This book describes how virtual reality is the culmination of a process that has been going on for some time in technology and for even longer in Western thought.
The chapters of book mirror the progression from digital to virtual reality. The first several chapters offer evidence of an ontological shift, looking at how our daily activities on digital computers shape our reading and searching through information.
The later chapters of this book explore the shift of ground, the move from digital to virtual reality.
This book handles very interesting way western philosophy and new technology, how this make a ground to the virtual reality. The basic philosophical question arises about this combination: What is existence? Heim tries to find some kind of answer about this question. The book is a little bit pragmatic, but still O.K.
SUMMARY BY: Jokke Rinne
PUBLISHING DATA: Heim Michael 1993. The metaphysics of virtual reality. Oxford university press.
KEYWORDS: Reality, ontology
CONCEPTS: Cyberspace, philosophy, interface, virtual reality
SOURCE: Library of MediaLab, UIAH
RECOMMENDATION: Heim is a freelance teacher. His other books are: Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of World Processing. 1987. Translation of Martin Heidegger, The Metaphysical Foundations of logic. 1984
DISCIPLINE: Philosophy.