Changing Personas

In class, we discussed what happens to people when they enter a virtual world (such as a television show, movie, or video game) and what happens when they exit. Although we explored surrounding ideas, we never came to a satisfying answer to this question. And perhaps there is no logical or rational answer to this question.

Proposed solutions depend on philisophical perspectives of being. For a materialist, the person is not literaly transported into another realm when they are interacting with different medias. They are merely reacting to the visual and auditory rays and waves from the physical apparatus. For a dualist, a persons soul could literaly depart and exist within the story created through the medium. Since the body and soul have such a close assosiation within this metaphysical paradigm, occurances within this alterior universe could affect the persons body. For example, when a persons soul feels the weight on a characters emotion in a movie, the body could sense this burden and react through crying. An idealist might claim that a person could fully engage and exist within the virtual universe and return to their bodies later on in order to achieve physical goals.

Whatever happens, there seems to be degrees to which people are transported into the technological worlds. The senses of an imaginative person in a dark imax theatre with surround sound will be more embedded in the technological sensory world than a person in a light room surfing channels on a small, low-defintion television.

Ofcourse, the degree to which a person is transported into another world does not necessarily correalate with the complexity of the technology which creates the other universe. A good book for an avid reader can transport an individual further from their original supposed reality than a movie based off that book since reading inspires people to create their own unique mental imagery. Often, this process of translating words into pictures allows the reader to escape their physical setting to enter the author's literary world.

No matter what actually happens and to what degree, the person can never return from any encounter with an alterior universe without changing their perspective, although it could be very subtle.