Valdai Club to Discuss Post-Pandemic Virtual World
Online
List of speakers

On December 18, at 12:30 Moscow time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an online discussion, titled “How to Set Up a New Virtual World?”

The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the development of the virtual world. Today it exists alongside the more familiar world of offline communications. Literally the whole life of a person is reflected in the virtual space including online shops, cinemas, libraries and social networks, which can be used on condition of anonymity, hiding under an avatar and a fictitious name. All international developments also have a virtual component. The pandemic, the US presidential elections, the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the trade wars are just some of the examples we find in the digital space.

The world of new communications increasingly affects the real world and inevitably becomes one of the new threats. Online media and social networks have been transformed into tools for manipulating consciousness, the lack of reliable information is obvious. During the pandemic, the need to regulate the virtual space has increased, largely at the international level. The experts, including those of the Valdai Club, believe that the new virtual world needs institutions, associated with those that exist in the real space, for example, some sort of Internet citizenship and Internet taxes.

What is the threat posed by virtuality? Is it possible to reproduce the human communication institutions in the virtual world? Which of these institutions are needed in the first place? How will the virtual world change after the pandemic? The participants in the discussion will answer these and other questions.

Speakers: 

  • Igor Ashmanov, President of the Kribrum Public Company
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov, CEO, Orbita Capital Partners 
  • Lev Manovich, Professor of Computer Science at The Graduate Center, City University of New York
  • Alexander Polesitsky, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Radio 

Moderator: 

  • Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club. 

Working languages: Russian, English.

For accreditation, you must fill out the form on our website, indicate your personal mobile number and have the WhatsApp application installed. 

Please send questions for speakers to press@valdaiclub.com or via WhatsApp to the number: +79269307763. Be sure to include your name and title, as well as the name of the speaker to whom the question is being addressed. Questions will be asked during the Q&A session.

A link to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms used by the Valdai Club: on the website, on FacebookVkontakteInstagramTelegram, and Twitter.