Poster, Pre Class 3/2 Ann

I found that there were many things in this article I would be able to blog about but I chose a quote on page 539 on the subject of virtual reality. Poster argues that, “… the duplication [of virtual reality] incurs an alteration: virtual realities are fanciful imaginings that, in their difference from reality, evoke play and discovery, instituting a new level of imagination.” Poster talks about how the internet creates a new world that didn’t exist prior to the existence of the internet. This is the world of virtual reality. Virtual reality can put its user in a world without them physically being there. There are differences however between the real world and this virtual world. Poster’s thoughts on the virtual world can be related to Walter Benjamin’s ideas in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Benjamin looks at how the use of technology in the reproduction of art causes a difference between the original and the reproduction. By reproducing a piece of art the ora of the artwork is lost. Only the original piece of artwork still upholds authenticity. It seems that Poster is trying to argue a similar case about the real world and the world of virtual reality. He says the virtual world differs from the real world in the sense that the user needs a sense of imagination to be evoked in the world of virtual reality. The participant in the world of virtual reality is not experiences the same ora that he or she would experience if he or she were being emerged in the real world. Poster goes on to talk about how the involvement in video games, a form of virtual reality, may affect its participants. This reminds me of an article we looked at in CMC 200 on ludology, or the study of video games. The article talked about how the gamers emergence into this virtual world may affect the gamers perception of reality. Being constantly exposed to violence in video games may cause the user to be more likely to be violent in real life and see violence as acceptable. I think Poster would agree that the virtual world may give those who are involved in it a skewed sense of reality.