The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

by Michael Heim

Computers have dramatically altered life in the late twentieth century. Today we can draw on worldwide computer links, speeding up communications by radio, newspapers, and television. Ideas fly back and forth and circle the globe at the speed of electricity. And just around the corner lurks
full-blown virtual reality, in which we will be able to immerse ourselves in a computer simulation not only of the actual physical world, but of any imagined world. As we begin to move in and out of a computer-generated world, Michael Heim asks, how will the way we perceive our world change?
In The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality , Heim considers this and other philosophical issues of the Information Age. With an eye for the dark as well as the bright side of computer technology, he explores the logical and historical origins of our computer-generated world and speculates about the
future direction of our computerized lives. He discusses such topics as the effect of word-processing on the English language (while word-processors have led to increased productivity, they have also led to physical hazards such as repetitive motion syndrome, which causes inflamed hand and arm
tendons). Heim looks into the new kind of literacy promised by Hypertext (technology which allows the user to link audio and video elements, the disadvantages including disorientation and cognitive overload). And he also probes the notion of virtual reality, "cyberspace"--the computer-simulated
environments that have captured the popular imagination and may ultimately change the way we define reality itself. Just as the definition of interface itself has evolved from the actual adaptor plug used to connect electronic circuits into human entry into a self-contained cyberspace, so too will
the notion of reality change with the current technological drive. Like the introduction of the automobile, the advent of virtual reality will change the whole context in which our knowledge and awareness of life are rooted. And along the way, Heim covers such intriguing topics as how computers have
altered our thought habits, how we will be able to distinguish virtual from real reality, and the appearance of virtual reality in popular culture (as in Star Trek's holodeck, William Gibson's Neuromancer , and Stephen King's Lawnmower Man ).
Vividly and entertainingly written, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality opens a window on a fascinating world that promises--or threatens--to become an integral part of everyday life in the 21st century. As Heim writes, not only do we face a breakthrough in the technology of computer interface,
but we face the challenge of knowing ourselves and determining how the technology should develop and ultimately affect the society in which it grows.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Virtual Reality

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 22, 1993

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

My expectations when I started reading this 1993 collection of essays/articles in 2017 were pretty low -I was only drawn to the book because I was intrigued by the inclusion of “metaphysics” in the title. I was in fact, pleasantly surprised to find that this book builds on some of Marshall McLuhan and Martin Heidegger’s intuitions, tenuously connecting both authors. According to Wikipedia:

[...Metaphysics seeks to answer two basic questions:
1. Ultimately, what is there?
2. What is it like?
Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to one another.

If McLuhan can be said to have studied the metaphysics of modern communication media (newspapers, radio, television) and Heidegger the metaphysics of technology, then this book sets out to question, in a popular style -if one can talk of popular style applied to metaphysics- the existence, properties and possibilities of being of virtual reality. In fact Heim, like McLuhan and Heim, is in fact more interested in how his subject of interest influences thought processes. Thus if a culture which depends on the written word or radio broadcasting or sound bytes shapes the mind in a different way from a culture which depends on an oral culture (see for example Neil Postman’s Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business, 1985) then what long-term effects do word processing, hypertext, telepresence, immersive computer simulations, or augmented reality have? What kind of logics underlie the worlds developed by virtual reality and how do these worlds interact, complement or contrast with the physical world or other mind worlds?

The book lightly touches on such points and attempts to show that virtual reality is the next step in a process that has been going on for quite some times in the Western world -in fact he traces its seeds as far back as Leibniz and even Plato. Proposing such connections is, at first glance, both amusing and surprising; the author is content to throw out such thought-provoking nuggets rather than study them in any depth -which is probably the right tack to take in a book clearly designed to whet the reader’s curiosity. For example, he claims Wagner’s “total works of art”, the Ring Cycle and especially Parsifal were early, -and very interesting attempts- at using virtual reality to transform individuals and through them society, or that Leibniz’ attempts to “mechanize the production of new ideas” based on royal academies as “group nodes for an international republic of letters, a universal network for problem solving”.

The first chapters can be seen as extending basic McLuhan to a world of information overload, computer searches, hyperlinked text and computer support for text outlining. Chapter 5, Heidegger and McLuhan: The Computer as Component, is a key chapter, as it argues against the idea of the computer as an artificial intelligence competing against man and for the idea of the computer as a component of the world we live in or even, as chapter 6 (From Interface to Cyberspace) suggests, the computer as our interface to reality.

Chapter 8 (The Essence of VR) is worth reading as one of the first identifications of seven key directions for virtual reality.

Heim strives hard to keep his writing buoyant and, like McLuhan before him, connect to popular culture -which explains why he relies so heavily on quotes and references to William Gibson’s 1980s science fiction novels Neuromancer(1984), Mona Lisa Overdrive(1988), and Count Zero(1986). There is also a fascinating aside on the important role Nicolai Fedorov’s philosophical ideas had as an inspiration for the Soviet Union’s space effort.

All in all, a curious book, which some readers could well dismiss as hopelessly shallow and trendish 1980-1990s pop-philosophy, but which I think deserves to be better appreciated as introductory reading to an important topic: the metaphysics of our growing computer/network-mediated and extended reality.

[Anthony O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off a bit pretentiously, ostentatiously quoting continental philosophers to try to give it a supposedly broader intellectual context. But then it settles down to a more down to earth discussion of the 'ontological' implications of all of these new 'virtual' technologies. Going back to printed text. Not without some merit. A few good ideas.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is still relevant to present-day tech-life.

[Samira Elytess · Rating 1 out of 5]

Title of the book should have been: What is Virtual Reality?
This book contains only 4 sentences in total on the Metaphysics of VR. The remaining of the book is just a filler with irrelevant BS information. I had to skim and skip through many pages to find a couple of interesting sentences pertaining to the metaphysics of VR in form of questions which the author doesn't try to answer and give his opinion (for example, on the first page of chapter 7 there are many questions he brings up but makes no attempt to answer them). Same approach is found in the book sporadically.

Note: I didn't give one star due to the contents being out dated given that the book was published in 1993 as that would not have been fair.
Save your time by reading another book.