Open AccessA CRITICAL FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY: ALL WORK AND NO PLAY
Author(s) -
Marcus Carter,
Ben Egliston
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12152
Subject(s) - virtual reality , frontier , computer science , work (physics) , productivity , fantasy , context (archaeology) , analytics , human–computer interaction , data science , engineering , economics , political science , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , paleontology , biology , law , macroeconomics
Head-Mounted Virtual Reality (VR) is generally discussed as a gamingtechnology, but in this paper we argue for the greater need to take VR seriously as ageneral computing platform and future site for, and of, work. For Facebook (who hold adominant 39% share of the VR market) VR is not simply a gaming device but as a new frontierfor social media, framed by Zuckerberg as a “new kind of social computing platform”. In thispaper we report on our research that is examining the implications of VR as (1) a technologybeing introduced into workplaces; as (2) a possible site for existing forms of labour, intechnologies like Infinite Office; and as (3) a platform for transformed and new kinds oflabour, such as remote work via telepresence. We identify concerning issues of algorithmicdiscrimination, exascberated by a prevailing 'fantasy of perfect data' with VR, with seriousconsequences in the context of productivity tracking and analytics, and the furtherexpansion of the gig economy into new domains.