Back to the Cave - Cultural Perspectives on Virtual Reality

Two contrasting paradigms for interpreting reality are proposed as a means for understanding the ‘virtual reality’ phenomenon. The first is a direct descendant from the European ‘triumph of reason over nature’ school of enlightenment. The second derives from older traditions, that there are myths or ‘given’ truths which are looked at and interpreted much as an audience looks at and interprets a play in a theatre. An early experiment in the technology of virtual reality, Ecogame, is identified with the first and more recent scene simulators with the second. Finally, the two paradigms are linked together to provide some pointers to more fundamental possibilities.