Metaverse and national security in the face of the challenges of hybrid conflict
THE TERM Metaverse was used by Neal Stephenson in 1982 in his novel Snow Crash. In this novel, Neal Stephenson narrates human characters who are able to escape from the world of reality to the world of the metaverse.
Then in 2010, Palmer Lucky an 18 -year -old businessman successfully created a prototype of the first Virtual Reality device known as the Oculus Rift VR. In 2014, Facebook managed to own the Oculus VR with a value of US $ 2 billion and subsequently became the trigger for the earliest Metaverse revolution.
Metaverse is an internet -connected virtual reality space developed using computer technology to produce a 3 Dimensional digital world. In the Metaverse, it is expected that in the next 15 years, most humanitarian activities such as communication, social interaction, sports, education, employment, business, parties and creativity can be done virtually.
Even today, there is already making the metaverse as a place to watch YouTube, surf social media, do virtual sports activities. In addition, there are already local universities opening digital libraries in the metaverse.
According to Wong (2022), a study by Milieu in December 2021 involving 1,000 Malaysian respondents showed 65 percent of our people said Metaverse was an advancement in human social interaction and 58 percent of respondents said Metaverse could be a facility that improves their social opportunities.
Mileva (2022) reports that, expected in 2024, the Metaverse world will be worth US $ 800 billion. Meanwhile, the market for Metaverse equipment will roughly reach US $ 300 billion by 2024.
Four well -known Metaverse platforms developed by world giants are Meta Metaverse, Microsoft Metaverse, Google Metaverse and Apple Metaverse are expected to be the choice of many users.
To interact into this world of Metaverse, users need support equipment. Among the support equipment needed are Project Cambria, HP Reverb G2, Valve Index, Sony Play Station VR, Oculus Quest 2, HoloLens 2 and many more brands and designs for your choice.
In excitement we anticipate the development of the Metaverse. There are issues in the world of the Metaverse that are expected to be challenges to national security. Firstly, research on Metaverse and its implications for national security is still low and secondly, currently the syllabus on Metaverse as a form of immersive media is still and has not received widespread attention in Malaysia.
According to Timmy Shen, a journalist from Frokast, a study by China’s Institute of Contemporary International Relations entitled “Metaverse and National Security” reported that Metaverse will grow over the next five to 10 years and the expected risks include technological hegemony, information security and technology issues. -society issues.
Whereas according to an Italian politician, Fabio Vanorio (2022) says that disruption in the metaverse will be even more destructive. According to him, unauthentic information has become clearer and more interesting. While the daily experience of individuals in the Metaverse will get more attention than official information such as news.
In addition, from the aspect of national security, several aspects of Metaverse have been identified for further discussion among them is the digital identity crisis where in the future, to what extent Artificial Intelligence technology is able to mimic our identity using existing data? How do we make sure an Avatar in the Metaverse is a real individual and not an Avatar from a fake account?
Next up is how did the Metaverse become a hotbed of groups like Heresy, and terrorist groups? As well as other issues such as law enforcement in the Metaverse world.
A group of researchers from the Center for Innovation, Technology and Anti-Terrorism Education from Omaha, USA said that, online terrorist recruitment activities have been going on for a long time and in the Metaverse world, these recruitment activities will grow as a result of the ease of interacting with other Metaverse users.
Therefore, security design must be considered to curb new channels of ideology and terrorist activities in the next 10 to 15 years in line with the maturity of Metaverse technology.
Today there is the term “Metaverse Warfare” or Metaverse Warfare. Bill Gertz (2022) reports the Chinese military saying that Metaverse Warfare is a new benchmark in Cognitive Warfare. China defines Cognitive Warfare as a combination of unmanned technological systems equipped with Artificial Intelligence to produce a new form of warfare capabilities.
In addition, the Chinese military also reported, the next strategy is to attack the enemy Metaverse, it is able to affect the thinking ability, cognitive and decision -making process of the enemy.
In conclusion, the rise of Metaverse and public acceptance of Metaverse technology is inevitable. As a result, the implications of Metaverse on the aspect of national security are also undeniably due to several factors that have been discussed above. Next, what is the government’s preparation in facing this Metaverse wave?
Among the aspects of the role of government that are seen to have an impact on the use of Metaverse are from the aspect of education and the involvement of relevant government agencies into the world of Metaverse.
Maybe even one day, this Metaverse will become part of the system of government. Kieron Allen (2022) in his article titled A Metaverse of Nations: Why Governments are Making Big Moves into the Metaverse reported, South Korea was the first country in the world to invest US $ 186.7 million for a government-regulated Metaverse ecosystem stimulation package them.
With the existence of government dominance in Metaverse, in the future employees may only need to come to virtual offices in Metaverse to attend meetings or other discussions.
Geographical problems can be reduced and online operations can be implemented through virtual teleportation activities. Even online meeting activities already exist such as the use of Google Meet and even Webex. However, in the future Metaverse era, the 3D digital world will be more pervasive than the 2D technology we use now.
Whatever it is, we, society, community, government and the private sector need to be prepared to adapt to the upcoming Metaverse technology as the possibility of it becoming one of the parts of the human way of life will become a new reality and hence the challenges of hybrid conflict that require a framework of approaches that comprehensive.
* Authors are:
1. Ahmad Sauffiyan Hasan is a media nerve warfare analyst and a former Media and Propaganda Research Fellow at the School of Media and Information Psychology, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
2. Muhammad Hafiz Abdul Rahim is a Civil Servant in the National Security Council, Prime Minister’s Department.
** The writing of this article is the view of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Astro AWANI editorial board.
References
1. Allen, K. (2022). A Metaverse of Nations: Why Governments are Making Big Moves into the Metaverse. https://accelerationeconomy.com/metaverse/a-metaverse-of-nations-why-governments-are-making-big-moves-into-the-metaverse/
2. Gertz, B. (2022). China preps for ‘metaverse warfare’ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/13/china-preps-metaverse-warfare/
3. Mileva, G. (2022). 50+ Metaverse Statistics | Market Size & Growth (2022). https://influencermarketinghub.com/metaverse-stats/
4. Shen, T. (2021). Metaverse could impact national security, Chinese state-owned think tank says. https://forkast.news/headlines/metaverse-national-security-china-think-tank/
5. Vanorio, F. (2022). Metaverse and National Security. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/metaverse-national-security-fabio-vanorio/
6. Wong, D.J. (2022) Survey shows most Southeast Asians excited about experiencing the metaverse. https://sea.mashable.com/tech/18940/survey-shows-most-southeast-asians-excited-about-experiencing-the-metaverse
source – Ahmad Sauffiyan Abu Hasan, Muhammad Hafiz Abdul Rahim
