Larry Kilham Blog |
I don't know where truth ends and fiction begins. Let's explore this together.
Think of subsumed or meshed bodies and minds: The mother and son. The long married couple finishing each other's sentences, physically develop, suffer and die the same way. The owner and dog. Then there was Hal the Computer. Then, man and computer. Then man and accumulated internet sites for him. We all know about someone else who we know can finish our sentences. How about a computer that can finish our sentences? A virtual mirror of our brain and whatever it has memorized? Certainly the reverse is true for the young people of the upcoming generation. Many of them are extensions of the characters in songs, movies and video games. To them, it is easier and more fun to absorb the programming of an electronic medium than it is to accumulate a lifetime of microexperiences that would become the intellectual essence of one's mirror medium. For those so trapped in virtual reality, real megareality is no longer frightening or to be confronted because it has been denied and blocked out. When there is a megacrisis such as someone trying to conquer the world yet again, will anyone care? Life is an adventure to be lived. Now there is the antilife of the computer. With the development of the Worldwide Web all information that can be written down is interconnected as one resource. Apparent answers become so easy that imagination and invention cease to be worthwhile. As the new generation and younger people with formative minds become absorbed by virtual reality and standardized information formats, imagination may whither away. Society will look like computers living and dead. As Albert Einstein wrote: The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. (c) Lawrence B, Kilham 2005 |