Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Newborns in Evolution
- 1 Cyberpsychology Architecture
- 2 Presence: Be Here Now
- 3 The Dynamic Digital Psyche
- 4 The Disinhibited Self
- 5 Electrified Relationships
- 6 Other Than You Think: Interpersonal Perceptions
- 7 Text Talk
- 8 Image Talk
- 9 I, Avatar
- 10 One of Us: Groups and Communities
- 11 Change and Excess
- 12 Addicted or Devoted
- 13 The Digital Deviant
- 14 Synthesized Realities and Synthesized Beings
- 15 Electric Th erapeutics
- Conclusion: Research and the Researcher
- References
- Index
14 - Synthesized Realities and Synthesized Beings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Newborns in Evolution
- 1 Cyberpsychology Architecture
- 2 Presence: Be Here Now
- 3 The Dynamic Digital Psyche
- 4 The Disinhibited Self
- 5 Electrified Relationships
- 6 Other Than You Think: Interpersonal Perceptions
- 7 Text Talk
- 8 Image Talk
- 9 I, Avatar
- 10 One of Us: Groups and Communities
- 11 Change and Excess
- 12 Addicted or Devoted
- 13 The Digital Deviant
- 14 Synthesized Realities and Synthesized Beings
- 15 Electric Th erapeutics
- Conclusion: Research and the Researcher
- References
- Index
Summary
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
– Albert EinsteinAt a psychology conference where I was speaking, I went to an exhibit where companies displayed their products for education, research, and clinical practice. One company was offering demonstrations of a virtual reality system used for the treatment of acrophobia, the fear of heights. I decided to try it out. After I stepped onto the platform next to the computer, put on the goggles, and the company representative turned on the machine, I found myself on the roof of a building, several floors up. The scene appeared rather cartoonish, but as I looked at the street below, I certainly felt that I was up in the air. “Do you want to go higher?” the operator asked. When I said yes, I suddenly found myself twice as high as before. The transition was a bit disorienting. As I turned my head, I could now look out across the cityscape, scanning the rooftops of some of the buildings surrounding me. “Do you want the next level?” the operator asked again. Curious about how far this could go, I agreed. Now I found myself thirty or more stories up, with all of the rooftops of nearby buildings far below me. Looking down beyond my feet perched on the edge of the roof, the street looked a scary long distance below. My legs felt wobbly and weak. I was a bit dizzy. “How about the next level?” the operator asked once again. “No thanks,” I replied.
We often hear the word “virtual” in discussions about cyberspace: virtual humans, virtual beings, virtual reality. According to the dictionary, the word means having the effect but not the actual form, or in effect, practically. A virtual reality has the effect of actual reality but not its authentic form. Or it is practically the real thing, as in “close, but no cigar.” The term implies an attempt to recreate the real world as we consciously experience it. However, this is only one of the two possible paths that cyberspace can take.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Psychology of the Digital AgeHumans Become Electric, pp. 353 - 379Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015