New book · Yellow Press, 2026
Empathy Machines
The Use of Virtual Reality in Advancing Human Rights
By Ryan X D'Souza and Alexander M Gross
ISBN 978-1-917990-06-6
About the book
Can technology make us care again?
We can now witness distant suffering in real time. Yet mass atrocities have rarely seemed so frequent, so visible and so hard to stop. Empathy Machines asks how virtual reality can restore presence and moral engagement in an age of distraction, and turn awareness of suffering into action.
Drawing on a decade of atrocity-prevention work, the book uses Nobody's Listening as its main case study. The authors are frank about the limits: VR cannot prosecute perpetrators or rebuild communities. What it can offer is a rare space where survivors are heard directly.
Three parts
- Towards the Precipice. How human rights grew from natural law into today's international system, and why that system now faces a crisis of effectiveness.
- Ideal Presence. Our empathy deficit, shaped by economic disruption, polarisation and digital media, and how immersive technology can deepen or ease it.
- Nobody's Listening. How a VR experience on the Yazidi genocide moved parliamentarians, students and diplomats from awareness to action, and what the evidence shows.
Praise
What readers say
"Thoughtful, timely, and convincing, Empathy Machines offers a powerful vision of virtual reality's potential to reaffirm our shared humanity."
Dr Jeremy MaronCurator, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
"Empathy Machines presents an urgent and compelling case for the role of virtual reality in human rights advocacy."
Dr Shiraz MaherReader in Non-State Actors, Department of War Studies, King's College London
"Ryan X D'Souza is a pioneer in the field of virtual reality in human rights education… Curators, educators, and activists will all find something useful – and inspiring – from this book."
David SimonDirector, Genocide Studies Program, Yale University
"Ryan and Alexander's book reminds us that technology can create the empathy and human connection that drives a commitment to the humanity of others."
Iain LevineHuman rights expert, formerly Meta human rights team, Human Rights Watch and UNICEF
"Empathy Machines engagingly reveals how we can better promote human rights, connect communities, and inspire a new generation of global activists."
Simon AdamsFormer President, Center for Victims of Torture
The authors
Ryan X D'Souza
A human rights practitioner and the founder of Upstream XR. He created Nobody's Listening and has worked on atrocity prevention at the UN, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Full bio →
Alexander M Gross
A writer and teacher in London, with a PhD in English Language and Literature. He wrote Over the Line, a history of the England v Germany football rivalry, and has written for the Nobody's Listening campaign since its early days, including transcribing survivors' accounts.
Launch events, talks and media
For review copies, interviews, launch events or to book Ryan as a speaker, get in touch.