural event, is that it allows us to rethink our theoretical horizons, to examine the boundaries of human existence, and to determine our future destiny.