Critical Ethical and Societal Implications of the Metaverse (Paperback)

The rise of the metaverse, the convergence of virtual reality in a digital environment, marks a transformative shift in how humans work and socialize. As this technology rapidly continues to evolve, it brings not only groundbreaking possibilities but also profound ethical and societal challenges. From concerns about privacy, data ownership, and issues of addiction and psychological well-being. The metaverse forces us to reconsider ethics and values and whether it is more of a tool than a hindrance. The ethical and societal implications of the metaverse, urging proactive reflection and regulation to ensure this digital frontier develops in ways that benefit all of society. Critical Ethical and Societal Implications of the Metaverse explores the core technologies underpinning the metaverse, examining their role in creating immersive and interactive digital experiences. This book informs the development of responsible and inclusive metaverse technologies. Covering topics such as metaverse, ethics, and societal implications, this book is an excellent resource for researchers, academics, industry professionals, policymakers, regulators, and more.

Esraa Hassan was born in Kafrelsheikh, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt, in 1992. She received a B.Sc. Degree in Computer Science and a M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from Mansoura University, Egypt, in 2013 and 2018, respectively. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from Mansoura University, Egypt, in 2022. She is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. She has published many research articles in prestigious international conferences and reputable journals. She is also a reviewer for many journals. Her research interests include machine learning, deep learning, optimization, and bioinformatics

Abeer Saber was born in Damietta, Dumyat, Egypt, in 1992. She received the B.Sc. Degree in Computer Science and the M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from Mansoura University, Egypt, in 2013 and 2018, respectively. She is received the Ph.D. in computer science from Menoufia University, Egypt, in 2022. She is currently a Lecturer in information technology with the Faculty of Computers and Artificial intelligence, Damietta University, Egypt. She has published many research articles in prestigious international conferences and reputable journals. She is also a reviewer for many journals. Her current research interests include big data analysis, semantic web, linked open data, Optimization, machine learning, Deep learning, bioinformatics, and IoT.

Deepak Gupta is an eminent academician; plays versatile roles and responsibilities juggling between lectures, research, publications, consultancy, community service, PhD and post-doctorate supervision etc. With 16 years of rich expertise in teaching and two years in industry; he focuses on rational and practical learning. He has contributed massive literature in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Intelligent Data Analysis, Nature-Inspired Computing, Machine Learning and Soft Computing. He is working as Assistant Professor at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology (GGSIPU), Delhi, India. He has served as Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor, Associate Editor in SCI and various other reputed journals (IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley & MDPI). He has actively been an organizing end of various reputed international conferences. He is not only backed with a strong profile but his innovative ideas, research’s end-results and notion of implementation of technology in the medical field is by and large contributing to the society significantly. He has completed his Post-Doc from Internet of Things research group, National Institute of Telecommunications (Inatel), Brazil in 2018 and eHealth and Telemedicine Group (GTe), University of Valladolid (UVA), Spain in 2019, Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), Teresina - Pi, Brazil in 2021 and Ph.D. from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, India in 2017. He has authored/Edited 70 books with National/International level publisher (IEEE Press, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, CRC, DeGruyter). He has published 330 scientific research publications in reputed International Journals and Conferences including 213 SCI Indexed Journals of IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley and many more. He has also granted/published 8 patents. He is the recipient of 2021 IEEE System Council Best Paper Award and Highly Cited Paper Award in Applied Sciences Journal. He has been featured in the list of top 2% scientist/researcher database in the world in 2019, 2020, 2022 with Rank 51 in AI & Image Processing, Rank 423 in India overall and Rank 80604 in World overall. He has got a grant of Rs 1.31 CR from Department of Science and Technology against the Indo-Russian Joint call for project proposal on Multiscale modeling of deformation behavior of carbon fiber reinforced high-end thermoplastics as CO-PI. He is Associate Editor of Alexandria Engineering Journal (Elsevier), Computer & Electrical Engineering Journal (Elsevier), Expert Systems (Wiley), Intelligent Decision Technologies (IOS Press), Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Honorary Editor of ICSES Transactions on Image Processing and Pattern Recognition. He is also a series editor of “Biomedical Engineering” and “Computational Modeling for Existential Risks” at Academic Press, Elsevier, “Intelligent Biomedical Data Analysis” at De Gruyter, Germany, “Explainable AI (XAI) for Engineering Applications” and “Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Engineering and Management” at CRC Press and “Computational Intelligence for Data Analysis” at Bentham Science. He is appointed as Consulting Editor at Elsevier. He is also associated with various professional bodies like IEEE, ACM, ISTE, IAENG, IACSIT, SCIEI, ICSES, UACEE, Internet Society, SMEI, IAOP, and IAOIP. Invited as a Faculty Resource Person/Session Chair/Reviewer/TPC member in different FDP, conferences and journals. He is the convener and organizer of ‘DoSCI’ and “ICCCNet” springer conference series. He has also associated with a research based startup “Adroid Connectz”.

Tamer Emara holds a Ph.D. in Information and Communication Engineering from Shenzhen University, China, and is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence, Damietta University, Egypt. He earned his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from Mansoura and Tanta Universities, respectively. Dr. Emara has received numerous awards, including the Excellent Paper Award from the Big Data Mining and Analytics journal in 2021, the Outstanding Scientific Award from the Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology Kafrelsheikh, the Shenzhen Universiade International Scholarship, and recognition as the Outstanding Doctoral Student of Shenzhen University in 2016. Dr. Emara is actively engaged in the academic community, serving as Program Committee Chair for the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science, Technology, and Engineering (ICCSTE2025) in Wuhan, China, and as General Chair for the 2024 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Mechanical Engineering (ICAIME2024) in Nanjing, China. He also contributes as a member of the Technical Program Committee (TPC) and Organization Committees for various conferences and serves as a reviewer for multiple journals. Dr. Emara is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ACM. His research interests span big data management and applications, machine learning, distributed and parallel computing, bioinformatics, and IoT.