Philosophy for a Society in this Day and Age of Virtual Reality :: Philosophy Philosophical essays

Philosophy for a Society in this Day and Age of Virtual Reality ABSTRACT: Virtual reality is more than only high tech. We encounter this phenomenon in everyday media worlds and economy. The sign dominates the signed. Philosophy can describe this phenomenon by means of a different ontological analysis following Poppers theory of the three worlds and can prepare new ontological categories for knowledge of acting. After twenty minutes the test person seems to be absent. With a cyberhelmet on his head he looks around the virtual room. Whereever he looks, he faces a computer landscape from every perspective. The hand in the cyberspace glove gropes for its way like in a vacuum space. But it touches the things which cross the way. The test person is located in the middle of a virtual world. In the room, where the computer is located, other people wait for the test. If the topic is virtual reality, scenes like described above are associated: High tech cyberspace on fast parallel comuters - if possible with a complete datasuit that allows to immerse almost completely into artificial worlds -, hovering through space, digital labyrinths and yet not built houses. But this examples only describes the tip of the iceberg. Under the watersurface of the extraordinary there is a wide ranging phenomenon of virtual realities: The economy with its big companies, transfers capital and networks dissolves to virtual entities. People get lost in entertainment in virtual landscapes and make friends via chatting. Scientists investigate phenomena of nature by reconstructed simulation and practicians design the future by a CAD program. People order pizza by internet, they flirt, make business, take journeys, join further education or talk with a coach. There is a virtualisation of the whole being. The classical differenciation between appearance and reality becomes blured. The simulation, in which people can walk around, is not fictive. It is not pure imagination, but something realized. It is reality although it is virtual. Economy makes it clear: Money and Capital are virtual entities. They determine our everyday life and they often decide about prosperity and poverty. The autonomy of virtual reality is even growing while gathering momentum. A computer simulation for example generates itself without external influence. That could be compared with numerous experiments with cellular machines (Herber P. Franke, Das P-Prinzip. Naturgesetzt im rechnenden Raum, Frankfurt am Main 1995). But also media worlds have their own dynamic. Tv world news and ezines do not only report, but create own realities.