From: astearns@reed.edu (Alan Stearns)
Subject: Review of Rheingold's _Virtual_Reality_
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1991 23:49:10 GMT
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR



There was a review of _Virtual_Reality_ by Howard Rheingold in last week's
Time's Literary Supplement (London).  The reviewer was a person named Stuart
Sutherland, and the review was generally negative on both VR and Rheingold,
but apparently negative reviews are Sutherland's specialty, as there were a
few irate letters complaining about another Sutherland review in a previous
Supplement.  The review concentrates on presenting what VR is, and harps on
teledildonics, and generally isn't worth reading for those already conversant
with the technology.  Except for a point he makes near the end:

     [Virtual Reality] could, of course, undoubtedly provide a much wider range
     of experience than is available to most people.  One could see round the
     Villa Rotunda without the bore of travelling to Vicenza, thus removing
     the costs of having this experience, but there is massive evidence that
     the more time and trouble people expend to get something, the more they
     appreciate it.  If VR were widely available, people might withdraw from
     the real world, which cannot be switched off, and in which fear and 
     embarrassment can always be produced.  To these problems must be added
     the possible reduction in the ability to use the imagination.  One
     wonders whether in the long run this new technology will be the blessing
     Rheingold claims.

The second sentence actually contradicts the first, in that if we devalue eas-
ily gained experience, then it would make more sense to withdraw from virtual
reality, in order to strive for those difficult but more satisfying
experiences in the real world.  But I think the possibility of a dampening of
the imagination is possible, in a pie-in-the-sky scenario where we have cheap
and accesible VR and telepresence.  Take examples from earlier technologies:

Perhaps the telephone has stilted the imaginative use of earlier communication
technology.  Certainly since I can just dial up my friend and have a
conversation, composing letters has become a less-used skill.  And we all know
that the quality of writing goes down when we can just zip off some e-mail as
opposed to actually sitting down and writing and posting a letter by hand.
Even something as simple as penmanship deteriorates with the current
technological emphasis on keyboards.  Look at the handwriting of educated
people a century ago, and the scrawls people with the same education get by
with today.

So what, you might say.  Who needs good handwriting when typing is faster and
more legible for less effort?  Sure, we've gained some efficiency in
communication, but some of the artistry is lost. In terms of artistry, what
replaces calligraphy in the modern person's repertoire?  Sure, phone
conversations are speedier and easier to have, but can any phone call replace
a well-crafted letter?  If virtual reality technology bears fruit, an emphasis
on immediate, interactive communication may further dampen our imaginative use
of communicative acts where the interaction is between the creator and the
medium, such as writing, painting, and composing.  Perhaps their interactive
analogs of conversing, presenting, and singing are enough of a replacement, but
just as we are losing calligraphy, the new technology might mothball types of
artistry that we all currently enjoy and value. 


Alan Stearns
Reed College (once a den of calligraphers, now Macintoshed, with surprisingly
              few people interested in using the new tools for typographical
              experimentation)