元宇宙:自由的乌托邦还是文化工业2.0?——从德国批判理论的视角来看

Metaverse:Utopia of Freedom or Culture Industry 2.0 from the Perspective of German Critical Theory

自2021年以来,元宇宙无疑是最热议的话题之一。目前关于元宇宙的定义众说纷纭、言人人殊,但学界与业界在一些元宇宙核心属性的界定上已达成共识。倘若不能对元宇宙道德、伦理、法制等人文精神层面的建设加以重视和监管,元宇宙便很可能成为资本与权力阶层控制和剥削大众的帮凶。具体来说,一方面资本与权力阶级很可能利用元宇宙制造出更加精准的虚假需求,从而使大众沉迷其中,变为“单向度的人”;另一方面,资本运作下的元宇宙很可能代替个人成为图式化运行的载体,为大众提供一个精心设计过的感知框架,从而剥夺大众的自由意志并瓦解大众的主体性。那么,曾被寄予厚望的所谓的“去中心化”不过是“再中心化”的预演,“永生”“自由”等响亮口号也不过是欺瞒话术,其背后是更为隐蔽的操纵和剥削手段。在此语境下,元宇宙最终将沦为文化工业2.0。

Since 2021,metaverse has undoubtedly been one of the most heated debated topics.At present,there are many different definitions of metaverse and different people’s words,but the academia and the industry have reached a consensus on the definition of some core attributes of metaverse.If we do not pay attention to and supervise the construction of the metaverse in terms of morality,ethics and legal system,the metaverse may become an accomplice of the capital and power class to control and exploit the public.Specifically,on the one hand,capital and the power class may use the metaverse to create more precise and false needs,so that the public can become addicted to it and become“one-way people”,on the other hand,the metaverse operated by capital may replace individuals as the carrier of schematic operation,providing the public with an elaborate perceptual framework,thus depriving the public of free will and dismantling their subjectivity.Then,the so-called“decentralization”that was once expected is just a preview of“recentralization”,and the loud slogans such as“immortality”and“freedom”are deceptive storytelling.Behind these slogans are more insidious means of manipulation and exploitation.In this context,the metaverse will eventually be reduced to cultural industry 2.0.