From: Chris Chesher <c.chesher@uts.edu.au>
Subject: Re: PHIL: Dreams and VR
Date: 22 Feb 1993 06:50:18 GMT
Organization: Uni of Technology, Sydney


In article <1m1sbhINNk0h@shelley.u.washington.edu> Jeff McAffer, 
jeff@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp writes:

>A fairly large portion of the population I know (including myself),
>feels that we simply get input from our senses and thus we,
>internally, determine reality.  Looking at it this way, all the
>extended brain (because the backend of some sensors do processing)
>needs is input.  We internally build our perceptions of what those
>inputs represent in "reality".  Therefore, "reality" is entirely and
>exclusively personal.

I agree with Jeff, here, with some qualification. When he says 
"exclusively personal" I would add that these perceptions are 
constructed personally in the context of a culture. What we 
believe is real is a result of culturally negotiated belief 
systems, and languages. 

The search for a transparent virtual reality is falsely based 
on an assumption that reality is one thing, external to each 
person's perception. Perception of reality is an active process. 
And it is sensitive to what languages that person understands. 

Language is more than a verbal construct. It is related to other 
kinds of language: symbols, signs, logical constructs, belief 
systems and traditions. It's actually quite hard to talk about 
these things because they are transparent to each person, and 
only become apparent in special contexts.

That's what makes virtual reality so interesting to me. It puts 
these questions of personal and cultural realities into the 
foreground. It breaks down the assumption that truth is one thing 
and that reality is defineable in essence and discoverable. 

Chris Chesher
UTS c.chesher@uts.edu.au
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