Michael Heim's "The Essence of Virtual Reality" comes from his book The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. The article is an informative article about virtual reality. The article discusses the history of VR, tells what VR does, and gives the definition for VR. Heim gives the reader a long drawn out version of how important he believes virtual reality is. As a reader, I find it hard to read this essay and understand it.

In his definition of virtual reality, Heim uses Webster's dictionary to define virtual and reality, and then he pieces the two definitions together to say "virtual reality is an event or entity that is real in effect but not in fact." Not everybody will be able to understand this; a simpler way to explain virtual reality would be to say that it is a place where the mind can escape from reality for a short period of time. Heim talks about computers being the foundation of virtual reality, when in actuality they are not. For example, every time we go to the movies we allow our minds to escape reality, and we are in a new world for a couple of hours. Playing video games is another example of virtual reality at work. Virtual reality does not only exist on computers; it is in other aspects of our lives, too.

While discussing the history of virtual reality, Heim starts talking about space travel and why the Americans wanted to be the first into outer space and land on the moon. This part of his discussion has nothing to do with virtual reality or computers; Heim might well be talking about the advancing of technology, but he is saying nothing about virtual reality. He does not even talk that much about the history of virtual reality.

Heim also uses a language that only people who already know about virtual reality would understand. As someone who has no clue what virtual reality is and how to make it work, I find this essay very difficult to read and understand. He could have used a simpler form of language to explain the equipment and describe virtual reality. There are a lot of people who want to learn about computers but who find it hard to understand computer language.

In the end, the essay gives a good sense of what virtual reality is, but it takes several reading to be able to get through the other information in the text that is not needed. The definition should have been made more clearly, and Heim should have used simpler language. True, he is very knowledgeable about virtual reality, but he should put his knowledge in a form that any individual would be able to understand.

Heim, Michael. "The Essence of VR." CyberReader. 2nd ed. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. 20-34.