The Oxford Handbook of VirtualityMark Grimshaw As this comprehensive and multi-disciplinary anthology makes clear, virtuality has a pedigree that pre-dates the computer age and modern virtual worlds, a pedigree that can be traced back to classical mythology and beyond. Equally, the concept of virtuality is not the province of one field of study alone but is the foundation and driving force of many, both theoretical and applied. Our conceptualizations and applications of virtuality are multiple, as is shown across the nine sections of the book that move from philosophy to technologies and applications before returning to philosophy again for a discussion of the utopias and dystopias of virtuality. The almost 50 essays contained within range freely across subjects that include the potential of virtuality, ethics, virtuality and self, presence and immersion, virtual emotions, image, sound and literature, computer games, AI and A-Life, Augmented Reality and Real Virtuality, law and economics, medical and military applications, religion, and cybersex. Throughout, contributors discuss differences between virtuality, reality, and actuality, in debates filtered through the lenses of the disciplines represented here, and speculate on future directions. It is not at all clear that there are differences and, if such distinctions are to be found, the boundaries between virtuality, reality, and actuality continually shift as ideas, modes of organization, and behaviors constantly flow from one to the other regardless of direction. The Handbook presents no unified definition of virtuality to comfort the reader, rather a multiplicity of questions and approaches underpinned by provocative statements that should further fuel the debates surrounding our notions of virtuality. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
PART I THE FOUNDATIONS OF VIRTUALITY | 15 |
PART II PSYCHOLOGY AND PERCEPTION | 127 |
PART III CULTURE AND SOCIETY | 237 |
PART IV SOUND | 349 |
PART V IMAGE | 405 |
PART VI ECONOMY AND LAW | 479 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Accessed actions activity actual allow appear applications avatar become behavior body brain chapter characters cognitive communication complex concept considered create culture defined described devices discussed display edited effects embodied emergence emotions engagement example existence experience expression fact feel figure function future human identity imagination immersion important individual interaction International Internet involved issues learning live means move nature networks notion objects organisms perception performance person physical play players possible potential practices presence Press produce question refer relation relationship representation response result Second sense simulation social sound space specific suggests theory things tion understanding University Press users virtual environments virtual reality virtual worlds visual York