From: bew@brahms.udel.edu (Ben Williams) Subject: Re: PHIL: Escape into the artificial world (Was Re: SOC: Social Date: 11 Apr 92 22:40:34 GMT Organization: University of Delaware Well, first I want to thank everyone for responding to my little rant there. I must admit to sometimes giving in to the thrill of being able to lay my opinion before 100s (1000s? Ah, would you believe 7?:-) of people just to see what kind of responses it elicits. I apologize for the sexist, racist and culturalist (?) language. All I can say is I belong to every one of those groups, and have been railing against having been born into a cultural-mindset that is bent on self-destruction for practically all of my adult life. But hasn't the WEST been at the fore-front of turning the world into one big Disneyland. Haven't we always had this thing about the natural world being an enemy to be conquered and overcome, to be put under our control. Just as we had to conquer and bring under control the 'savages' that inhabited this continent before we came along. And haven't MEN been the prime movers of this policy. Maybe I am out of line here, but I think woman have always had a stronger connection to the earth and obviously a more maternal outlook. And I think much less inclined to go along with this usurpation of nature that we men have been a party to. I do regret including the 'White', but it is such a fitting color to give to a people who have such a lack of real humanity... But of course I shouldn't be generalizing, it is a very bad habit with me. And as my friend once said, 'all generalizations are false'. But the astute among you should have recognized immediately what is going on. When I say: Virtual Reality is the latest attempt of Western White man to turn away from the natural world into an artificial one, since he can't hack it with the former. HE has lost it and he is totally lost... what I really mean is: Virtual Reality is my latest attempt to turn away from the natural world into an artificial one, since I can't hack it with the former. I have lost it and I am totally lost... I am merely projecting my own feeling onto everyone else which I really have no right to do. Edward Wolpert suggests that by posting to the net, I am somehow taking part in a virtual environment. I couldn't agree more. Am I committing the acts I condemn? You bet! I am a product of western culture (or whatever I should call it - how about a distraction-based-addictive-compulsive-limited- attention-span-lifestyle?) as much as anyone. I would like to say that I don't really condemn Virtual Reality as a new tool. I can see the potential and I am sure I would be as excited by what I could personally do/experience with it as anyone else. For example, I have always been interested in invention, and I can see how this could be a fantastic way to try out ideas for anything before making a product (assuming it will ever be to such an advanced stage). The ease of trying out different design ideas in this way is mindboggling. And of course its medical uses. And loads of other uses I haven't even thought of. What I am objecting to is this use of VR as another 'reality' for living. And really I probably have nothing to worry about. I suspect VR will finally peter out into some dumb little appliance or something the way every new "great idea" we have turns out to do nothing but add more complexity to life and help screw up the natural environment in the process. Remember how the industrial revolution was gonna solve all our problems (well I have to admit it wasn't a totally bad thing :-)? Remember how computers would solve everything? What has me bothered is this almost religious view that I am seeing coming out of the VR crowd. I am saying this is just another extension of our drive to get away from it all. It (I am talking about this one aspect of VR) is just another ESCAPE. Yes, like painting or driving or watching movies or working or writing on the net. But what I would like to do, and I think other people should be doing, is instead of developing neat and keeno new ways to escape, they should be asking themselves: "Why do I find it necessary to escape? What am I trying to escape?" We have in place now a very rudimentary form of VR, and its called TV (another thing I'm bothered about VR is the way its proponents have a tendency to view everything through its own terminology, a definite indication of a religion). Am I the only one who is bothered by the fact the kids today spend (I don't know the figures) anywhere around 7 hours per day in front of a TV? When I was little we used to play in the woods and down by the creek. I had SOME relationship with nature. As my brother said, you don't seem to see kids doing this anymore. They are sitting in front of the BOOB tube, soaking in them CATHODE rays. Or maybe their taking drugs (same thing, really). Or maybe they're into the drugs of the 90's, the personal computer. Can you imagine the seductiveness of VR if it gets to the stage that people are projecting? Don't you find this a little scary? Do you for a moment believe that our commercial world will not take advantage of this new way to reach (and shape) its customers. As someone said, wouldn't I rather have Western White people down in the basement plugged into their VR machines than out in the real world screwing with the ecosystem - well, if you put it that way, yea maybe I would. But just imagine, if VR really goes to the limits it is capable of, we can all live in our own DisneyWorld right in our living rooms (or basements). We can have beautiful lanscapes and vistas with all kinds of beautiful trees and flowers and things we never even imagined. It will make the real world look like a dim boring old B&W photograph by comparison. Now lets say the kids really take to this new fantasyland. Don't you think they are gonna have a little trouble understanding why anyone would care if the last redwoods in the Pacific Northwest have been chopped down? I mean after all, the trees in their VR fantasyland are much prettier and much more available to view than those other dirty trees. But oh, you say, if we live in a VR world there will be no more need to cut down the trees. Umm, well maybe, but the point is we will have much less interest in what happens to trees or other species that might be on the edge of extinction, or just the REAL world in general. Ok, you are saying, VR is not capable of competing with the natural world. Well, TV is already doing pretty well, and its resolution ain't too good and it doesn't move with your body. The more we 'move' into these artificial worlds, the less we care about the rest of the world. Does anyone doubt this? Today, if you want to go into the city, you still have to see poor people, the homeless, the decay. We have some connection to it. But we continue to remove ourselves from it and it continues to decay. Does anyone think that television is something good and beneficial for society in general? Well I sure don't. I agree with the people who are saying "Kill Your Television." I managed to finally break away from this one addiction anyway after becoming so sickened by last year's Gulf War propaganda and the U.S. Government approved snuff films. Am I the only one who when he sees something as seductive as VR could become thinks, hey wait a minute. Isn't this almost satanic? Yes, yes, all those important new inventions (steam engine, cars, radio, TV) had their detractors who called them 'works of the devil'. Well, were they that far off? If someone from 100 years ago could see how we live today, what do you think they would think about it? Life is certainly more convenient, but have we not lost our moral underpinnings? (Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people today. Why do you suppose all these people are killing themselves? Did you ever think it might be somehow connected to the fact that so many of them got to grow up suckling a vacuum tube spewing out reams of banal commercial garbage into their developing minds. Thank god for the forerunners of VR for giving us these great distractions as we grew up, so we might not worry about more fundamental needs we may have been missing...) These inventions have all helped us in our attainment of progress. But what kind of progress? Just where are we progressing towards? I know its crazy for me to be criticizing a world I grew up in and is in my very being and probably couldn't live without. But hey, that's what I do... hehe... As we used to discuss years ago, if I told you I could take your brain and hook it up to a machine that would put you in eternal bliss, would you do it? Could there perhaps be a down side to this? Nahhhhh... As the woman said at the beginning of The Lawnmower Man, "Hmmm, floating, flying, or falling. What's next? Fucking?" I think she has a good point here. Mike Moore states: "Virtual reality has at its roots, the ability to provide humanity with a new form of entertainment, and entertainment in its broadest sense is the foundation of everything that we as human beings do." I think this is kindof the thing I am objecting to. Do you really think the reason we were put on this earth was to be entertained? I hereby submit the above quote to future archaeologists digging through the rubble of the Earth trying to figure out where we went wrong... As I said, as a tool, I think VR is great. But does anyone doubt that here in these United States that VR will not be used for other ends. That's the way things work here. If there exists a means of doing something, and there is no law against doing this thing, someone will use that means. But I do like what Jim Lai says: "But, hey, some people say you can find enlightenment anywhere." I hope those people are right... Ben. Ben Williams bew@brahms.udel.edu What we got here is a failure to communicate...