Embodying Metaverse as artificial life: At the intersection of media and 4E cognition theories
Open accessAbstract
In the last decades of the 20th century we have seen media theories and cognitive sciences grow, mature and reach their pinnacles by analysing, each from their own disciplinary perspective, two of the same core phenomena: that of media as the environment, transmitter and creator of stimuli, and that of embodied human mind as the stimuli receiver, interpreter, experiencer, and also how both are affected by each other. Even though treating a range of very similar problems and coming to similar conclusions, this still has not brought these two disciplines closer together or resulted in their interdisciplinary approach. They did coalesce in regards to traditional media such as film, but more points of connection are needed for untangling interactive and immersive media environments and their effects on human cognition, action, and perception. With the rise of VR and VR-like systems, especially as they start to evolve into the Metaverse as their main platform of interconnectivity, the tissue of the body becomes almost physically intertwined with that of the virtual surrounding it inhabits through immersion. Simultaneously, the interest in these disciplines arises anew, and especially the need to use their concepts in an interdisciplinary way. This paper?s main interest is to bring these disciplines together in problematising the position of a physical body and its sensory-motor capabilities and their development within synthetic surroundings as Metaverse and anticipate potential downsides of Metaverse?s uncontrolled growth. We will do so also by looking into Metaverse as an artificial-life-like phenomenon, following artificial-life rules and evolving a completely new ?corporeality?, a body which is completely adapted to virtual spaces. We call this body the Dry Body, an entity sharing cognitive resources with the physical body it is not a physical part of, but has to extend to.
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A key feature of immersive media is its capability to create a sense of presence.
“One of the key features of immersive media is its capability to create a sense of presence.”
From Metaverse as Medium: Understanding the Revival of McLuhan's Notion 'Medium is the Message' in the Emergent Virtual Reality Landscape (2024) · cites this paper as Uspenski & Guga, 2022
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Rashid, M., & Khan, M. (2024) · Journal of Communication and Cultural Trends · doi:10.32350/jcct.61.05 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Uspenski, I., & Guga, J.
- Affiliations
- Insights and Channel Planning, McCann, Germany
- University of Belgrade (RS)
- ORCID
- Guga, Jelena
- Venue
- Filozofija i drustvo
- Publisher
- National Library of Serbia
- Published
- 2022
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 326-345
- ISSN
- 0353-5738 (ISSN-L)
- 2334-8577
- OpenAlex
- W4285184606
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Filozofija i drustvo (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Repository of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (University of Belgrade, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnološkog Razvoja
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
- Keywords
- metaverse, artificial life, 4E cognition, embodied cognition, media theory, virtual reality, immersion, embodiment, virtual body
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