Virtual World

In chapter 5, Zettl poses potential problems of virtual reality in a “postmodern existentialist context.” Zettl states that “we are operating in an amoral environment, an environment free of threats or reprisals, whose virtual character liberates us from feeling any form of existential angst when making choices. After all, we are no longer interacting with real people in a real world, but with synthetic objects and subjects in a virtual environment. Shapiro and McDonald are quite right when asking whether we should ‘feel guilty about committing adultery’ in virtual reality. The synthetic world of virtual reality seems to promise us not so much how to exercise control over our environment, but rather how to escape from it.”

This scenario reminds me of an emerging virtual world named Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab and was launched in 2003. The purpose of Second Life is to create a virtual avatar that will enable a person to free themselves from their personal world. According to Second Life, the virtual world is a “place to connect, a place to shop, a place to work, a place to love, a place to explore, a place to be different, be yourself, free yourself, free your mind, change your mind, change your look, love your look, and love your life.” Second Life is a perfect example of using the virtual world as a way of escaping one’s environment. The virtual character liberates the users from reprisals and allows the users to say and do things that they might not have.