Virtual Reality affects how we see ourselves and others. What if you had a tail? What if you were homeless? Researchers have something to say about it.
It is amazing what the human brain can do, and how quickly it can be fooled. “Livewired” by David Eagleman explore plasticity of the human brain in more detail, and touches on some of what you’re taking about re: adaptability following amputation, and rewiring connections even into our 30s and 40s. Although not permanent in the examples you’re sharing, maybe we also temporarily do that in VR...? Really interesting article.
I'll have to pick up the Eagleman book. I'm becoming more and more interested in the relationships of hand and head, gesture and utterance, tools and, well, our being. I'll be shifting a bit in toward those topics when the semester ends.
Ian is beginning to whip things around with moisture added. A few minutes ago, a tree fell in our front garden. A biggie that I've eyed for firewood. Won't have to use a chainsaw on that one. At least it didn't hit a building!
This is fascinating stuff!! Made me think of all those (rather controversial) articles a while back about how reading novels makes us all more empathetic. VR takes it to another level. Makes me wonder where all this is going. I can imagine a dystopian novel in which there is monthly government mandated VR empathy training.
Yes, except the dystopian novel would have very little teeth in the training mandate ... you'd likely not know it was training! Eeee.
The Stanford group -- might you have run across them? -- used a "narrative perspective-taking" instrument, too. Essentially short fiction. They did tip their hats to "books" by which I think they would have particularly thought of novels. The VR environment does deepen the connection to our inner lives, if for no other reason than it opens up "natural" interactions. We can look around, and if it's figured into the environment, reach out to grab or manipulate things in the VR environment. That kind of interaction cements a bond in ways that might compete with a particularly gripping novel.
Just off the top of my head, I wonder if the history of the novel (and I imagine there may be a sorta consensus on that) explored imaginative realms more freely in the beginning. Think Hypnatomachia Poliphili (how's that for a stab at spelling?). Probably too early to count as a novel ... but imaginative and extended and a way of exploring a technology new in its day.
I think we had a good week in my seminar, and we're well set up for our visitor next week. Fall Break coming up, and I think my students deserve it. They've chugged through their midterms this week.
It is amazing what the human brain can do, and how quickly it can be fooled. “Livewired” by David Eagleman explore plasticity of the human brain in more detail, and touches on some of what you’re taking about re: adaptability following amputation, and rewiring connections even into our 30s and 40s. Although not permanent in the examples you’re sharing, maybe we also temporarily do that in VR...? Really interesting article.
I'll have to pick up the Eagleman book. I'm becoming more and more interested in the relationships of hand and head, gesture and utterance, tools and, well, our being. I'll be shifting a bit in toward those topics when the semester ends.
Ian is beginning to whip things around with moisture added. A few minutes ago, a tree fell in our front garden. A biggie that I've eyed for firewood. Won't have to use a chainsaw on that one. At least it didn't hit a building!
This is fascinating stuff!! Made me think of all those (rather controversial) articles a while back about how reading novels makes us all more empathetic. VR takes it to another level. Makes me wonder where all this is going. I can imagine a dystopian novel in which there is monthly government mandated VR empathy training.
Yes, except the dystopian novel would have very little teeth in the training mandate ... you'd likely not know it was training! Eeee.
The Stanford group -- might you have run across them? -- used a "narrative perspective-taking" instrument, too. Essentially short fiction. They did tip their hats to "books" by which I think they would have particularly thought of novels. The VR environment does deepen the connection to our inner lives, if for no other reason than it opens up "natural" interactions. We can look around, and if it's figured into the environment, reach out to grab or manipulate things in the VR environment. That kind of interaction cements a bond in ways that might compete with a particularly gripping novel.
Just off the top of my head, I wonder if the history of the novel (and I imagine there may be a sorta consensus on that) explored imaginative realms more freely in the beginning. Think Hypnatomachia Poliphili (how's that for a stab at spelling?). Probably too early to count as a novel ... but imaginative and extended and a way of exploring a technology new in its day.
I think we had a good week in my seminar, and we're well set up for our visitor next week. Fall Break coming up, and I think my students deserve it. They've chugged through their midterms this week.