1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

An Urgent Appeal: Safeguarding Humanity in the Age of Immersive Technologies I write with profound urgency regarding the existential threat posed by the rapid convergence of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and transhumanist technologies. While these innovations promise progress, they also risk undermining our social fabric, mental health, economic stability, and even the essence of human dignity. Key dangers include: • Neurological & Psychological Impact: VR and immersive tech can cause addiction, rewiring brains-especially in youth-leading to anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal. Custom digital experiences foster unrealistic expectations, eroding resilience and the ability to engage with real life. • Social Fragmentation: As individuals retreat into personalized digital worlds, families and communities weaken, shared reality dissolves, and empathy declines. This threatens the foundations of democracy and civil society. • Power Concentration: A handful of corporations now shape entire digital realities, wielding unprecedented influence over beliefs, behaviors, and even elections. Their control over data and algorithms raises grave concerns about privacy and accountability. • Economic Disruption: Automation and AI are eliminating jobs at rates that outpace retraining, widening inequality and risking social instability. • Transhumanist Risks: Enhancements may deepen inequality, commodify life, and create new forms of exclusion. Surveillance and coercion could make opting out impossible. • Security Threats: AI-driven cybercrime, deepfakes, and manipulation threaten national security and public trust. • Environmental Impact: VR hardware and data centers contribute to e-waste and carbon emissions. Given the risks, at minimum, technologies like AI and VR that remove the struggle and reality from human experience should be relegated to emergency use only-tools of last resort when no human alternative exists-or perhaps, in rare cases, for idle curiosity. Even these limited uses may prove too hazardous, considering the profound societal and psychological costs. Action framework: • Establish independent oversight and transparent regulation for immersive technologies. • Ban or strictly regulate AI sexbots, child simulations, and exploitative digital content. • Mandate clear privacy protections and algorithmic transparency. • Fund research into long-term neurological, psychological, and social impacts. • Support education, addiction prevention, and economic transition programs. • Promote international cooperation on ethical standards and human rights protections. This is a defining moment. We must ensure technology enhances-not replaces-human dignity, autonomy, and community. I urge you to act decisively for the future of our society and our humanity.