Heim’s title The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality is somewhat misleading and the date of publication is even more so. This book focuses mainly on the philosophy behind everything from the word processor and how it transformed writing, for better and worse, to what exactly virtual reality is and how it will affect us.
Heim starts off describing how the word processor changed the way people write. It is not a process of thinking carefully about how to craft the next sentence then write it down with precision for fear of having to rewrite everything, but now we can just slap it down cut, paste and rearrange. It is an entirely different way to approach writing and editing.
He also talks about how the computer should be a component and not an opponent. He says that the computer changes the human being’s aspirations, they are fundamentally distorted. From a human body full of flaws a virtual body seems like the ultimate life, and some see this as the end times and God’s perfection of humans. He didn’t claim this view but it is intriguing. He also talks about how people are looking to virtual reality to replace reality. The all knowing ‘god computer’ robs us of our ability to search and discover. A question he posses is, “Can we be touched or surprised-deeply astonished-by a synthetic reality, or will it always remain a magic trick, an illusory prestidigitation?”
The book spends all except the last chapters focusing on the philosophical questions of technology. In the last chapter he outlines seven different approaches from thinkers as to what is virtual reality. There has been little progress in the way of virtual reality in the old sense of wearing goggles and gloves that let you walk around a 3D environment. Heim’s brilliance is that he does not see this as the goal of virtual reality. It is not the future, not the goal.
He believes the highest goal of VR is not technology but art, in the highest sense. It is the artist’s ability to completely engage the viewer not as a passive observer in an art museum, or a linear movie. It will allow art to change our reality, it will not just repeat reality, but will entice the imagination.
Three main points that he calls the hooks on the reality anchor are: the finiteness of human life and how we feel a rootedness in earth, secondly is carry over or history that he calls once-and-always-ness, thirdly is the possibility of harm and sickness/death in the real world. These are what make reality different from virtual reality. He asks how these will or should be used when developing VR.
He makes mention of God several times, sometimes very repetitively, but refers to it as a traditional Christian view. He does not say that it is stupid to believe in God but almost the opposite, that we are seeing how a ‘God’ works and thinks. An example of this is a section talking about how things think, about how humans see only the present, he says God can see all thing past, present future and in fact what would have happened and what could happen. He sees all the possible combinations, not just what will happen. Though his world view is not crystal clear and it is not possible to give him a traditional title such as atheist or not, after reading the book it is clear he takes a much more complex approach to things. In everything from how he describes the way God thinks to how virtual reality affects us, he is clearly not stuck or bias towards certain views.
He is a brilliant thinker and philosopher. This aids the book’s ability to remain relevant eleven years later in a field where anything older than a year is irrelevant. It teaches philosophy not technology. This book requires, in order to fully understand and comprehend it, a familiarity with philosophy, both current and the ideas of classics such as Plato and Aristotle. He makes continual references to these and offers helpful but not very in depth explanation on how they apply. A familiarity with them would help the reader to fully understand where he is coming from.
Most of the material in this book is timeless. It is not a traditional guessing game of what technologies will come in some far away time. Instead it is a level headed approach to looking at technology today and how we should look at technology in the future. (This view is much too hard to put into a single paragraph or page.) One fact that stuck out like a sore thumb was that he predicted all written materials to be available in electronic form by 2000. Obviously we see very little of this even today, although there is significant movement in that direction.
He lays a good foundation that all people interested in studying any part of technology should have. I would recommend several sections of the book as required reading for a future Computers and Society class.