The Alleynian 705 2017

IDENTITY

then a funny thing happened: we began to prefer the diminished substitutes.’ Take a moment to ponder the number of people you might have met or got to know a little better in those few moments of rest – in the waiting room for a job interview; in the boardroom before the start of a meeting; on the tube – if you weren’t absorbed by the pixels of your smartphone. When our attention is focused on our phones, the real world becomes our secondary attention priority, potentially leading to the upbringing of a generation less able to establish and maintain meaningful relationships. Author Simon Sinek looks at this issue in his video ‘Millennials in the Workplace’. However, social media on a handheld device can only temporarily divert attention. Ultimately, you look up from your phone and you’re given an opportunity to face the social and political problems of the 21st century with the remaining 19 or so hours of your day. Virtual Reality (VR) promises almost full immersion, almost complete distraction from the world around us. While it may seem a purely hedonistic, recreational form of entertainment when in our homes, especially given the sharp investment in VR games, there are many ethical issues raised by the notion of mobile virtual reality and mobile Augmented Reality (AR). Whether, as with AR, VR and real life are blended, or you opt for full reality- But what if you couldn’t?

When our attention is focused on our phones, the real world becomes our secondary attention priority

replacing VR, the real world becomes warped, which could have damaging ethical and emotional consequences. It has been widely conceptualised that Virtual Reality will soon become mobile, with users able to control remotely other ‘selves’ in Virtual Reality. Not only could this occur in extremely realistic virtual worlds, but also, as seen in the 2009 film Surrogates , in the real world, using AR, with people controlling ideal versions of themselves in robot form. If this became widely used, huge issues of personhood arise: as the realism of VR becomes a simulacrum (Jean Baudrillard), which self is the real self? If crimes are committed in virtual realities, should the perpetrator be considered a criminal in the real world? Does that mean the perpetrator is emotionally capable of committing those same crimes in the real world? But VR and AR present more deep-seated emotional issues for our generation to tackle. If phones

have impaired our ability to be emotionally ‘there’ – to empathise with others and maintain meaningful relationships – how will we cope when we can metaphorically run away to automatically generated worlds, where artificial, AI-driven relationships offer more reward with less emotional input? Will the technology that promises to smash open the boundaries of reality ironically be responsible for isolating us from the real world? And surely it’s inevitable that we’ll reach a point where virtual reality is so realistic… it ceases to be virtual? Despite raging world leaders, the tragic promise of global warming and various inevitable economic crises, the young people of our time must also face the very real virtual issues presented by a simulacrum we ourselves have created. One question stands out from the sea of ethical dilemmas. Which reality will you choose?

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