Virtual Reality: Fictional all the Way Down (and that’s OK)

Abstract

Are virtual objects real? I will claim that the question sets us up for the wrong type of conclusion: Chalmers (2017) argues that a virtual calculator (like other entities) is a real calculator when it is “organizationally invariant” with its non-virtual counterpart—when it performs calculation. However, virtual reality and games are defined by the fact that they always selectively implement their source material. Even the most detailed virtual car will still have an infinite range of details which are missing (gas, engines, pistons, fuel, chemical reactions, molecules, atoms). This means that even the most detailed virtual object will still have fictional aspects. Rather than argue that virtual objects are, or aren’t, real, it is preferable to think of overlaps and continuities between the fictional and the real, where even the most painstakingly detailed virtual reality implementation of a non-virtual object is still art: a human process of selection and interpretation. Virtual reality should therefore not be philosophically understood just as a technological implementation on a trajectory to perfection, but as a cultural artifact which derives its value in part from its simplification and difference from its source material.

Transformative Applications of Machine Learning for Chemical Reactions

“…Visualization and virtual reality techniques for exploration of chemical reactivity [229][230][231][232] are other areas in which ML-based techniques may become relevant. 233 Such approaches are likely to also become relevant in classroom chemistry, [233][234][235][236] A personal note is related to first viewing an MD simulation of myoglobin (using VMD) on a desktop screen as a postdoc working with Prof. M. Karplus, It was fascinating to follow the dance of atoms when nitric oxide was binding to and unbinding from the heme-iron. 237 Watching this reminded me immediately of the notion "..that everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jigglings and wigglings of atoms."…”

Virtualization of Identity in the Context of Self-Realization of a Personality

“…J. Juul distinguishes between computational and creative aspects of human work in virtual reality. However, the computational aspect in the form of a virtual calculator must be complemented by the creative aspect in the form of productive work of the human imagination (Juul, 2019). The computing capabilities of virtual reality hardware significantly enhance the creative aspect of human labor, making it more skilled and much more accessible to a wide range of people.…”

“…In the further study of virtual reality, the attention of researchers has increasingly shifted towards the use of the creative imagination of man to obtain practical economic results and improve social relations (Cooper, Green, Murtagh, & Harper, 2002, p. 287;. In these aspects, this problem continues to be developed today (Juul, 2019;. Such a development of the practice of virtual reality itself as an important dimension of the existence of modern man and his theoretical understanding could not but touch on the problem of human identity.…”

Disappearing boundaries? Reality, virtuality and the possibility of “pure” mixed reality (MR)

“…Perhaps the most dominant and well-known issue in philosophy is about the specific status of "virtual objects". Here Chalmers's quite well-known claim (2017) that virtual objects are "real" has been met with responses and criticisms (notably McDonnell & Wildman, 2019) and relates to a more general debate about (ir)realism and fictionalism with regard to many mental or virtual objects (compare also Laas, 2015;Van de Mosselaer, 2018;Beisbart, 2019;Juul, 2019). If virtual objects are "real", it is because those in favour take, wittingly or not, a more metaphysical path -like Bergson ([1896Bergson ([ ] 2005 and Deleuze ([1966] 2011) do -where virtuality is seen to have "reality" just as actuality does.…”