How the true world finally became virtual reality

Continuum, 2011

Within Nietzsche's mythological system, the Apolline dream world of the stage action is married to the Dionysian world of the satyr-chorus: what is born is the tragedy as a reflection of real life. However, neither Dionysus nor Apollo suggests a flight from reality into an abstract ...

Chapter 2 from "The Surface and the Abyss," Walter de Gruyter.

Global Network for Digital Theology, 2022

On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg officially revealed the rebranding of Facebook to Meta. This publicity later launched Meta’s virtual reality world called Horizon Worlds. Virtual reality (VR) worlds have been a prominent movie genre ever since the trilogy of The Matrix (1999-2003)—plus, the latest The Matrix Resurrections (2021). To mention more, Ready Player One (2018), Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010), and recently, Free Guy (2021). The prominence of the VR/AR genre is also evident in Japanese Anime novel series like Sword Art Online (VRMMORPG) and Log Horizon (MMORPG). The idea of VR is a leap of vision from the physical world to a computer-generated world—an immersive and expansive simulated reality. Nowadays, several churches—even before the COVID pandemic—are already engaging in VR worlds. However, many are still cynical about the rationality of the “reality” of VR. Questions like, does being an avatar reduce the real experience of a person? Is VR community a class-A imitation of a face-to-face/on-site gathering? Is VR church, or doing VR ministry, partial Gnosticism—sometimes called excarnation or discarnation—as opposed to Christ’s incarnational act? These concerns need to be addressed. Consequently, the paper contends for a theological perspective of virtual realism for optimal church engagement. This theology of virtual realism is explored through philosophical investigations (mostly coming from David Chalmers’ view) of metaphysics, ontology, and psychology in the light of biblical principles. Moreover, the historical snapshot of VR and succinct definition are necessary for contextual clarity. Having a proper lens of a theology of virtual realism shapes a more intentional and purposeful engagement and involvement in the digital culture—specifically—the metaverse.

This paper proposes that the generation of successful virtual environments relies on better understanding of how we conceive virtual and physical realities in our consciousness. In particular, to recognise that our conception of these realities is more importance than our perception of them. The failure and success of certain virtual environments are explained as the failure and success of the application of these phenomena. Firstly, making use of philosophical phenomenology, our understanding of physical reality is considered in terms of phenomenal conception and it is shown that objective perception is only one part of our relationship to physical environments. Secondly, the other point of view is considered and virtual environments are argued to be just as valid phenomenal conceptions as their physical counterparts. Finally, the translation of phenomenal conceptions between realities is considered, providing a different way of considering how we think about and design all types of reality. Several interesting potential avenues of investigation are identified and examples of the emergence of this approach are presented.

andrew.cmu.edu

Reality as one of the most intrinsic matters of philosophy has been discussing from the Plato's Ideal world to the virtual environments of the cyber age. In a more speculative point of view, reality, had begun to extend within the invention of the alphabet. Alphabet and so the writing is a kind of extension of reality through the signs and metaphors. What forces the Lascaux's inhabitants to draw the walls of Lascaux shows an analogy within the people of the computer age who participate in computerbased communities. Whether it is a primitive drawing or hyper text of the digital age , the utmost relation between the human and his work should have similar relationship within the 'reality' of their time. But in a time when the reality is experiencing a division (or separation) at first within the language, it is difficult to cover the reality matter: The reality itself and the virtual reality as its extension. Should it be accepted easily as an extension or anything else? How can we approach to the reality which is not real but virtual? Reality that extends, transforms, evolutes is recalling the binary of the term non-real, fake or other synonyms. Virtual reality , as if stated within the traditional terminological approach, " is an event or entity that is real in effect but not in fact" 1 Human, as a part of the event or entity called virtual, experiences a paradoxical situation within the body he owns, and the time he realizes. The statement that every 'body' is a space and the spacing of the event makes the space matter a two fold important matter in the context of the reality which is virtual. From another point of view, Reality which is virtual is, according the forerunner of philosophical account , just a representation of the real world. Such an approach gives the chance to read the works 1 The definition of virtual reality taken from the Webster Dictionary.

Recent discussions in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind have defended a theory according to which we live in a virtual world akin to a computer simulation, generated by our brain. It is argued that our brain creates a model world from a variety of stimuli; this model is perceived as if it was external and perception-independent, even though it is neither of the two. The view of the mind, brain, and world, entailed by this theory (here called ‘‘virtual world theory’’) has some peculiar consequences which have rarely been explored in detail. This paper sets out virtual world theory (1.1) and relates it to various central philosophical problems (indirect realism (1.2), the role of the perceiver (1.3) and the problem of the existence of the external world (1.4)). The second part suggests three interpretations of virtual world theory, two familiar ones (a strong and a weak one, 2.1) and a somewhat less familiar one (the irrealist interpretation, 2.2). The remainder of the paper argues that the irrealist interpretation is the one we should adopt (2.3–2.6).

The problem of the existence or not of a reality, which outside the dimension of the intelligent subject, that is, the relationship of the subjectivity of conscience and the objectivity of the world, comprises an issue lending itself to a multiplicity of approaches and dimensions such as ontology, gnosology, psychology and metaphysics, neurophysiology and sociology. The questions posed and the answers given appear in philosophical and literary texts, scholarly studies and artistic creations, directly or indirectly linked to notions suck as “utopia” and “science fiction”, “temporality” and “reality”, “futurity” and “metaphysics”.

Die Gegenständlichkeit der Welt. Festschrift für Günter Figal zum 70. Geburtstag, eds. A. Egel et als (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019), 97-106., 2019

The essay explores the conspicuous absence of Nietzsche in the debate around the meaning of New realism, despite the fact that his phrase "there are no facts, only interpretations" is often quoted by the participants in these debates as a fixed formula for the correlationism that many of them claim to reject in favor of an affirmation of the real.. It argues that Nietzsche is not the precursor to a superficial post-modern denial of reality and facts, but that he has looked through and beyond the two alternatives from the outset

Philosophical Psychology, 2022

Even before David Chalmers' new book Reality+ hit the shelves, media outlets were showering it with praise, dubbing it a "mind-bending philosophical investigation" (The Guardian) and "the most alarming and thought-provoking book I've read in years" (The Times). Josh Glancy, at The Sunday Times, concluded that "Everyone should read this important book". Given the hype, I, like many others, eagerly awaited the arrival of my copy. When reading the book, though, the question I could not get out of my head was: who exactly is this book for? On the one hand, Reality+ is an engaging and fun (albeit rather fanciful) romp that introduces and updates traditional philosophical questions to those new to philosophy. On the other hand, Reality+ purports to found a new strand of philosophy which, in explicit homage to Patricia Churchland's Neurophilosophy, is branded Technophilosophy. In doing so (and bearing in mind that David Chalmers is one of the most well-known philosophers writing today), I think it fair to conclude that Chalmers' book calls for (and even seems to court) engagement not just from people interested in philosophy but academic philosophers-especially, one might think, from those working in philosophy of technology. But, as all authors know, the audience matters and how one rates Chalmers' book hinges almost entirely on who you take the audience to be.