Responsible Avatar Design

The progression of Avatar technology promises a widespread positive impact. For example, Avatar technology can be paramount to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). This is achieved through a multitude of applications of Avatar technology including Reducing the need for transportation resulting in reduced emissions, no longer requiring people to be physically present in hazardous and dangerous situations and reducing the time caretakers have to spend travelling, thus increasing the time available to spend with patients as well as allowing family members to get in touch over larger geographical distances. This positive impact is desirable in our future society.

However, it cannot be taken for granted that good intentions create an only positive impact. This can also be seen in the report on Augmented Reality (AR) by the Rathenau Institute [1, p. 4]. Therefore, it is relevant to gain insight into the threats that can arise. Then, in this study the goal is to create an overview of the impact on society of Avatar technology in both opportunities – through the impact on specific (sub) SDG’s – as well as the threats (ethical concerns) that arise to reach the envisioned positive impact while avoiding the pitfalls.

During this assignment, a literature study will be performed on the applications of Avatar technology, people’s responses to (humanoid) robotics, specifically their acceptance of interacting with the technology in their personal environment. Moreover, the interaction between individual (sub) SDG’s will be investigated to gain insight in how these may support or contradict each other regarding the development of Avatar Technology. Furthermore, ethical concerns of future users will be studied, for example regarding dependency, security and privacy. Furthermore, various experts and end-users with different backgrounds will be contacted for discussion to gain insight into the perspective of society.

[1] D. Snijders, E. Masson, S. Doesborgh, R. Groothuizen, and R. van Est, “Nep echt - Verrijk de wereld met augmented reality,” Rathenau Instituut, Den Haag, 2020.