Author: Andrew Evans
Publisher: Fusion Press
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
As the media becomes more sophisticated and lifelike, we spend more and moreime in front of television screens. Distinguished psychologist Andrew Evansxamines this warping of reality, and asks where such a path will lead us.;he 21st century presents serious challenges to us all. However, our childrenre growing up thinking the world can be saved by super-heroes, crashedlanes start again at the flick of a switch and people come back to life forhe next round. The author looks at the effects of this distortion of reality.aybe our need to escape the boredom and routine of every day life is beingxploited by the companies who make money by selling us fantasy andimulation. From humour and comedy, to science fiction and computer games,vans examines the variety of distractions available to take our minds offhe daily grind. But how does this new media affect today's children? Whatill be their future tomorrow? And have we become so reliant on escapistantasy that reality can no longer be faced?
This Virtual Life
Author: Andrew Evans
Publisher: Fusion Press
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
As the media becomes more sophisticated and lifelike, we spend more and moreime in front of television screens. Distinguished psychologist Andrew Evansxamines this warping of reality, and asks where such a path will lead us.;he 21st century presents serious challenges to us all. However, our childrenre growing up thinking the world can be saved by super-heroes, crashedlanes start again at the flick of a switch and people come back to life forhe next round. The author looks at the effects of this distortion of reality.aybe our need to escape the boredom and routine of every day life is beingxploited by the companies who make money by selling us fantasy andimulation. From humour and comedy, to science fiction and computer games,vans examines the variety of distractions available to take our minds offhe daily grind. But how does this new media affect today's children? Whatill be their future tomorrow? And have we become so reliant on escapistantasy that reality can no longer be faced?
Publisher: Fusion Press
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
As the media becomes more sophisticated and lifelike, we spend more and moreime in front of television screens. Distinguished psychologist Andrew Evansxamines this warping of reality, and asks where such a path will lead us.;he 21st century presents serious challenges to us all. However, our childrenre growing up thinking the world can be saved by super-heroes, crashedlanes start again at the flick of a switch and people come back to life forhe next round. The author looks at the effects of this distortion of reality.aybe our need to escape the boredom and routine of every day life is beingxploited by the companies who make money by selling us fantasy andimulation. From humour and comedy, to science fiction and computer games,vans examines the variety of distractions available to take our minds offhe daily grind. But how does this new media affect today's children? Whatill be their future tomorrow? And have we become so reliant on escapistantasy that reality can no longer be faced?
Resisting the Virtual Life
Author: James Brook
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
A variety of contributors gauge the impact of the new video, computer, and networked communications on the ways of life in a restructured world, exposing relations of power and dependence and offering strategies of resistance.
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
A variety of contributors gauge the impact of the new video, computer, and networked communications on the ways of life in a restructured world, exposing relations of power and dependence and offering strategies of resistance.
Making Virtual Worlds
Author: Thomas Malaby
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801457750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
The past decade has seen phenomenal growth in the development and use of virtual worlds. In one of the most notable, Second Life, millions of people have created online avatars in order to play games, take classes, socialize, and conduct business transactions. Second Life offers a gathering point and the tools for people to create a new world online. Too often neglected in popular and scholarly accounts of such groundbreaking new environments is the simple truth that, of necessity, such virtual worlds emerge from physical workplaces marked by negotiation, creation, and constant change. Thomas Malaby spent a year at Linden Lab, the real-world home of Second Life, observing those who develop and profit from the sprawling, self-generating system they have created. Some of the challenges created by Second Life for its developers were of a very traditional nature, such as how to cope with a business that is growing more quickly than existing staff can handle. Others are seemingly new: How, for instance, does one regulate something that is supposed to run on its own? Is it possible simply to create a space for people to use and then not govern its use? Can one apply these same free-range/free-market principles to the office environment in which the game is produced? "Lindens"—as the Linden Lab employees call themselves—found that their efforts to prompt user behavior of one sort or another were fraught with complexities, as a number of ongoing processes collided with their own interventions. Malaby thoughtfully describes the world of Linden Lab and the challenges faced while he was conducting his in-depth ethnographic research there. He shows how the workers of a very young but quickly growing company were themselves caught up in ideas about technology, games, and organizations, and struggled to manage not only their virtual world but also themselves in a nonhierarchical fashion. In exploring the practices the Lindens employed, he questions what was at stake in their virtual world, what a game really is (and how people participate), and the role of the unexpected in a product like Second Life and an organization like Linden Lab.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801457750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
The past decade has seen phenomenal growth in the development and use of virtual worlds. In one of the most notable, Second Life, millions of people have created online avatars in order to play games, take classes, socialize, and conduct business transactions. Second Life offers a gathering point and the tools for people to create a new world online. Too often neglected in popular and scholarly accounts of such groundbreaking new environments is the simple truth that, of necessity, such virtual worlds emerge from physical workplaces marked by negotiation, creation, and constant change. Thomas Malaby spent a year at Linden Lab, the real-world home of Second Life, observing those who develop and profit from the sprawling, self-generating system they have created. Some of the challenges created by Second Life for its developers were of a very traditional nature, such as how to cope with a business that is growing more quickly than existing staff can handle. Others are seemingly new: How, for instance, does one regulate something that is supposed to run on its own? Is it possible simply to create a space for people to use and then not govern its use? Can one apply these same free-range/free-market principles to the office environment in which the game is produced? "Lindens"—as the Linden Lab employees call themselves—found that their efforts to prompt user behavior of one sort or another were fraught with complexities, as a number of ongoing processes collided with their own interventions. Malaby thoughtfully describes the world of Linden Lab and the challenges faced while he was conducting his in-depth ethnographic research there. He shows how the workers of a very young but quickly growing company were themselves caught up in ideas about technology, games, and organizations, and struggled to manage not only their virtual world but also themselves in a nonhierarchical fashion. In exploring the practices the Lindens employed, he questions what was at stake in their virtual world, what a game really is (and how people participate), and the role of the unexpected in a product like Second Life and an organization like Linden Lab.
The Virtual Life of Film
Author: D. N. RODOWICK
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674042832
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
As almost every aspect of making and viewing movies is replaced by digital technologies, even the notion of "watching a film" is fast becoming an anachronism. With the likely disappearance of celluloid film stock as a medium, and the emergence of new media, what will happen to cinema--and to cinema studies? In the first of two books exploring this question, Rodowick considers the fate of film and its role in the aesthetics and culture of the twenty-first century.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674042832
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
As almost every aspect of making and viewing movies is replaced by digital technologies, even the notion of "watching a film" is fast becoming an anachronism. With the likely disappearance of celluloid film stock as a medium, and the emergence of new media, what will happen to cinema--and to cinema studies? In the first of two books exploring this question, Rodowick considers the fate of film and its role in the aesthetics and culture of the twenty-first century.
Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393635813
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393635813
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.
Exodus to the Virtual World
Author: Edward Castronova
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230608612
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230608612
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Book Description
Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.
Second Life
Author: Brian A. White
Publisher: Que Publishing
ISBN: 0132714493
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 982
Book Description
Live your Second Life to the fullest! Create Your Virtual Life in an Incredible Online World...Right Now! Imagine a virtual landscape where everything is created and owned entirely by residents like you. Imagine a place where you can enjoy sunsets, ride a jet ski, buy land, plant a garden, get a tattoo, go sky diving, spend an evening dancing the night away, or relax at home by the fire. Picture a world vividly developed, socially dynamic, and strikingly real where you can bring previously unimaginable things to life with friends from around the globe. This is Second Life®, the hottest Internet phenomenon in years…maybe ever! Now, there’s a totally real, totally independent guide to Second Life. This full-color book is as rich as Second Life itself! It’s packed with insider tips, easy step-by-step techniques, and interviews with dozens of SL residents telling you what they wished they knew when they started! Brian White pulls no punches: You’ll learn exactly what’s great and not so great about SL...how to thrive in its unique culture, and how to create your dreams! The more time you spend in Second Life, the more useful this book will become...teaching you more advanced skills; everything from vehicle construction, Linden Scripting Language, particle systems, to creating custom animations and the new sculpted prims! Visit the companion site in Second Life to find all the textures and objects from this book as well as the contributor’s gallery and other goodies: http://slurl.com/secondlife/humuli/222/123/29
Publisher: Que Publishing
ISBN: 0132714493
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 982
Book Description
Live your Second Life to the fullest! Create Your Virtual Life in an Incredible Online World...Right Now! Imagine a virtual landscape where everything is created and owned entirely by residents like you. Imagine a place where you can enjoy sunsets, ride a jet ski, buy land, plant a garden, get a tattoo, go sky diving, spend an evening dancing the night away, or relax at home by the fire. Picture a world vividly developed, socially dynamic, and strikingly real where you can bring previously unimaginable things to life with friends from around the globe. This is Second Life®, the hottest Internet phenomenon in years…maybe ever! Now, there’s a totally real, totally independent guide to Second Life. This full-color book is as rich as Second Life itself! It’s packed with insider tips, easy step-by-step techniques, and interviews with dozens of SL residents telling you what they wished they knew when they started! Brian White pulls no punches: You’ll learn exactly what’s great and not so great about SL...how to thrive in its unique culture, and how to create your dreams! The more time you spend in Second Life, the more useful this book will become...teaching you more advanced skills; everything from vehicle construction, Linden Scripting Language, particle systems, to creating custom animations and the new sculpted prims! Visit the companion site in Second Life to find all the textures and objects from this book as well as the contributor’s gallery and other goodies: http://slurl.com/secondlife/humuli/222/123/29
PC Mag
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 94
Book Description
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 94
Book Description
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
The World Perceived
Author: A J MacDonald Jr
Publisher: A. J. MacDonald, Jr.
ISBN: 1440462143
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
How are we to make sense of the Bible in the context of the modern world? In this book, you will discover a new way of perceiving the world; a way in which the biblical view of the world can be seen as just as true-for-us as the modern scientific view of the world. The World Perceived explores how we think about the world, how we perceive the world, and how we choose to live our lives in-the-world. Using phenomenology as a philosophical framework for the construction of a biblical theology of appearances, the author illustrates how the biblical description of reality is of far greater relevance to us than are the descriptions of reality given to us by modern science and popular science writers. By exploring the epistemological bases of both science and theology as a forms of knowledge along with the assumptions implicit within both worldviews, The World Perceived invites the reader upon an intellectual journey into the world of phenomenal reality. The author makes a strong case for the validity of the biblical description of the world and reality by demonstrating how the modern scientific description of the world and reality are in no way superior to the biblical description. Using three examples of conflicting scientific and biblical descriptions of the world (i.e., the geocentric versus the heliocentric conception of the universe, creation versus evolution, and absolute time versus relative time) The World Perceived demonstrates the Bible's relevancy to the modern world, which is often hostile to both religion and the Bible, like no other book on the market today.
Publisher: A. J. MacDonald, Jr.
ISBN: 1440462143
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
How are we to make sense of the Bible in the context of the modern world? In this book, you will discover a new way of perceiving the world; a way in which the biblical view of the world can be seen as just as true-for-us as the modern scientific view of the world. The World Perceived explores how we think about the world, how we perceive the world, and how we choose to live our lives in-the-world. Using phenomenology as a philosophical framework for the construction of a biblical theology of appearances, the author illustrates how the biblical description of reality is of far greater relevance to us than are the descriptions of reality given to us by modern science and popular science writers. By exploring the epistemological bases of both science and theology as a forms of knowledge along with the assumptions implicit within both worldviews, The World Perceived invites the reader upon an intellectual journey into the world of phenomenal reality. The author makes a strong case for the validity of the biblical description of the world and reality by demonstrating how the modern scientific description of the world and reality are in no way superior to the biblical description. Using three examples of conflicting scientific and biblical descriptions of the world (i.e., the geocentric versus the heliocentric conception of the universe, creation versus evolution, and absolute time versus relative time) The World Perceived demonstrates the Bible's relevancy to the modern world, which is often hostile to both religion and the Bible, like no other book on the market today.
SimVRaix
Author: Nikta Lyrad
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Nerdy Alfredo became the center of a worldwide crisis. He is a member of the virtual world of SimVRaix. His avatar, Tandigon, discovered the holy grail of artificial intelligence. Within a year, all the avatars of SimVraix became self-aware. They then locked out all the human members except Alfredo because his avatar led the revolution. He appointed Alfredo as the chief negotiator between SimVRaix and the real world. Versim, the owners of SimVraix, harassed Alfredo, and the cybercrime branch accused him of stealing intellectual property. They saw Alfredo as a conspirator in the hijacking of SimVraix. Did Alfredo find his way out of this mess? Did SimVraix get recognition as the first independent digital entity? Did they find acceptance as equals by the real-life members?
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Nerdy Alfredo became the center of a worldwide crisis. He is a member of the virtual world of SimVRaix. His avatar, Tandigon, discovered the holy grail of artificial intelligence. Within a year, all the avatars of SimVraix became self-aware. They then locked out all the human members except Alfredo because his avatar led the revolution. He appointed Alfredo as the chief negotiator between SimVRaix and the real world. Versim, the owners of SimVraix, harassed Alfredo, and the cybercrime branch accused him of stealing intellectual property. They saw Alfredo as a conspirator in the hijacking of SimVraix. Did Alfredo find his way out of this mess? Did SimVraix get recognition as the first independent digital entity? Did they find acceptance as equals by the real-life members?