When Virtual Reality Hurts
India is a land where Shankara's Advaita philosophy was born. One of the main elements of this philosophy is that the world is "Maya".. "non existent in reality but experienced in imagination". The philosophy says that we experience pains and pleasures through imagination/hallucination. We do get a vindication of this theory in dreams and when we look at persons whom we consider "mad", who live in their own hallucinations all through the day.
Now, "Virtual Reality" is trying to create yet another avenue for people to experience what they imagine to be true. This explains why a game participant went to court claiming that his "Virtual Property" has been illegally confiscated by the "Virtual Government" (Refer "Learn to Unlearn", the first principle of "Cyber Jurisprudence). The creation of websites such as Hell.com to give the experience of how the experience at hell could be, (For a price) is a pointer in that direction. Many of the games which promote killing, violence and other aspects of life which is considered wrong is also an indicator of this mindset.
Where does this tendency lead to?.. is an interesting subject to explore.
Naavi
Vijayashankar
www.naavi.org
posted by Naavi @ 7:59 PM
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