Digital Sensations
I found this book really confusing, and I didn't even read it! Kudos to Elif for doing such a good presentation. It sounds so difficult to grasp, that I don't really want to read it unless I could give it my undivided attention. Virtual reality is an interesting topic, but even the words themselves cause a lot of thought. Virtual reality. Virtual reality. Almost real? A simulation of real? What is real? Digital Sensations (a sexy title) states that VR is as useful as it is a new way to perceive “the real.” I really didn’t understand the whole metaphor of light and positioning viewers in the light, other than the idea that VR requires light to work. Virtual environments seem real, but I doubt that they will ever be considered really real because people know that they are not. Everyone knows that when they enter a virtual environment that it is not real. I’m not sure that people who interact with VR really want a “vehicle for merging a hyper-individuated modern consciousness into a larger whole” but maybe they want to learn how to fly planes or play games. To me, VR seems more a place for action than being. Perhaps if I knew more about the applications of VR then I would agree more with the author. Oh, and the definition of Human Geography: “The relationships between people, place, space, and the environment” (Nottingham Trent Univ.)
posted by SB | BS at
10:20 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks a lot for your complement for my presentation, Shan-Estelle. Yes, I think the book was a little hard, or, at least, for me, it was not that easy to grasp the ideas and present them in a very clear way. I tried to do my best.
I promise to give a more entertaining presentation on my next book, which seems like a very interesting sci-fi: Idoru by William Gibson.
See you in the class:)
By
Dr. Guler, At
November 7, 2004 at 4:18 PM
By the way, about the metaphor of light, according to what I understood, Hillis was talking about three different periods that "the idea of light" has gone through. First one, "being in the light" was the period when people were in the light, that probably meant under the sun as the main source of light. The second one, "being into the light" is the period people learnt how to produce light, could manipulate it, and could look into it. The last one is the modern period that corresponds to the period of virtual reality, when the people are "in and out of the light." For example, with the Head-Mounted Devices, people felt both under the light and could look into it. Hope I could provide some illumination, although still confusing:))
By
Dr. Guler, At
November 7, 2004 at 4:30 PM
Third comment: sorry about the misuse of a word in the first comment. I actually intented to thank for the "compliment":)
By
Dr. Guler, At
November 7, 2004 at 4:33 PM
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