I thought this might be interesting to add to the simulation
discussion before it ends.
The PBS Frontline "Digital Nation" By Rachel Dretzin and Douglas
Rushkoff.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
In chapter 8, 01:06:55 min into the chapter, the filmmakers introduce
an interesting topic: the "Drones" (http://bit.ly/95F2Kk) .
Based out side Las Vegas, US air force pilots fly Drones that execute
missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
75,000 miles away from the battlefield, they wear uniforms, to remind
them they are fighting a 'real' war.
Here technology rewrites the rule of the game, where the risks are
all one way, the pilot gets to shoot without getting shot at.
This is a different reality where soldiers are dealing out risk
without excepting risk.
This detachment to risk, to real life danger is somehow disturbing.
At the end of the day these pilots go back home to their families,
and back to "war" the next morning.
While physically located in the US their are effecting lives of
others in a distant place.
This theater simulation, while engaging with reality, is not unique
to the US air force. Wars are changing and the consequences will
resonate.
Are new technologies recontextualizing all the theories we discuss here?
Reshaping (and re-shaking) the world we live in?
When the simulacra, the "representational" universe, could in fact
effect something or somebody in the real world.
In this example the body doesnt experience danger only the mind.
How does this effect our survival mechanism? - this might be a
question for the scientist here.
or how would it effect the notion of presence?
Will our mind learn to adopt to this new state? and how?
The artist here would agree that none verbal experiences can effect
physically, emotionally and intellectually. A great work of art can
communicate divine experiences though sounds, visuals etc. Empathy,
and more scientifically mirror neurons, can simulate in us an
experience as if it was us experiencing it.
How would that effect mirror neurons, for example, would they have
different function in the future? Will our brain develop differently
due to our growing virtual experiences?
Best,
Nurit Bar-Shai
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