Q-AOS Symposium 2020: "Living with Infectious Diseases: What is a sustainable society after COVID-19 ?" Kyushu University September 3, 2020.

1. A World without Discrimination?: the Potential
and Limitations of VR technology and Online
Communication
Toru OGA
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law
Cultural Variation Cluster
toga@law.kyushu-u.ac.jp

2. Table of Contents
How has COVID -19 brought about Great Reset?
How can we respond to the changes technologically and socially?
2
1 Great Reset: Before and After COVID-19
2 VR as Expected Solutions
3 Roadmap

3. • “The Great Reset” is a commitment to jointly and urgently build the
foundations of our economic and social system for a more fair, sustainable
and resilient future.
• The global health crisis has laid bare the unsustainability of our old system
in terms of social cohesion, the lack of equal opportunities and inclusiveness.
Nor can we turn our backs on the evils of racism and discrimination.
• COVID-19 has accelerated our transition into the age of the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. We have to make sure that the new technologies in the digital,
biological and physical world remain human-centred and serve society as a
whole, providing everyone with fair access.
• We need a change of mindset, moving from short-term to long-term thinking,
moving from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder responsibility
(World Economic Forum 2020)
1 Great Reset: Before and After the COVID-19 3

4. Urbanization
Before COVID
1 Great Reset: Before and After the COVID-19 4
Sparse
Dense
Closed
Contact
Open
Non-Contact
Source: Ataka (2016, 2020)
Modified by the author
Capital
Goods
Manpower

5. Urbanization
Open
Sparse
After COVID
1 Great Reset: Before and After the COVID-19 5
Sparse
Dense
Closed
Contact
Open
Non-Contact
Source: Ataka (2016, 2020)
Modified by the author
Manpower
Data Technology
Open &
Sparse

6. 1 Great Reset: Before and After the COVID-19 6
Before Covid-19 After-Covid-19
Physical World
Open and Sparse
Physical World Virtual World Virtual World

7. Concepts of VR +α
2 Expected Solutions 7
Virtual Reality (VR)
create a virtual reality on a computer
Augmented Reality (AR)
reflect virtual reality on the physical world
+
Mixed Reality (MR)
impose virtual reality on the physical
world
+
Substitutional Reality (SR)
replace the images of the past on the
physical world
+
virtual reality
virtual physical
physical virtual
virtual images of the past

8. Web Conference VR Conference
2 Expected Solutions 8
NTT Data (2018)

9. “In the real world, we
form opinions through
prejudices given through
our bodies. But in VR, by
getting so many different
avatars, you can be a very
different person.”
2 Expected Solutions 9
Ivanovitch (2016)

10. Technology
Fairness Diversity
Online communication
Sense of Presence
Fair Access & Reducing Inequality Reducing Racism and Discrimination
2 Expected Solutions 10

11. 2 Expected Solutions 11
Key Theme
Technology × Diversity × Fairness
Disciplines
Informatics with HELPS
Humanities Economics
Law Politics Sociology
Technology
5G × VR
Society
Open × Sparse Partnership
Multi-stake holder approach
How technology guarantees fairness and diversity

12. COVID-19
Technological
changes
5G, VR
Social Changes
Open & Sparse
Diversity
Fairness
Now 2020
Short term 2020~22
Long 2025~30
Middle 2022~25
Harmonizing Technology, fairness and diversity
3 Road Map 12

13. • Technology guarantees quality of education
• Fairness guarantees access and equality
• Diversity reduces racism and discrimination
COVID-19 promotes Great Reset that
initiates technological and social changes
Discriminations in virtual world are generated by
that in physical world. Discriminations remained in
physical world, they are diffused and strengthened.
Conclusion 13

14. Ataka, Kazuto (2016) “Manpower, Data, Technology: Management
Resources in the Age of AI,” Nihon Keizai Shinbun, 2016.5.11.
Ataka, Kazuto (2016) “Future brought about by Open and Sparse,”
https://kaz-ataka.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/04/19/131331 2020.4.19
Ivanovitch, Alexandra (2016) “WIRED2016: Could VR 'solve' racism? Headsets
may be trialled as a way to undo bias in the police”
https://www.wired.co.uk/video/wired2016-could-vr-solve-racism
NTT Data (2018) “Virtual reality teleconferencing surpasses reality,”
https://www.nttdata.com/jp/ja/data-insight/2018/0723/ 2018.7.23
World Economic Forum (2020) “Great Reset”
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset
References 14