"Rushkoff, Douglas - Cyberia" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rushkoff Douglas)

today's topic is the Colosseum in ancient Rome. She holds up a map of ancient Rome and
says, Let's go.'' The students fly over the skyline of the ancient city, following their teacher.
"Stay together now,'' she says, pointing out the Colosseum and explaining why it was
positioned across town from the Forum. The class lands at the main archway to the
Colosseum. Let's go inside ...'' You get the idea.
More amazing to VR enthusiasts is the technology's ability to provide access to places
the human body can't go, granting new perspectives on old problems much in the way that
systems math provides planners with new outlooks on currents that don't follow the
discovered patterns.
Warren Robinett, manager of the Head-Mounted Display Project at the University of
North Carolina, explains how the strength of VR is that it allows the user to experience the
inside of a cell, an anthill, or the shape of a galaxy:
Virtual reality will prove to be a more compelling fantasy world than Nintendo, but
even so, the real power of the head-mounted display is that it can help you perceive the real
world in ways that were previously impossible. To see the invisible, to travel at the speed of
light, to shrink yourself into microscopic worlds, to relive experiences--these are the powers
that the head-mounted display offers you. Though it sounds like science fiction today,
tomorrow it will seem as commonplace as talking on the telephone.''
One of these still fictional interface ideas is called wireheading.'' This is a new branch
of computer technology where designers envision creating hardware that wires the computer
directly to the brain. The user literally plugs wires into his own head, or has a microchip and
transmitter surgically implanted inside the skull. Most realistic visions of wireheading involve
as-yet univented biological engineering techniques where brain cells would be coaxed to link
themselves to computer chips, or where organic matter would be grafted onto computer chips
which could then be attached to a person's nerve endings. This "wetware,'' as science fiction
writers call it, would provide a direct, physical interface between a human nervous system on
one side, and computer hardware on the other. The computer technology for such an interface
is here; the understanding of the human nervous system is not.
Although Jaron Lanier's company is working on nerve chip'' that would communicate
directly with the brain, he's still convinced that the five senses provide the best avenues for
interface.
There's no difference between the brain and the sense organs. The body is a
continuity. Perception begins in the retina. Mind and body are one. You have this situation
where millions of years of evolution have created this creature. What is this creature aside
from the way it interfaces with the rest of creation? And how do you interface? Through the
sense organs! So the sense organs are almost a better defining point than any other spot in the
creature. They're central to identity and define our mode of being. We're visual, tactile, audio
creatures. The whole notion of bypassing the senses is sort of like throwing away the actual
treasure.''
Still, the philosophical implications of a world beyond the five senses are irresistible,
and have drawn into the ring many worthy contenders to compete for the title of VR
spokesperson. The most vibrant is probably Timothy Leary, whose ride on the crest of the VR
wave has brought him back on the scene with the zeal of John the Baptist preparing the way
for Christ, or a Harvard psychology professor preparing the intelligentsia for LSD.
Just as the fish donned skin to walk the earth, and man donned a space suit to walk
in space, we'll now don cyber suits to walk in Cyberia. In ten years most of our daily
operations, occupational, educational, and recreational, will transpire in Cyberia. Each of us
will be linked in thrilling cyber exchanges with many others whom we may never meet in
person. Fact-to-face interactions will be reserved for special, intimate, precious,
sacramentalized events.''