Virtual culture, future and business blogger Wayne Porter pointed me to the presentation of internationally celebrated inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil at the Game Developers Conference. He tells us (as I’ve said before in 2 earlier postings how games show Virtual Worlds the way): “The games industry fits in well with the acceleration of progress; in no other industry do you feel that more than games”. By the year 2033 “blood cell-size devices [...] can go inside our bodies and keep us healthy and inside our brain and expand our intelligence [...and...] produce full immersion virtual reality from inside the nervous system”. (Source: BBC)
The full immersion will make it clear “In virtual worlds we do real romance, real learning, real business. Virtual reality is real reality.” And this is the part I’ve been thinking about as well. Ray’s prediction is based on this immersive technology, very much a technical approach to the problem of Virtual Reality integration and acceptance, and even a philosophical debate about the definition of reality. However, about 2 weeks ago I found a great Dutch blogging article (titled ‘Virtual Reality is just Real‘) about the perception of the word ‘Virtual’ and I think is/should be the debate of the years directly ahead of us, as it will help the topic on how to define a ‘Virtual World’ - a term still used loosely for games, communities, even instant messaging.
The (mainstream marketing blog) article describes how the big media often depicts ‘Virtual’ along the lines of ‘fake’. Even Wikipedia still describes Virtual as “…that which is not real, but may display the full qualities of the real”. According to these media ‘virtual’ equals not real, not real equals fake, and the mainstream media doesn’t deal in fake, it reports of the real world. This is the circle Virtual Worlds are currently in, because without breaking this paradigm, the mainstream won’t be able to accept Virtual Worlds. (This is actually part of the reason why I am a big fan of the word ‘Metaverse’)
Virtual Conversations, Virtual Banking, Virtual Anything - The question Ray seems to answer is when are the masses going to wake up and see all the word ‘virtual’ means in the context of a ‘Virtual World’ is a digital translation of thoughts and actions rather than a physical translation of the very same, very real ideas. If it takes a fully immersed virtual experience to do so, it will probably be around 2033 - I’m hoping it will be sooner.
Posted on: February 29, 2008 | Share on:
Matt Simpson
said on February 29th
Nothing is virtual in an of itself. Something is only virtual, relative to something else. Credit is virtual money relative to real cash in the palm of your hand. Monopoly money is very real when you playing in the game.
Troy McLuhan
said on March 1st
@Matt - The “real cash” in the palm of your hand is just a bunch of cellulose, ink or plastic which doesn’t have much inherent value. The value comes from an agreement with other humans. If all other humans were to suddenly disappear, the “real cash” in your hand wouldn’t be worth much anymore.
Immersionism and Augmentation | Digado said on March 3rd
[...] These take-aways were still in the back of my mind but I didn’t consider them really ‘bloggable’ - however, my interested was piqued again this morning by a post written by Argent Bury - someone who I count as an Immersionist just to put her intelligent remarks on the topic in context (as my context is that of the Augmentist - even though the lines are blurring already after listening to Ray Kurzweil). [...]
Dogear Nation » Blog Archive » Dogear-Nation - Episode 42 - A Couple of Oxymorons said on March 7th
[...] 3D Internet Section: Virtual reality is Real Reality - Digado - http://digado.nl/virtual-reality-is-real-reality.html Ray Kurzwell at Ted- http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/38 Howard Rheingold - Way-New [...]
ryker
said on March 8th
aaah! What an excellent topic!!! With Virtual Reality, we are creating MORE reality. It’s another space in which we can share, and as the immersion level arises, so
does the quality of the experience. It is NOT a parallel reality but exists within our realm….at this point it is a sub-reality. However, it is conceivable that it can become ….ultra-real….So far we have two senses just sticking their foot in the door…….and hopefully for full immersion, in the future will require minimum and light accessories.(instead of the da vinci looking device in lawnmower man for example…. )
Rheta Shan
said on March 24th
Talking of reality is always an interesting thing, so I do find it pretty inconclusive by its very nature. But the linking of immersion and acceptance do in fact point to another concept, identity, which I’m more and more tending to think might be the key to the metaverse (more ramblings on the topic over here).
Oh, and I just can’t pass a mention of Kurzweil without sharing Kanomi Pikajuna’s congenial summary of the Kurzweil Singularity as the « Turing-test type moment when a self-aware Internet starts using you as porn, instead of the other way around » :)
Rheta Shan
said on March 24th
Gah, apologies for the typos : the first two sentences actually should read « Talking of reality is always an interesting thing, although I do find it pretty inconclusive by its very nature. But the linking of immersion and acceptance does in fact point to another concept… ». I think I need some Aspirine…
Rick van der Wal
said on March 24th
*hands aspirin*
“Turing-test type moment when a self-aware Internet starts using you as porn, instead of the other way around”
I love that quote by the way, reading your article now! :)
Dov Henis
said on February 28th
Life And Culture Are Virtual Realities
A. Relevant definitions of terms:
Real: not artificial or illusory, occurring or existing in actuality as a physical entity, having objective independent existence.
reality: the quality or state of being real, a real event, entity, or state of affairs, the totality of real things and events.
Virtual: being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted, hypothetical thing whose existence is inferred from apparently indirect evidence, existing within a virtual reality.
Virtual Reality: An artifactual environment, image, process or scenario conjured and experienced through sensory or neuronal stimuli and in which one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment.
B. Relevant definitions of Earth life:
Earth Life: 1. a format of temporarily constrained energy, retained in temporary constrained genetic energy packages in forms of genes, genomes and organisms 2. a real virtual affair that pops in and out of existence in its matrix, which is the energy constrained in Earth’s biosphere.
Earth organism: a temporary self-replicable constrained-energy genetic system that supports and maintains Earth’s biosphere by maintenance of genes.
Gene: a primal Earth’s organism. (1st, base, stratum organism)
Genome: a multigenes organism consisting of a cooperative commune of its member genes. (2nd stratum organism)
Cellular organisms: mono- or multi-celled earth organisms. (3rd stratum organism)
C. Relevant comprehensions of culture
- The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.
- The customary beliefs, social forms, set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices
and material traits of a group, and the characteristic features of its everyday existence.
- The totality of ways of the organisms’ dealing with (reaction to, manipulation of, exploitation of) its environment. A biological entity selected for survival of the genome as means of extending its exploitation capabilities of the out-of-cell circumstances, consequent to the earlier evolution and selection of the genome’s organ, its outermost cell membrane, for controlling the inside-of-cell genes’-commune environmental circumstances.
- The ubiqitous biological entity that drives Earth life evolution by imprinting genetics, by continuously modifying genes’ expressions.
D. Comprehension of “spiritual matters”
“Spiritual matters” are virtual reality affairs. They are feasible only for living organisms that have a culture, i.e. that have a pattern of sensings and reactions to the sensings. Genes, and therefore also genomes, are organisms and display virtual reality phenomena, therefore also multicelled organisms,including humans, display such “spiritual” phenomena.
E. Virtual reality and the 21st century world economy collapse
The 21st century world economy collapse is a collapse of a culture, of the 20th century technology culture, of its values and attitudes and ethics and morals. The world’s population is still (Feb 2009) clinging desperately to the collapsed concepts and expectations and makes a huge painful effort to revive the collapsed culture instead of to steadfastly modify it. It is sadly and exasperatingly obvious that the economy collapsed due to adherance to absurd virtual reality
concepts and expectations, and that the only hope to survive and overcome the collapse is to understand its nature and to plan and embark on a course to a new, science-based, more rational, virtual reality culture.
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
Life’s Manifest
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/112.page#578
EVOLUTION Beyond Darwin 200
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=405&#entry396201
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/100/122.page#1407