From: dunc@well.sf.ca.us Subject: PUB: Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, by Michael Heim (1993) Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1993 18:49:47 -0700 Crossposted from the WELL (192.132.30.2) vr conference. Dan Duncan manages the VR conference on BIX. Topic 186: Michael Heim's The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality By: Daniel R. Duncan (dunc) on Sun, Aug 1, '93 0 responses so far The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, by Michael Heim and published by Oxford University Press, 175 pages, $21.00. Forward by Myron Kreuger. I first heard Michael Heim at the first Meckler Virtual Reality conference in San Francisco in 1990. At the time, I couldn't quite grasp what he was grappling with, although I had a sense of its importance. Actually it wasn't till last year that a brief email conversation resulted in his sending me what is now a chapter in this new book, the chapter entitled "Heidegger and McLuhan: the Computer as Component." Suddenly Heidegger sprang to life for me. What was so important for me in this is the notion that technology is not an interruption of man's being, but in fact a part of it. At the same time, there are certain attitudes we bring to technology, either inculcated fear or adolescent adulation, both of which can alter my sense of the technology's significance in my ongoing life. And if ever discrimination was needed in the life of the race it is now, with the problems and the possiblitites that surround us. But it is just here that I find Heim so refreshing. In the chapter "From Interface to Cyberspace," Heim has a fascination discussion of the impact of VR technology on our physiology, especially on our breathing, and suggests that, "the deepest peril of the interface is that we may lose touch with our inner states." And he goes on to explain that he is talking not so much about "arcane" matters, but in fact about the simple awareness of our bodies. I have barely scratched the surface of this wonderful book. It is for me in the general scale of writings that include Brenda Laurel, Martin Heidegger, Marshall McLuhan, Bohm and Krishnamurti, and Carlos Castenada, a book to be weighed in quiet moments or moments of inner questioning about the inner significance and potential of computer technology in general and Virtual Reality technology especially. Recommended.