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The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

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Oxford University Press, Jul 22, 1993 - Computers - 208 pages
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.
  

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Contents

INFOMANIA
LOGIC AND INTUITION
HYPERTEXT HEAVEN
THOUGHT PROCESSING
HEIDEGGER AND McLUHAN THE COMPUTER AS COMPONENT
FROM INTERFACE TO CYBERSPACE
THE EROTIC ONTOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE
THE ESSENCE OF VR
VIRTUALREALITY CHECK
THE ELECTRONIC CAFÉ
USEFUL VOCABULARY FOR THE METAPHYSICS OF VIRTUAL REALITY
SELECTED READINGS
INDEX
Copyright

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References from web pages

nytimes
The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality By Michael Heim 175 pages. Oxford University Press. $21. Back in the momentous year of 1968, an image from Stanley ...
www.nytimes.com/ books/ 99/ 01/ 03/ specials/ heim-meta.html

Michael R. Heim: Essays, Books, Music, Links
Essays, books, links, and music by Michael R. Heim
www.mheim.com/

Notes on The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality.fm
Notes on The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, by Michael Heim. The computer is not simply a new tool to use, “but a whole new environment, an information ...
www.psychosensory.com/ docs/ notes-metaphysics-of-vr.pdf

hipbone: Hesse's Glass Bead Game, Heim's Virtual Reality
Glass Bead Games and the Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. From the "Useful Vocabulary" in Michael Heim's book, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, ...
home.earthlink.net/ ~hipbone/ Heim.html

Mediamatic.net - The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality
The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. ... The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. Geert Lovink; Book :. Cyberspace. First Steps. Michael Benedikt ...
www.mediamatic.net/ artefact-8079-en.html

Books: The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality
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 ...
www.doorsofperception.com/ books/ archives/ 2004/ 09/ The_Metaphysics_of_Virtual_Reality_.php

Metaphysics & Virtual Reality
from The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality by Michael Heim In an exploration the philosophical significance of cyberspace, we need to give an account of the ...
www.greenlloyd.com/ metaphysics.htm

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality | Digital Arts & Humanities
share and discuss ideas, promote your research and discover the digital arts and humanities
www.arts-humanities.net/ bibliography/ 741

Instructions for the Preparation of a
The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. [10] Koepsell, David R.(2000). The Ontology of Cyberspace. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court. ...
doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/ 10.1109/ VSMM.2001.969726

The Digital Cultures Project: Research Fellow Michael Heim
His next work, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (1993), asks how our increasing immersion in computer-generated worlds will alter the ways in which we ...
dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/ mheim.html

About the author (1993)

Michael Henry Heim was born in New York on January 21, 1943. He received an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in Slavic languages from Harvard University. He was fluent in Czech, French, German, Italian, Russian and Serbian/Croatian and possessed a reading knowledge of six more languages. He became a professor of Slavic languages at the University California at Los Angeles in 1972 and served as chairman of the Slavic languages department from 1999 to 2003. He was known for his translations of works by Gunter Grass, Milan Kundera, Thomas Mann and Anton Chekhov. He received numerous awards for his work including the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2005, the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation in 2009, and the PEN Translation Prize in 2010. He died from complications of melanoma on September 29, 2012 at the age of 69.

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