Photo source: HyacintheLuynes – CC BY-SA 3.0

When lost to climate disaster and environmental turmoil, where does an entire nation go? The story tells of movements of people, either induced by human agency or the environment, finding sanctuary and refuge in other terrains, or perishing outright.

In the case of the Pacific island state of Tuvalu, the answer is apparently digital or, as its officials prefer to call it, creating the Digital Nation. This particular entity, according to its governance, will operate on the increasingly fashionable idea of ​​the metaverse, a 3D virtual space marked by avatars of ourselves wandering around for immersive experiences.

This doesn’t sound particularly helpful to the flesh-and-blood refugees fleeing the flood, but that’s partly the point,…