Week 4: Personal Study on Cyberspace and Virtual Reality

Something most of us often forget in this digital age are how technology can change our health and mental state. The example I wish to discuss is that of virtual reality. Alternate World Syndrome (AWS) is a condition which with extended virtuality can lead to 'ruptures of the kinaesthetic from the visual senses of self-identity, a complaint we already know from simulator sickness and from high stress, techno-centered lifestyles' (Heim 1995). In essence this indicates that through continuous use of virtual environments human beings are capable of a type of 'body amnesia' in which the mind lags behind when switching between the virtual world and the real world. Michael Heim spent six hours inside a virtual experiment and recorded such effects as perceptual nausea and an illusory brightening of colours and movements. This merging of man and machine creates an unanticipated negative effect on the body and the mind.

So what does this mean for potential lovers of all things virtual? This technological lag or 'sickness' could be detrimental if such technology could be implanted into human beings. Virtual reality could be used as an escape to the extreme, an example would be an elderly user of Oculus Rift technology commenting that she would 'never leave after this'. While said mostly in jest how long do we have to wait before 'retirement' is the literal retirement of our human functions. This is an issue reflected upon in Blade Runner and one I may follow up in my essay.

Here is the video in which an Oculus Rift tester gives his grandmother a demonstration.

Heim, M 1995, 'The Design of Virtual Reality', in M Featherstone & R Burrows (eds), Cyberspace/Cyberpunk/Cyberbodies, Sage, London, pp. 65-68.