X-Message-Number: 5328
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Falling Off Cliffs
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 02:26:26 +1100 (EST)

Thought a bit more about Thomas Donaldson's posting ...

Thomas cites Saul Kent's suggestion that there is an empirical
difference between virtual reality and real reality; in real reality,
walk off a cliff and you're dead. But of course that could be done in a
virtual reality too; just model the forces realistically.

But in point of fact you don't even need modern technology for "virtual"
reality to kill people. There are documented cases of people dying from
the placebo effect of a pointed bone. There are countless instances of
people sacrificing themselves and others to placate "virtual" deities.

This is what I mean when I say that reality is already virtual. You build a
model in your head; that model is based upon your experience. If your 
experience derives from some kind of technology, or whether it derives from
some prosaic process, or even from faith, that doesn't in itself necessarily
invalidate the model. So I don't understand the distinction you're trying to
draw.

--

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