Conclusion


'The ultimate VR is a philosophical experience, probably an experience of the sublime or awesome ..... the final point of a virtual world is to dissolve the constraints of the anchored world so we can lift anchor - not to drift aimlessly without point, but so we can explore anchorage in ever new places and, perhaps, find our way back to experience the most primitive and powerful alternative embedded in the question posed by Liebniz: "Why is there anything at all rather than nothing?" ' (1)

In a sense, the term "conclusion" is a misnomer - in laboratories, factory floors, board-rooms, the future is being mapped out as I write, as my words are read - on this basis, even before the dissertation was properly formed, it was to an extent out of date.

In any encounter with Virtual Reality, such as in this dissertation, the mere experience will have been worthwhile if it has at least tantalised: nobody can really predict what is going to happen; on a sheer conceptual level, the subject has been particle-bombarded with the hype of its own possibilities to the extent of risking critical mass. Now, technology is no longer the way forward. Technology has become mediator; steadying influence: Many of the discussed possibilities seem valid; it is a case of waiting for the hardware to catch up with the imagination, as academic and scientific interest steadily grows. Once initial enthusiasm has waned in the wake of technological advances which do not immediately gratify public expectation VR seems likely to become from one angle, another victim of 'Tomorrow's World' optimism, a saving grace, in fact. The period of media interest during 1991 now seems to have waned. But, 15-20 or more years from now, the hardware may come into being...

Perhaps, in the process, if it has not already done so, technology itself will become a self-sustaining, self-replicating organism bedded within the human organism; suckling as it succours, or seeking to emerge from its womb and claim its birthright. Where technology becomes convergent, where fields overlap, patterns begin to emerge more clearly and reactions are triggered with unpredictable outcomes.

What is promised is undeniably exciting, and offers much, including, maybe, a media-form that allows us to assimilate the relentless convergence of technology. However, it seems inevitable that for society, the development and implementation of these new facilities will initially be prompted primarily through violence as in the military; through hedonism; sensualism, big business - through gratification of the baser instincts. Should cyberspace become a reality, it may even prompt a backlash against the virtual world following its initial embrasure. The benefits for the future will surely still resemble those of the present as they generally seem to; in being skimmed from the crest of a vast, darker wave. Whether this all just turns out to be another periodic lap at the shore of Western life, else a wave that swamps the already intricate patterns inscribed in the sands, remains to be seen, but just as the efforts to create artificial intelligence emphasise the question of what is consciousness, it seems certain that these attempts to duplicate reality herald new methods of questioning reality itself.


References

(1) Heim, Michael, 1990, 'The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality', in 'VR - Theory, Practise, Promise', Meckler Publ, London, 1991, p. 33