From: kbystrom@u.washington.edu (Karl-Erik Bystrom) Subject: Re: SOC: ethics and vr? Date: 13 Oct 1995 22:12:25 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle From: kbystrom@u.washington.edu (Karl-Erik Bystrom) Jeff, This may sound like a flame...but jeez, I can't help but think that somebody here has been watching way too many movies. I dunno if you've worked with VR, but in case you haven't: IT'S REALLY HARD. There are enough things that you have to pay attention to just in order to get it to work in the first place that I can't imagine that VR professionals would actually go to the lengths to put subliminal messages into VR experiences. It would be cheaper and easier to just hire some guys with more muscles than morals to go break kneecaps until your chosen subjects did what you wanted them to. Regarding your specific questions: > The concern and my questions are. >1. Are subliminal messages being put into vr experiences? Not by me. Though frankly I'd be tempted to put in something like "You will raise my assistantship stipend...You will raise my assistantship stipend..." >2. If so who would do this I'll let you in on a secret: It's the Illuminati. >3. What are the content of these messages I think a better question for you to investigate is whether there's any point to putting subliminal messages into any medium in the first place. Admittedly, I haven't looked at the literature recently, but I seem to recall that in controlled experiments, subliminal messages had zero effect. >4. Comments on the ethics that surround this practice Okay: Subliminal messages are bad. So are the Illuminati. So are the Fungi from Yuggoth. But I don't believe that we have any real hard evidence on the malevolent effect of any of these. > I understand Do you mean this as "I believe" or "I have evidence"? >that many forms of media have subliminal messages including magazine >articles and tv commercials. According to some people, so do Ritz crackers. (One of Cecil Adams' "Straight Dope" books--I don't recall which one, unfortunately--has a rather entertaining entry on the topic of subliminal messages.) >We don't seem offended as the general public at these, Maybe 'cause we know better than to think that subliminal messages can control our lives? Sorry about the flamage...but seriously, I find it really hard to believe that anyone would put subliminal messages into virtual environments; I also find it hard to believe that such messages would have any effect. Karl "You will raise my assistantship stipend..." Bystrom