The metaverse was first introduced in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash over thirty years ago, and the book continues to serve as its basic blueprint. Stephenson’s rendering of the metaverse as a persistent, immersive, networked environment that extends or even replaces reality has been taken up as an imagined endpoint for the next phase of life online.

The underlying technology stack, centred on VR goggles, can be found faithfully reproduced in the research and development roadmaps of contemporary industry. As a set of technologies, and as a set of ideas, the metaverse continues to evolve and take on different forms, but its foundations have long been laid in the popular imagination.

Maia and Ellen's work is the beginning of a different type of exploration into the consequences of this imaginary unfolding: one focused on the pathways by which the metaverse is being defined and developed – through fiction, through history, and through the levers of decision-making in the present. Their goal, in making present discourse on the metaverse legible in the context of story and history, is to offer pathways to consider a safer, more responsible, and more sustainable metaverse for the future.

About the speakers

Maia Gould is a leader within the new School of Cybernetics at the ANU, looking at technology adoption from a human and earth lens. Maia loves working at the intersection between disciplines. After studying arts and science at university 20 years ago, she trained and worked as a science writer and has since held a variety of strategy, research, communications and business development roles. She holds a Master of Bioethics focused on emerging science and technology and has worked with some of Australia’s largest professional service firms and managed social research on issues such as mental health and corporate social responsibility. Maia is passionate about helping ideas and people find their place in a noisy, complex world, and manages a diverse team at the School of Cybernetics.

Ellen O’Brien is a researcher at the ANU’s School of Cybernetics. Her focus is in emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, and complex systems research. She pursues projects and opportunities that shape systems change within sectors such as Health, Government and the cultural sector. Throughout her work at the ANU she has been part of several key strategic initiatives for the University, helping to build the University’s first Innovation Institute and to establish the School of Cybernetics — the first new disciplinary school of this century at the ANU.

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This seminar presentation is a dual-delivery event. Registration is only required for Zoom attendance; registration for in-person attendance is not required as neither the ANU nor ACT Health conduct contact tracing any longer.

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Image credit: Image of a metaverse festival by Duncan Rawlinson – Duncan.co from flickr, free to use under CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED licence.