Talk about Virtual Reality. Conversation number 1. Really about Virtuality

I Introduction

He who never changes his views usually has no views.
Alberto Moravia.

For a long time, having worked as a systems analyst in the IT industry, I began to notice that now I perceive films that in one way or another touch on the topic of Virtual Reality (“The Matrix”, “The Beginning”, “The Illusion of Deception” and others). I find myself thinking that I am trying to systematize information, to characterize the essence and form of phenomena, to decompose complex concepts into simple ones and to imagine how all this is used in everyday life. Now I do not mean computer technologies: helmets, sensory uniforms, etc. Everything that is outside does not cause disputes and ambiguities, it is interesting to discuss what is happening inside there.

In order to somehow deal with this obsessive mania, I decided to systematize and present my thoughts about the phenomenon of Virtual reality, Altered consciousness and others like them, on paper and present them in this article.

On the other hand, this publication is a logical continuation of my articles “Where is the logic? We learn to think systemically " and " Social Organism - as a form of effective team interaction " , in which I try to popularize system thinking in everyday life, in everyday life and in professional activities.
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If you want to talk about it, then you are here ... I hope that it will be exciting and not boring.

II Definition of the concept of virtual reality

- What is reality? And how to define it?
—The whole set of sensations: visual, tactile, olfactory - these are receptor signals, electrical impulses perceived by the brain.
Morphius (Film "The Matrix")

So, let's understand what this phenomenon is - Virtual reality.

First, let's go over popular definitions.

The classic definition says: "Virtual reality (born virtual reality) - an artificial reality." This is just understandable, but further for some reason it is added: "the world created by technical means, transmitted to a person through his sensations: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and others." Personally, I have a question: why only with the help of technical means you can get into the virtual world?

That is, it turns out that if you watch a movie about aliens, created with the help of technical means, then you are immersed in Virtual Reality, and if you are told in colors and details in the dark alley a story, like in the very place where you now stand, periodically people are beaten up, and you are already twitching from every rustle, goosebumps run down your back, “hair in my veins stand on end”, and in addition you clearly see in every shadow of the abuser, is this not virtual reality yet?

Not convinced yet? Then here is another argument for you. Noticed that now in the movie it became fashionable to show what the hero thinks? If in old films, it was a voice-over, and he simply languidly expounded thoughts from the first person, now it is shown, and even as shown, with the help of animation or a separate subplot of the film. But after all, a person’s thoughts are just his imagination and it was not created by a technical tool, which means that this is not Virtual Reality. So? Although, since we are shown it in a film created with the help of technical means, it turns out that what we saw is still a virtual reality. Or seen about what he saw does not count?

By the way, the film “The Beginning” is mentioned in Wikipedia as a film about virtual reality, and it tells about a controlled, lucid dream. That is, managed dreams are still recognized by the general public Virtual reality.

To deal with all these nuances, let's first discard the imposed stereotypes and define the boundary where objective reality can end and virtual, that is, artificial, begins.

But back to the definitions. In fairness, I note that I found such a footnote: “Before the era of computer technology, virtuality was understood to mean an object or state that actually does not exist, but can occur under certain conditions.” To me personally, this definition is more appealing. But this is perhaps the exception, and most sources describing the phenomenon of Virtual reality, connects it only with computer technology. For example, one of the explanations found on the Internet: “Virtual reality (artificial reality, electronic reality, computer model of reality, virtual reality, VR, 3d virtual reality) is an artificially created world into which people are immersed. However, getting into the virtual world, you understand that you are in an artificially created space, that is, you are able to separate reality from virtuality. ” If, nevertheless, we assume that the Virtual World is any imaginary world and it doesn’t matter that it was generated by information technology or, for example, a dream, then we can find fault with this formulation. After all, it happens that you really cannot understand memories, it was a dream, or it really happened in life, that is, it is unrealistic to separate reality from virtuality. Controversial? Maybe. But since this topic has already been turned into an unnatural position for it, we will continue in the same vein ...

And say, for example, how from the point of view of a person’s feelings can a viewing of a computer program that demonstrates a virtual world, such as an animal world or a movie in a movie theater with the same characters, be different? In my opinion, in both cases there is an identity of impressions. You will rightly object, but then both technical means are used there and there. And do not rush - this is only a saying.

Go ahead, reading an encyclopedia about animals with pictures is certainly different from watching a movie in a movie theater, but by and large, for a person with imagination, the feelings are similar. Plots and actions that are not in the book are drawn in the imagination. Especially if we read to children. Have you noticed? We want to convey to them the naturalness of sensations, growl, sizzle and twist, while in our imagination we clearly draw every little thing. They just can't be fooled by children - naturalness is needed here, so we twist our fingers into the clawed hands of a predator and hang over the child with terrible grimaces. And if you did everything right, and he finally began to cry, then he was not afraid of you, but of that imaginary virtual monster, which you so enchantingly showed him.

Or, for example, under the impressions of a trip to the zoo, you can see some continuation of it or a variation in your dream. Do you remember? At the same time in a dream, the sensations are probably even closer to reality than in the cinema. But after all, this world is not really, it exists only in the imagination of man. It turns out this is also a virtual reality, although it was generated not by technical means, but by the “nature of the product”.

Further on the list is the world of illusions. Looking at the tricks associated with optical illusion, we see something that is not really, and if an illusionist uses sounds, vibrations, smells and other special effects (not necessarily technical), then the complex of sensations leads one to believe in magic. People see, hear, feel unreal phenomena that are impossible to explain (without knowing the secret of the focus) - isn't this all Virtual reality? In the same illusions a person can plunge under the influence of hypnosis or some other psychological influence. Here, by the way, I had to “plunge” the word, somehow it was very organically stuck to the mention of Virtual reality. At the hypnotist's presentation, I personally observed how a person under the influence of hypnosis, picked flowers on an empty stage and he saw them, perhaps even smelled them. Is this not the Virtual World?

Under the influence of any of the above methods, a person perceives and feels something that does not exist in reality, in a given place, at the current moment in time. That is, these are artificially caused impressions of a person, in the overwhelming majority of cases, caused intentionally. At its core, Virtual Reality imitates the effects on humans of real phenomena that the body is capable of perceiving, or more precisely, that it can recover in its memory based on personal life experience. Thus, without man, Virtual reality does not exist, it is only a subjective representation of objective reality.

There is another important point on which I want to draw your attention. Often in conversation, people use the expression Virtual World to a computer program, an electronic presentation, a specific social network, but these are just real phenomena - the code created by programmers. And the virtual reality does not happen in the computer, on the screen, on the Internet and in general anywhere, except for imagination of the person.

And yet, in the literature, in addition to addressing the issue of Virtual Reality, one can find explanations about “Added Reality”, and frightening calls in no way confuse them with each other. The manifestation of “Added reality” is easier for me to illustrate with a situation that was peeped out from life, when on the road in a stream of cars, you hear sounds like loud Zeus, but remotely resembling music that is already clearly audible, but the vehicle itself is not yet visible . And imagine, as the flow of cars progresses, you are already looking at the moving mass with interest and expect to see this marvelous road user who can spew out such deafening sounds, like thunder. As a result, in 99% of cases it turns out to be an old Lada, bouncing on the road with each beat of the drum-barrel. In any weather, her glasses are open, and the owner's face radiant with pride looks out of the window. All this extravaganza is designed for admiring and surprised viewers, who opened their mouths and froze in delight and amazement. Well, somehow it seems it represents. So this very entourage, in my opinion, is the Added Reality, which allows the owner of the old vehicle to feel like a demigod in a chariot.

An interesting topic that goes hand in hand with Virtual Reality - An altered state of consciousness. Following the already established tradition, let's go by definition.

“The altered state of consciousness (ASC) - qualitative changes in subjective experiences or psychological functioning from certain norms generalized for a given subject, reflected by the person himself or noted by observers”

This is the classic definition of Arnold Ludwig. And according to A. Revonsuo:

“The main characteristic feature of altered states of consciousness are systemic changes (relative to the normal state of consciousness) of the relationship between the content of experiences and the real world, that is, there are distortions in the ASC presenting external reality or self-awareness in the form of hallucinations or illusions, and these distortions add up to a global change in representations” .

According to the theory of states of consciousness, 3 normal states stand out: wakefulness, dream and deep sleep. Plus add the state of hypnosis, or trance. Separately, apparently somewhere on the side, there is that altered state of consciousness that can act as a background to other normal states. It is interesting and intelligible about the nature of the altered state, its impact on the individual and even on whole communities, can be found in (1).

And all this was read and perceived organically, until the Wachowski sisters emerged with their film The Matrix, which was born by vague doubts, putting the very starting point on its head, and forcing the audience to doubt what is the norm and the reality only its projection in the imagination. It is of course understandable, fantasy, fiction and all that, but the sediment remains. We will return to this topic in the following sections.

I could continue to entertain you with similar life situations, but the format of the article makes you already round out and sum up some results in our thoughts. Therefore, as a result of all these conclusions, it can be precisely summarized only that Virtual reality is a figment of imagination in the human mind, created and controlled by an external influence.

And according to this, it turns out that a person with imagination has a life that rages in his mind (the Virtual World), which is much more colorful, richer and more interesting than what is going on outside. Or in other words, reality is only a semblance of a children's coloring for a creative person, armed with a set of bright markers.

And now, in order to move from general subjective reasoning to a more detailed understanding of the phenomenon of Virtual reality, it is necessary to systematize the facts and assumptions outlined above.

1. Areas of Virtual Reality

So, as a result, I took the liberty to highlight the following areas, allowing us to step beyond the bounds of objective reality:

1. Computer techologies;
2. Dreams;
3. Some literary works and films. Tales, fantasy, adventure, etc .;
4. Presentations with deliberate deception. Tricks, scams, etc .;
5. Suggestion. Hypnosis, religion, etc .;
6. Exposure to psychotropic drugs. Drugs, alcohol, drugs, etc .;
7. The impact of natural phenomena. Sharp pressure drop, mental illness, clinical death, etc.

Having defined the general concept of Virtual reality and having pushed away from the ways of immersion in it, let us turn to a more detailed analysis of this phenomenon.

2. Participants of Virtual Reality

The main conclusion that we have drawn from our reasoning is that Virtual reality arises only in the minds of people and arises under the influence of external causes. That is, speaking of the Virtual world, we always mean a rational person who reproduces it in his mind. Let's call it Resident (Residentis - residing) - an individual who has a permanent residence in a certain country (in our case in the country of illusions), having in it “the center of their vital or business interests”. How do you? In my ideal.

We also noted that virtual reality arises in the mind of a person under some external influence, that is, the Resident, most often, reproduces the reality that the Creator organized and brought into action (man, a natural phenomenon, etc.). Although in some cases, the Resident and the Creator may be the same person.

Another important aspect for playing Virtual Reality is the Territory , the platform where the Virtual Action takes place (computer program, sleep, film, psychological presentation, etc.).

All of the above in this section are material components that are objective reality and exist on this side of the Virtual World. But all the actors involved in imaginary events are already a subjective, Virtual reality. Let's call them Actants - (French actant - "acting") in linguistics - an active, significant participant in the situation. They help to feel the interaction with someone. For example, simulate communication. In fact, it may turn out that behind the Actant there is a real person in the Virtual World, another Resident participating in the Virtual Act in this Territory. But in this case you communicate not with the person, but with his projection perception, supplemented most often with his hidden ambitions, which he cannot realize in life.

For the sake of reality, passive Virtual Reality Objects can also be used, which the Creator has prepared to give it a greater variety and appropriate entourage. Although it should be noted that objects can act as a key figure of action in the virtual world. For example, in the case of hypnosis, about which I spoke a little earlier, an installation was given to pick flowers. Flowers in this case are the key object - the goal of the Resident. Very impressive about filling the space with objects in a controlled dream (the Virtual World), is told in the film “The Beginning”.

Finally, in the Virtual World there must be some kind of action, everything must move and create the illusion of life. Accordingly, there must be some kind of magic Mechanism that sets the “otherworldly” substances surrounding the Resident in motion.

And now, in order to “see it once”, I’ll give a schematic representation.

3. General characteristics of Virtual Reality

Those properties that I found in the literature (2) did not impress me (according to N. A. Nosov). Therefore, drawing analogies between the sources listed above that recreate the Virtual World, let's find together common properties and characteristics and those that are radically different. Since we took as a basis the point of view that the Virtual World can be generated not only by technical means, I will exclude from consideration properties related to technical parameters (signal delay time, image resolution, etc.).

The first thing you should pay attention to is the possibility (or impossibility) of the Resident to change what is happening in Virtual reality. In a computer game, most often, the broadest powers are laid to influence the course of virtual events (of course within the limits allowed by the Creator - the developers of the program). Under the influence of hypnosis, the weather in the Virtual World is made exclusively by a hypnotist, although its possibility is likely also limited: past experience of the Resident's sensations, as well as the degree of his exposure to hypnotic effects. But in the plot of a fantastic film, nothing can be changed, you can only passively observe what is happening. Although, in fairness, I note that even in this case, listening to the impressions of the audience, you know - they did not see the same thing, especially if the author wanted to leave incompleteness or used the ambiguity of the plot. It turns out that film viewers think the untold, indirectly influencing the action. And it is important that everyone imagines what is most significant for him. This moment is very interesting, and we will definitely touch on it in our conversation later. Thus, we can fix the first property of Virtual reality, as the degree of the Resident's ability to influence the course of events in it, or the degree of possible reaction .

Different Territories (we talked about them above), helping to reproduce the Virtual World to the Resident, cause different degrees of realism of its response to virtual events. For example, watching a person in a virtual reality helmet can see how his muscles react to an imaginary effect: he tries to maintain balance with his body, catch imaginary objects with his hands, etc. To achieve such a reaction, while reading a fantastic work, is hardly possible.Thus, the next characteristic of Virtual reality will be considered - the degree of the Resident's response to events in it, or - the level of immersion .

Exploring further the differences in the examples of Virtual Reality, one can notice a different degree of synthetic plot.(events, phenomena, images, etc.). That is, the degree of estrangement from what can exist in the real world. For example, in piloting simulations of airplanes, the level of synthetic plot is very low: take-off, turn, landing — everything happens as in real flight. But in fantasy games it is very high, yet it is unlikely that anyone has to kill fire-breathing dragons in everyday life very often, well, a maximum of 1-2 times in life and then in childhood. I wanted to change the word "synthetics" to "realistic," but abstained, because how are cartoons well, such realistic, but here the synthetics in them for all that is felt.

A couple to the synthetic plot, you can select the natural representations. That is, the degree of coincidence of visual images, sounds, smells, vibrations, tactile sensations and other worldviews with real ones. For example, the plot of the game itself may be close to real, but its video series looks more like a cartoon than a film. Accordingly, the naturalness of the presentation in this example will be low.

Another interesting characteristic in my opinion is the ability to dive into one Virtual Reality - a group of people. That is, providing an opportunity for a group of people to simultaneously become Residents in the same Virtual Territory and observe, feel, participate in the same virtual act. Call it - Territory restriction on the number of residents, as well as the quality of their interaction. In the literature (3), there is a similar characteristic, called "information space". It is defined as “aspects of the specifics of spatial-temporal relations in biological and social (in the latter - especially) systems”. And in (1) one can even come across the term “Hyper-reality”, which characterizes the interaction of a large number of Residents “participating in the virtual process”. Apparently in the film The Matrix tells exactly about such a scale.

Already after the publication of this conversation, another characteristic emerged, at the prompts of readers. Its meaning is as follows. If you are in a computer game, in an imaginary city, on an almost real car crashed into an almost real pole, then you would have committed an offense. But at the same time you are unlikely to be taken to the precinct and punished. That is, responsibility will not come and you will be able to commit with similar or even more terrible crimes with impunity many times, even killing monsters, etc. But if in Virtual Reality you commit a crime with an electronic bank card, or let's better consider a more virtual presentation - an electronic wallet (which, unlike a plastic card, you can't even touch it), then you are more likely to be punished and convicted real termin a very real reality. From here another characteristic emerges - the degree of influence of the Resident's actions in the Virtual World, on the consequences for him and those around him in the Real World - orReactivity of the Real World on the events in the Virtual World .

4. Section Summary

As a result of the analysis of the “Virtual Reality” phenomenon, we established:

1. Actors and environment:

• A resident is a real person who reproduces Virtual Reality in his mind;
• The Creator is a real person (or natural phenomenon) creating conditions for reproduction and (or) setting in motion the Virtual World in the Resident's imagination;
• Territory - technological or natural platform, organized by the Creator and being a substrate for reproduction of Virtual reality by the Resident;
• Actant is an imaginary, active and significant participant in the Virtual World. An imaginary participant may be a projection of a real person - another Resident. Allows you to simulate interaction (communication);
• Objects are passive Virtual Reality objects typical of this virtual territory. Allow to imitate the effect of presence;
• Mechanisms - the ability to betray the dynamic of the virtual world. Allows you to simulate the illusion of movement.

2. Properties and characteristics:

• The ability of the Resident to influence the course of events in Virtual reality;
• The level of immersion in the virtual world;
• Synthetic plot;
• Natural images;
• Restriction on the number of Resident Participants and the quality of their interaction.
• Reactivity of the Real World on the events in the Virtual World.

The conversation number 2 can be found by clicking on the link.

Bibliography

1. A.V. Rossokhin, V.L. Izmagurov. Personality in altered states of consciousness. Moscow: Meaning, 2004
2. N.A., Nosov. Virtual psychology. Moscow: “Agraf, 2000
3. A.F., Ivanov. On the ontological status of virtual reality.