Description
"Enough with speculation about our digital future. Infinite Reality is the straight dope on what is and isn't happening to us right now, from two of the only scientists working on the boundaries between real life and its virtual extensions."
--Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed
Can our brains recognize where reality ends and virtual begins? Where will technology lead us in five, fifty, or five hundred years? An unrivaled guide to our digital future that has been cited by the Supreme Court, Infinite Reality is a mind-bending journey through the virtual universe (Wall Street Journal). Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two pioneering authorities, explore the profound potential of emerging technologies and reveal how our brains behave in digital worlds.
Along the way, Bailenson and Blascovich examine the timeless philosophical questions of the self and reality that arise through the digital experience; explain how virtual reality's latest and future forms--including immersive video games and social-networking sites--will soon be seamlessly integrated into our lives; show the many surprising practical applications of virtual reality, from education and medicine to sex and warfare; and probe further-off possibilities like total personality downloads that would allow your great-great-grandchildren to have a conversation with you a century or more after your death.
Equally fascinating, farsighted, and profound, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our virtual future, where the experience of being human will be deeply transformed.
Author: Jim Blascovich, Jeremy Bailenson
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Published: 02/14/2012
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 7.96h x 5.32w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780061809514
ISBN10: 0061809519
BISAC Categories:
- Computers | Virtual & Augmented Reality
- Computers | Social Aspects
- Social Science | Media Studies
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