Iva Georgieva

With the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more countries are implementing large-scale technology-based tracking measures to monitor and prevent the propagation of the virus across the population. Yet, despite important efforts made by governments in terms of development and media campaigns, these technology-based tracking applications are globally failing to get the adhesion of the population. Indeed, the social acceptability of these technologies is problematic, since these applications are perceived as presenting a risk on individual liberties, resulting in very low levels of trust from the population. The aim of this paper is thus to analyze how technology-based tracking in the context of a pandemic can answer the needs and requirements of social accountability. We will first describe what kind of technological means can be used in a pandemic management context, from Internet control to implanted devices. We will then present some of the key factors that can impact the social acceptability of technological tracking, as well as some of the long-term challenges associated with massive technological tracking of the population. Finally, we will propose an operational framework to conceptualize social acceptability enforcement and to optimize population adhesion to these measures via specific practical actions that can be undertaken by governments, policymakers, decision leaders, and application developers to ensure that technological tracking is not only socially accepted, but also socially acceptable.

Our access to computer-generated worlds changes the way we feel, how we think, and how we solve problems. In this review, we explore the utility of different types of virtual reality, immersive or non-immersive, for providing controllable, safe environments that enable individual training, neurorehabilitation, or even replacement of lost functions. The neurobiological effects of virtual reality on neuronal plasticity have been shown to result in increased cortical gray matter volumes, higher concentration of electroencephalographic beta-waves, and enhanced cognitive performance. Clinical application of virtual reality is aided by innovative brain-computer interfaces, which allow direct tapping into the electric activity generated by different brain cortical areas for precise voluntary control of connected robotic devices. Virtual reality is also valuable to healthy individuals as a narrative medium for redesigning their individual stories in an integrative process of self-improvement and personal development. Future upgrades of virtual reality-based technologies promise to help humans transcend the limitations of their biological bodies and augment their capacity to mold physical reality to better meet the needs of a globalized world.

Advances in virtual reality present opportunities to relive experiences in an immersive medium that can change the way we perceive our life stories, potentially shaping our realities for the better. This paper studies the role of virtual reality as a tool for the creation of stories with the concept of the self as a narrator and the life of the self as a storyline. The basis of the study is the philosophical notion of the self-narrative as an explanatory story of the events in one’s life that constitutes the notion of one’s self. This application is suitable for cases when individuals need to recreate their self, such as during recovery after traumatic events. The analysis of the effects of virtual reality shows that it enables a person to engage in a process of deeper self-observation to understand and explain adverse events and to give meaning to these events to form a new story, which can complement the therapeutic outcomes of exposure treatments. This study proposes concrete examples of immersive scenarios used to reconstruct personal stories. Several possible levels of experience are proposed to suggest that recovery can be achieved through the gradual retelling of the self-narrative, addressing all of the underlying narratives. Considering the ethical challenges that might arise, this paper explores the ways in which immersion in virtual reality can benefit a person’s view toward life as a story and his or her self as its author, comparing this idea with previous research on the application of virtual reality for trauma treatment. The analysis also emphasizes the perception of narrative authorship in virtual reality as an essential method for recovering the self-narrative and improving a patient’s mental health during self-actualization.