Humanity versus Virtual Reality
. . . Aiding this process was a definition of information, formalized by Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, that conceptualized information as an entity distinct from the substrates carrying it. From this formulation, it was a small step to think of information as a kind of bodiless fluid that could flow between different substrates without loss of meaning or form. Writing nearly four decades after Turing, Hans Moravec proposed that human identity is essentially an informational pattern rather than an embodied enaction.
—N. Katherine Hayles, "How We Became Posthuman"
William Wordsworth was well aware of the effect of technology upon human beings. Of course he would have been speculating had he tried to predict what life would be like in the 21st century; he could not have predicted the internet, for example. As one reads contemporary literature, particularly that which deals with virtual reality or the cyber-punk genre, one begins to see the ways in which Wordsworth's romantic thinking has infiltrated writers' and artists' perception of reality and the human mind. In Wordsworth's The Prelude (1805), Book Twelfth, the poem of primary interest in this essay, Wordsworth questions and contemplates the relationship of the external world with the human mind and perception, which becomes a question about the human soul. Virtual reality and Wordsworth's romanticism have this in common: they are interested in the relationship of the human being with his environment. Virtual reality involves the sensory stimuli of a person in an artificial environment. For Wordsworth, that which gives meaning to the human experience is the environment that is as real and as genuine as the person interacting within the...
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...tities. That which gives us the energy to live and continue creating a society in which we want to live comes from something much larger than science. Reason and logic fail in giving humanity's quest for meaning an answer that is satisfactory and complete. The truth is not compiled or realized with an ordered inquiry; scientists will never find an equation for love. People must look beyond logic in order to realize the extent and the meaning of life.
Works Cited
Hayles, Katherine N. Prologue. How We Became Posthuman. Chicago:
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Stephenson, Neal. The Diamond Age. Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1995.
Wordsworth, William. "Book Twelfth." The Prelude. 1805. The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850. Eds. Jonathan Wordsworth, M.H. Abrams, and Stephen Gill. New York: WW Norton & Company, 1979. 436-456.
Supernatural traditions was basically people in the “sixteenth and seventeenth centuries” (Dr.Heffner) who believed that the reason somebody was acting different was the doing of the devil, the supernatural tradition is also known as the “demonological method” (Dr.Heffner) during the stone age they would perform some type of surgery, where they would cut open the victim’s skull and drain the evil spirits out of there brain, “Ancient Chinese, Ancient Egyptians, and Hebrews, believed that these were evil demons or spirits and advocated exorcism” (Dr.Heffner) if after the exorcism the victim still did not show and improvements, the victim was then torture to leave them with a body that was no use for the evil
... be fostered. Nevertheless, current coordination is not bad as the MTA is the overall umbrella agency that has coordinated diverse emergency response organizations in the city of New York. For instance, during the time of the blackout, diverse stakeholders shared information although communication systems were weak. The impact of the blackout on the transportation sector and health of New York City was severe and key lessons can be learnt. Learning from past experience such as the blackout in 2003 has been attested by Volpe (2004) who indicates that experience would help improve future emergency response. This can also help design effective emergency policies and plans. Personnel had previously become familiar with each other through day-to-day operations and joint terrorism exercises. However, further research is recommended to expound more on this issue in detail.
In fact, the two concepts appear to unite into one from the beginning of the poem. For example, Wordsworth effortlessly writes “Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (Wordsworth lines 3-4). The inclusion of such details allows Wordsworth to warn his readers that they are lacking appreciation of what is truly essential in this world: God and nature-a strategy that yields multiple outcomes. Perhaps most importantly, the hearts we have given away to technology become prime factors in the story, ones that tend to be disconnected with reality. Emphasizing how human beings have lost sight of what is truly important disrupts the reader’s expectations, creating a feeling of restlessness and discomfort. This forces the reader to reflect on the degree to which they focus on technology and the extent to which they allow it to isolate them from the world and all its beauty’s. Though we may view technology as a positive advancement that makes our lives easier, the idea of giving our hearts away to it and permitting it to segregate us from the world is almost terrifying. Wordsworth capitalizes on this sensation of fear to achieve two goals-not only does it produce uncertainty that transports the reader throughout the poem, it also distortions the line between human beings and
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
vulnerable to the Devil’s blandishments. A lurid picture of the activities of witches emerged in the popular mind, including covens, or gatherings over which Satan presided; pacts with the Devil; flying broomsticks; and animal accomplices, or familiars. Although a few of these elements may represent leftovers of pre-Christian religion, the old religion probably did not persist in any organized form beyond the 14th century. The popular image of witchcraft, perhaps inspired by features of occultism or ceremonial magic as well as by theology concerning the Devil and his works of darkness, was given shape by the inflamed imagination of inquisitors and was confirmed by statements obtained under torture. The late medieval and early modern picture of diabolical witchcraft can be attributed to several causes. First, the church’s experience with such dissident religious movements as the Albigenses and Cathari, who believed in a radical dualism of good and evil, led to the belief that certain people had allied themselves with Satan.
The Christian belief of demonic forces has been present since the coming of Lucifer. The Christian views of demons involve the idea of possessions and provide answers to the evil actions that occur amongst the living. Although Christianity does not admit to the existence of demons...
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Abrams, M.H., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1993
Wordsworth, William. “The Thorn.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. 2B. Ed. David Damrosch, et al. New York: Longman, 1999. 319-325.
The constant struggle to explain the unexplainable is not a new concept. The world’s first civilizations including those of ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians practiced polytheism for this very reason. Gods and goddesses were created to honor all things that could not be explained logically. Everything from weather to illness was thought to be controlled by these deities. As civilizations shifted from practicing polytheism to monotheism, the belief in these good (God) versus evil (the devil) supernatural beings did not completely end. Anyone believed to be able to channel these beings was accused of witchcraft. Throughout the age of witchcraft and magic, people accepted the reality of only two kinds of magic: natural magic and demonic magic. “Natural magic was the manipulation of occult forces believed to exist in nature.” (Levack, 2013) Natural magic was thought to never have any contact with the devil. Demonic magic, however, was thought to be the calling of evil spirits to do harm onto others. (The West, 2014) People who practiced demonic magic usually were thought to be women. Even...
Wordsworth visualized scenes while he was away, a way for him to feel a spiritual connection until he was able to return. Wordsworth states, “As a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But opt, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them” (Wordsworth 25-27). Wordsworth gives a sense of conformity and loneliness while being in the towns and cities. That he had his memories of when he was younger to keep him hopeful to return to nature and all the memories he had grasped the memories of. As the society today focuses merely on what they can profit from cities, Wordsworth understood the true meaning of memories. Memories today are mostly captured through social media, and in return being taken for granted. Wordsworth had nostalgic bliss as he replayed his memories, and knowing that in the future he could look back on that day and have the same feeling again. Social media today is destroying our memories and what we can relive in our minds as memories. We can know that when things are posted within social media it will get likes and be shared. However, there are not many people in society today that will remember the true essence of what nature has given to
Virtual Reality has steadily progressed from where it originally started out. As technology started to grow so did new ideas ranging from the internet to Virtual Reality. These new never seen ideas started off as just a mere thought but slowly started to turn into a reality that could help humanity in a drastic way. The original Virtual Reality interface was the HDM unit that MIT and the University of Utah first developed back in the early sixties and seventies. Ivan Sutherland was mainly responsible for this Virtual Reality idea coming about but had help from cinematographer Morton Heilig. Morton created the first full surround multisensory machine that was called the sensorama which was developed back in 1960 and actually still works till
In Conclusion William Gibson created a cyberpunk/ postmodernism tale that has blurred not only the physical state between mechanics and human anatomy, but has as well blurred the line between the natural and virtual world. He is making the reader contemplate how both software and hardware have influenced the natural world. Gibson’s fictional world would have not been possible without the existence of software and hardware, that is why the distinction between them is very crucial and play a different part within the text. Without these two things, the reader would not be able to comprehend and relate to Gibson’s view on how our society is interlocking with the advances of technology and the normality of today will no longer exist in the future.
The general concept of ‘information’ is used in a confused manner. By some it is seen as something we distil from data in order to make decisions, and to a point this could be a true observation. By others it is seen in terms of the understanding that we gain from messages or the knowledge that one person communicates to another and the meanings we create and exchange.
Up until the Enlightenment, mankind lived under the notion that religion, moreover intelligent design, was most likely the only explanation for the existence of life. However, people’s faith in the church’s ideals and teachings began to wither with the emergence of scientific ideas that were daringly presented to the world by great minds including Galileo and Darwin. The actuality that there was more to how and why we exist, besides just having an all-powerful creator, began to interest the curious minds in society. Thus, science began to emerge as an alternative and/or supplement to religion for some. Science provided a more analytical view of the world we see while religion was based more upon human tradition/faith and the more metaphysical world we don’t necessarily see. Today science may come across as having more solid evidence and grounding than religion because of scientific data that provides a seemingly more detailed overview of life’s complexity. “Einstein once said that the only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible” (Polkinghorne, 62). Yet, we can still use theories and ideas from both, similar to Ian Barbour’s Dialouge and Integration models, to help us formulate an even more thorough concept of the universe using a human and religious perspective in addition to scientific data.