RESEARCH
research papers 2015 - 2026
The Drake Equation provides a quantitative framework for estimating the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way by combining astrophysical, biological, and technological parameters. It operationalizes, in probabilistic terms, the qualitative challenge posed by the Fermi Paradox: the tension between the apparent plausibility of extraterrestrial intelligence and the persistent absence of evidence. However, existing formulations, burdened by anthropocentric biases, do not explicitly account for the ethical preferences or strategic choices of advanced civilizations regarding whether to initiate contact with anthropocentric and potentially aggressive societies such as ours. If Homo sapiens is not the normative manifestation of life in the universe but merely one possible outcome, an exopsychological and non-anthropocentric analytical approach becomes necessary, introducing a biocentric factor into the Drake Equation.
This article therefore proposes a “willingness-to-contact” factor as an additional parameter, distinguishing between the capacity to communicate and the intention to communicate. We formalize this factor, grounding it in existing hypotheses (e.g., non-interference and zoo models) as well as in biocentric perspectives from modern philosophy, and illustrate its implications through pessimistic, neutral, and optimistic scenarios. Integrating this parameter refines probability estimates for contact and offers a coherent path to reconcile non-zero anthropocentric expectations of communicative civilizations with the observed “Great Silence,” potentially addressing certain aspects of the Fermi Paradox while outlining directions for both empirical and theoretical development.
Although the article “Incorporating an Exopsychological Biocentric Contact-Willingness Factor into the Drake Equation” may appear to focus on refining SETI search strategies and addressing the Fermi paradox, reducing it to this objective alone would be misleading.
Rather, the framework is intended to invite critical reflection on the anthropocentric assumptions underlying human technological civilization and its ecological maturity. If intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, it is conceivable that a strongly anthropocentric species may not represent an ideal candidate for meaningful interspecies communication.
Conversely, if intelligent extraterrestrial life does not exist, this would suggest that life may be extraordinarily rare and perhaps confined to Earth. In such a scenario, even the smallest forms of terrestrial life should be regarded as remarkable outcomes of evolution and treated with profound respect, as living systems possess an intrinsic value beyond human judgment.
Media profoundly influence collective imaginaries and values, often reinforcing anthropocentric worldviews through recurring themes of urbanization, dystopia, and planetary colonization. Such narratives risk perpetuating exploitative attitudes toward nature by extending them beyond Earth. This study presents the Non-Anthropocentric Media Evaluation Questionnaire (NAMEQ), a tool for assessing how well media align with ecocentric principles. Applied to 138 popular films and video games, the analysis reveals a strong dominance of human-centered narratives. Although some works integrate ecocentric ideas, they remain fragmented and inconsistent. The study calls for a cultural shift toward media that recognize the intrinsic value of non-human life and promote truly biocentric perspectives.
Pais and Geslin (2024) - Manifesto for a Non-Anthropocentric Game Design.
The original text is in Portuguese.
This article presents a manifesto proposing a shift in game design through a non-anthropocentric approach that emphasizes the integration of non-human entities into sustainable design practices. The manifesto is connected to the philosophies and activities of the Center for Non-Anthropocentric Play, a newly established research laboratory in Norway.
It is structured around ten guiding principles, drawing on insights from philosophy, sociology, ecology, media studies, interactive design, and game design. Ultimately, the manifesto seeks to foster new non-anthropocentric social imaginaries, aiming to transform the perspectives of both designers and players.
The benefit of using digital twins is widely documented in the scientific literature and its use will grow exponentially with the advent of dyssynchronous Web 3.0 and Metaverses. However, to maintain the attractiveness of these systems and to guarantee their daily use, it is necessary to eliminate and prevent motion sickness. Studies report that 57.8% of virtual reality (VR) users have experienced motion sickness. This documented nausea is generally introduced involuntarily by cognitive inconsistencies in XR design, by simple ignorance of cognitive rules and scientific methodologies established for two decades now in VR research.
First, this chapter establishes the links between the cognitive mechanisms of manipulation, movement, and interaction in immersive VR and the production of motion sickness.
Then, the most recent technical and XR design solutions for avoiding motion sickness are presented. This chapter proposes UX design guidelines for the development of digital twins ready to be integrated into the vast potential of the Metaverse.
Geslin, E. et al (2020) - Bernardo Autonomous Emotional Agents Increase Perception of VR Stimuli
Video games are high emotional vectors. They play with the emotions of players by eliciting and increasing them. The importance of the induction of basic emotions has been a long forestay and is favoured by video game publishers, as they are quite easily mobilized. Video game publishers look to produce more complex social emotions like empathy, and compassion. In games framework with narrative context, designers frequently use cinema movies methods, like cinematic non-interactive Cutscenes. These methods temporarily exclude the player from interactivity to leave his first viewpoint view and move the camera focusing on the narrative stimuli. Cutscenes were used abundantly and are now rejected, the new development wave is often trying to develop in a “zero cinematic” way. For the same reason, cinematics are also not usable in new Virtual Reality. If VR games and simulations provides a high level of presence, VR environments needs certain rules related in particular to the continuation of free will and the avoidance of possible Break in Presence.
We propose in this paper a concept of Emotionally Intelligent Virtual Avatars, which when they perceive an important narrative stimulus, share their emotions through, gestures, facial nonverbal expressions, and declarative sentences to stimulate the player's attention. This will lead players to focus on the narrative stimuli. Our research studies the impact of the use of Bernardo Agents Emotional Avatars involving n = 51 users. The statistical analysis of the results shows a significant difference in the narrative perception of the stimuli and in Presence, correlated to the use of Agents Bernardo. Overall, our emotional Agent Bernardo is a unique concept for increasing the perception of narrative stimuli in virtual environments using HMD, and may be useful in all virtual environments using an emotional narrative process.
Classifying the many types of video games is difficult, as their genres and supports are different, but they all have in common that they seek the commitment of the player through exciting emotions and challenges. Since the income of the video game industry exceeds that of the film industry, the field of inducting emotions through video games and virtual environments is attracting more attention.
Our theory, widely supported by substantial literature, is that the chromatic stimuli intensity, brightness, and saturation of a video game environment produce an emotional effect on players. We have observed a correlation between the RGB additives color spaces, HSV, HSL, and HSI components of video game images, presented to n = 85 participants, and the emotional statements expressed in terms of arousal and valence, recovered in a subjective semantic questionnaire. Our results show a significant correlation between luminance, saturation, lightness, and the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, and serenity experienced by participants viewing 24 video game images.
We also show strong correlations between the colorimetric diversity, saliency volume, and stimuli conspicuity and the emotions expressed by the players. These results allow us to propose video game environment development methods in the form of a circumplex model. It is aimed at game designers for developing emotional color scripting.