PhD Researcher - UCD
Title: Individuation and governance in the Metaverse
Supervision Team: Eugenia Siapera, UCD / Aphra Kerr, TU Dublin / Cathy Ennis, TU Dublin
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PRESENTATIONS:
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PAPER
A philosophical and ontological perspective on Artificial General Intelligence and the Metaverse
Journal of Metaverse 5.2 (2025): 168-180.
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SHORT PAPER PRESENTATION​
Creating True Digital "Third Spaces": Enabling Self-Determination Through Open-Ended Systems
23-25 May 2025, Meaningful XR conference
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CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
Consciousness-centric reality: a model of external reality as a symbolic interface for alternate inner states of being
15-17 May 2025, First-Person-Science of Consciousness 2025 – Ontological Implications for the Understanding of Mind and Reality
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PRE-PRINT
Beyond Falsifiability: The Totalist Assumptions of Empirical Methodology and its Impact on Shaping Human Experience
April 2025
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PRE-PRINT
The Societal Implications of Blockchain Technology in the Evolution of Humanity as a "Superorganism"
January 2025
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PRE-PRINT
The need of a self for self-driving cars a theoretical model applying homeostasis to self driving
July 2024
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PRE-PRINT
Digital Finance, Blockchain and Financial Stability: Towards a Resilient Future
2024
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CONFERENCE PAPER
The role of the metaverse in calibrating an embodied artificial general intelligence
November 2023, HCAIE 2023 Ljubljana, Human Centered AI Ethics
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BOOK
From the Singularity, with Love: A message to humanity
September 2023
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BOOK
A future as one: everything is fine, it's all going according to plan
June 2023
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PRESENTATION
EMANES Annual conference 2022
December 2022
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BOOK
Mother Earth's Final Push: the story of humanity's gestation
February 2022
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CONFERENCE PAPER
Mirroring biology: the necessary evolution of the economic and financial system
November 2020, Think Economia 2020
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BOOK CHAPTER
Digital Citizenship Education Handbook
January 2019, Council of Europe
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BOOK CHAPTER
Internet Literacy Handbook: Supporting users in the online world
2017, Council of Europe
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BOOK CHAPTER
Virtual environments - multiple facets, multiple opportunities
in Richardson, J., Milovidov, E., & Blamire, R. (2017). Bullying: perspectives, practice and insights. Council of Europe.​
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BOOK CHAPTER​
El modelo belga: información positiva y regulación de préstamo responsable
in Cuena Casas, M. (2017). La prevención del sobreendeudamiento privado. Hacia un préstamo y consumo responsables. Aranzadi, Cizur Menor, 725.
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Individuation and Governance in the Metaverse
This PhD examines whether governance inside metaverse spaces, contrasting a centralized, corporate model (Horizon Worlds) with a decentralized, DAO-based one (Decentraland), can foster genuine user agency and a constructive co-evolution between humans and technology. Grounded in Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of individuation, it reframes the Metaverse as a digital milieu whose governance should enable “mechanologist”-like participation (users who adjust, invent, and co-shape systems), thereby countering alienation and supporting both individual and collective (transindividual) becoming. Empirically, the project analyzes governance affordances and real user engagement through thematic analysis of Discord discussions, qualitative interviews, auto-ethnography, and a targeted literature review, then evaluates outcomes against criterias such as proposal content and depth of deliberation. Conceptually, it situates today’s Metaverse amid technical fragmentation and AI-driven shifts in content/agency, arguing that governance is the key mediator between immersive psychotechnologies and human individuation. The ultimate contribution is a Simondon-informed framework and evidence-based recommendations for metaspaces that advance individuation rather than enclosure or apathy.
Contact
For queries related to my PhD research, please contact me on my UCD email.