This weeks lecture was on virtual philosophy and virtual reality. The lecturer mentioned the 'Allegory of the Cave' by Plato, which was something I studied last semester. I never realized I could relate it to modern times.
This Cave could be compared to The Matrix, where humans believe they are living in reality and seeing things that are real, when really they are in the dark. Would we care if this happened to us? If the world was as bad as it is in the Matrix, I don't think I would want to be woken up!
In the lecture, we discussed how the 'real world' or how we perceive it are just electrical impulses in the brain. Perceptions are just as important as reality.
Virtual reality started with telegraph, a way to replicate real life conversation and words through sounds. Television shows and films are forms of virtual reality, replicating real people and real situations to make a totally different reality. Sometimes the people are made up, and sometimes they are not. When a filmmaker creates a film based on historical events, he or she creates their own virtual reality which viewers may take as fact. This can be seen in the 2004 film King Arthur, starring Keira Knightley. Many aspects of the film were made up, and I began to believe what I saw was the real legend of King Arthur.
Virtual reality in gaming comes in three forms: Desktop VR, Immersion VR, and Projection VR. Desktop VR is when the game on your computer is three dimensional, Immersion VR is when you wear a head piece that covers your eyes and you can see into the virtual reality, Projection VR is when something it "projected into extended space", like a hologram. The different forms of VR are used in a variety of areas including: entertainment, military training, and town planning. However there are some harmful side effects including simulation sickness, dizziness and eyestrain.
The lecture this week was complicated and slightly hard for me to get my head around, but the reference to Plato's 'Republic' helped clear things up a bit. We are all looking at the shadows reflected on the cave wall instead of turning towards reality and seeing the things making the shadows.
The Tute*Spark for this week was to describe and discuss Cyber Punk. Lauren directed us towards Wikipedia so get our information.
Cyber Punk works are works of fiction normally set in the near future, with protagonists resembling Robin Hood. Some people believe Cyber Punk stories are predicting the future of the Internet and technology as it develops further and could possible gain more control over our society. Popular examples of Cyber Punk fiction and films include: Oryx & Crake, 1984, The Terminator, Blade Runner, The Matrix and I Am Legend. In books like Oryx & Crake and 1984, parallels can already be seen in today's experiments and world (growing of organs for humans, propaganda radios in North Korea that can not be turned off, etc.). These stories are designed to get people to take action against things the government is doing now that could one day ruin our society. I never knew what Cyber Punk was, I always thought the movies and books I mentioned above were just weird science fiction movies. I think Oryx & Crake is one exception; after I read it I had so many questions about the future of earth.
That's pretty much everything I've thought regarding this weeks lecture and Tute*Spark.
Thanks,
Emily
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