Digitalization and Reality

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Hi, I’m Sean O’Brien. Tonight, I’m going to talk about the digitalization of our world in a waythat of ers a more grounded perspective on reality.

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Consider the possibility that a growing portion of your life may be a lie. I’m talking aboutyour entertainment, your work tools, and your communication devices.

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Consider fakeness is so pervasive that even your money is built on it - and not just yourmoney. Massive wealth and entire companies and are built on it.

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Of course, I’m talking about the growing presence of virtual experiences that make up ourlives. The more familiar we get with the digital world, the more we forget that it is abstract,and not grounded in the physical.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/itchy73/3888789539/

Music is a good example of something that used to be grounded in physical objects likerecords and tapes. For many of us, music no longer has any specific physical referent.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/98469445@N00/327471676/

The concrete association of a book with reading is still around, but for how long? Throughobjects like these, our experiences had a connection with what most of us would agree is“real.”

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These concrete references for our experiences are disappearing. We are left with icons oncomputer screens, and they often refer to the last familiar physical container for the datawe’re using.

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Many products are now based ones and zeros; on-of  switches organized into patterns, justlike some largest companies of our time.

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I suggest that you look at the abstract nature of digital and consider where the line isbetween digital and real. If you start here it’s possible that you’ll get sucked into the largerquestion of “what is real.”

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• If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals

interpreted by your brain. - Morpheus, The Matrix 

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The question, “what is real?” can be traced back to Aristotle and actually has its own branch of philosophy called Ontology, which is the study of nature of being, existence, or reality.

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Even if you’re not interested in this larger philosophical inquiry, considering the line betweendigital and real could have benefits in everyday life.

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Assuming there is a definite line between abstract and concrete, or the real and the digital,let’s look at where than line could be drawn in some common examples.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/1145350556/

Let’s say you get mad at your computer. What’s happening is that little switches aren’tturning on and of as desired, but your direct experience is of a rectangle of tiny blinkinglights.

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If you were to keep the concrete physical reality in mind when you’re having a digitalexperience, strong emotional reactions would be a less likely.

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As our virtual experiences become more immersive, we can benefit from cultivatingawareness of the question: Where does real stop and digital begin?

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Tonight I’ve suggested that you take a look at the line between what’s real and what’s digitalor virtual, and perhaps go deeper and explore the question, “What is real.”

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I’ve also made a case that investigating the line between the digital and real might of ersome relief from virtual stress as our world becomes more and more abstract.

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