June 9, 2022

Re: Horizon Worlds, Virtual Sin, and Fyodor Dostoevsky

What is the Internet?

This may be the defining philosophical question of the next century. For some, it’s just a tool—a means of gathering information or acquiring things. But many view it as something bigger, perhaps even transcendent. Since the arrival of social media and smartphones, people have wondered if the Internet might be something sacred—a conduit to a kind of divinity, whether we call it “web3” or, for that matter, “God 2.0.” In 2009, to cite but one example, the so-called “Church of Google” was founded, contending that “Google is the closest thing to a ‘God’ that humans can know and understand. We worship Google, and we can prove not only does Google exist, but unlike any other god, it exists as we know it.”

Such sentiments may seem amusing, but they build on and amplify the increasingly popular concept of the “metaverse”—a vision of the Internet as a virtual world in which individuals can live, move, and have their being.¹ A pioneer in this trend was Second Life, a multimedia digital platform founded in 2003, whereby people interact with one another via 3D avatars. As technology has advanced, the possibilities opened up by Second Life have been augmented. Virtual reality headsets have vastly improved, led by the Oculus Rift and its successors, including the Oculus Quest 2, the latter of which appeared in 2020. Hence, over the last few years, Facebook has sought to develop a metaversal space accessed by the Oculus—an intention reflected in the social media giant’s decision to rebrand itself as Meta Platforms. According to Meta Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a free and open virtual reality represents the next frontier of human endeavor:

The metaverse, by its nature of not being limited by physical space, will bring a new level of creativity and open new opportunities for the next generation of creators and businesses to pursue their passions and create livelihoods. Creators and entrepreneurs will have more freedom to find a business model that works for them.

Zuckerberg’s dream took a major step forward with the 2021 launch of Horizon Worlds—a VR game creation system in which players use motion controllers to teleport through virtual space and to explore user-generated worlds via a miscellany of “portals.” In keeping with Zuckerberg’s conceptualization, Meta has marketed Horizon Worlds as a kind of digital paradise, in which avatars, shorn of their legs (and everything else below the waist), float freely amid exotic landscapes. They are are thus liberated to cultivate meaningful relationships and to enjoy new experiences, ostensibly without having to worry about physical vulnerability:

Yet, it didn’t take long for Horizon Worlds to run into trouble. As early as February 2022, it was reported that women were being harassed in Horizon Worlds. The charge was serious enough that Meta quickly added a “personal boundary system” to Horizon Worlds. Yet, this “protection” can be easily switched off, and, indeed, avatars often face pressure to do so. With that in mind, there is growing concern that children who illicitly enter Horizon Worlds may be groomed by sexual predators.² This concern was reinforced by a lengthy report just released by the digital watchdog SumOfUs. A researcher with the group has disclosed that she was virtually raped in Horizon Worlds. As one journalist summarizes:

The report linked to a video that the group says shows what happened to the researcher's avatar from her perspective. In the video, a male avatar is seen getting very close to her, while another male avatar stands nearby, watching. A bottle of what appears to be alcohol is then passed between the two avatars, per the 28-second video. Two male voices are heard making lewd comments in the video.

In a part of the video SumOfUs opted not to share but describe, the researcher "was led into a private room at a party where she was raped by a user who kept telling her to turn around so he could do it from behind while users outside the window could see—all while another user in the room watched and passed around a vodka bottle," per the report.

What’s more, this seems to be the proverbial tip of the iceberg, with additional complaints of virtual bullying, drug use, and violence. SumOfUs’ opinion on Horizon Worlds is thus straightforward: the platform is but “another cesspool of toxic content.”

When I encountered this news item, I immediately thought of a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky entitled “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (Son smeshnovo cheloveka, 1877). The story is written from the point of view of an anonymous narrator, who is contemplating suicide. A kind of doppelgänger to the “Underground Man” from Dostoevsky’s earlier novel Notes from Underground (Zapíski iz podpólʹya, 1864), this “Ridiculous Man” has lost all sense of meaning and purpose. In one distressing scene, he even finds himself unmoved by the sight of a suffering child. Later that night, while pondering whether or not to kill himself, the Ridiculous Man falls into a deep sleep—here Dostoevsky’s love of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) becomes evident—and wakes up in an alternate reality. He soon learns that he is in a utopia, where human beings live in perfect harmony with their Creator, with creation, and with each other. At last, he comes to see what true love looks like.

The only problem is that the Ridiculous Man himself is not of this world. He is anxious, bitter, and selfish—a sinner. Almost on accident, he begins to cast an unhappy influence on this Eden. People begin to doubt everything, and conflict emerges. There are struggles over political power. Harmony is exchanged for control. A new way of thinking emerges:

We have science, and by the means of it we shall find the truth and we shall arrive at it consciously. Knowledge is higher than feeling, the consciousness of life is higher than life. Science will give us wisdom, wisdom will reveal the laws, and the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness.

It is, indeed, a bleak vision of humanity. For Dostoevsky, there are no utopias, no virtual paradises. Wherever human beings go, sin is sure to follow, infecting every domain of human existence. Science seems to offer a way forward, but its success is partial and temporary—a simulacrum.

The comparison to Horizon Worlds is, I hope, fairly clear. If we take Zuckerberg at his word, Horizon Worlds is meant to be a digitally purified version of our current world. In a virtual space, there is no finitude, just infinitude; no necessity, just possibility. What, then, could possibly go wrong? But Dostoevsky reminds us that it’s not so easy. The wounds of sin run deep and cannot be transcended by science and technology. Thus the virtual abuse found on Horizon Worlds is hardly shocking. On the contrary, it is the all-too-predictable outcome of our fragile condition.

As mentioned, Horizon Worlds is now hoping to mitigate its problems with improved technological controls. Dostoevsky, however, suggests a different path. Paradoxically, when the Ridiculous Man awakens, he realizes that he has wasted his life on earth, that the problems of the world stem from sin—indeed, from his own sin—and that loving each and every person is the only answer. He realizes that, in the eyes of many, he will look like an idiot. But such criticism does not deter him. As he puts it:

The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted—you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times—but it has not formed part of our lives!

As the story ends, the Ridiculous Man has left his gloomy flat, where in the past he often has languished alone. Now he is out in the midst of the world, searching for the suffering child he once so coldly ignored.

1. Cf. Acts 17:28.

2. Officially, Horizon Worlds is limited to persons 18 years and older, though it is easy enough for children to sneak in through their parents’ VR headsets.