Pre Class Blog 10/23

I think that one of Mark Poster’s main points about virtual reality is related to the multiple realities that are created, and that we experience with the internet and virtual reality in society, he says, “The effect of new media such as the Internet and virtual reality, then is to multiply the kinds of "realities" one encounters in society” (446). As reality is considered a state of existence, and we are able to exist through online personas, it makes sense that we can have realities that are virtual. So, Poster is saying that we can use the internet and virtual reality to become someone else, perhaps of a different gender and age, we can even have an entire life and create new cultures this way. However, Poster is saying that this is the creation of a new, virtual reality, even though it may resemble every day, it is fiction, and considered a separate reality. Poster is saying that due to technology, we are no longer limited to our one reality, we are able to create and experience multiple realities. An example of a virtual reality is the game, Sims. In the game, you can create a character or whatever age, gender, hair color, body type, etc. and name them whatever you want. This can be as similar or different as your everyday reality as you want it to be. Through your role as a Sims character, you are able to live out a life completely separate, and become immersed in Sims’ culture. So, by playing in the Sims’ reality, and experiencing non-virtual reality, you have already encountered two forms of reality, and thanks to technology this can happen in a number of different ways, so that we experience many different realities in society. Reality becomes multivalent, as the number of realities increase exponentially. I think that this can be related to previous theorists, like how Lyotard argues that postmodernity fractured the grand narratives of modernity into postmodern micro narratives, the totality of reality has disappeared and technology has fractured reality into many realities, which I think is the next big step in contemporary culture.