by Jessica Redmond
This essay approaches the cyber world in terms of being on a drug-induced high. It refers to the senses we do or do not use in a cyber community. Rushkoff makes very risky claims that I will disagree with, based on the fact that I have never been "tripping" on acid. Most of his claims are based on that experience.
In reading this essay, I determined that living life in the realms of virtual reality means using more of our senses. I believe it requires substituting hearing for seeing, feeling for interpreting, and instinct for pure knowledge. Instead of hearing things going on around us, we will be seeing things in dimensions that are new and different from what we are used to.
Rushkoff makes his claim by comparing cyber exploration to being on a psychedelic high (37). He says that "cyberians" and "trippers" do not need to communicate. Their lack of verbal communication is not a problem, because they are having similar experiences in which talking is optional. To me this idea of "tripping" makes for a very weak point. Most of the general population has not experienced a high and does not comprehend what life would be like in virtual reality. This idea is not presented as an argument, but as a statement. We cannot argue about being on a high if we do not know what it is like. Virtual reality is a way of living that will be full of process and precision. This is nothing like the world we live in now, and it would be hard to for most people to relate to. I am not sure that I want to be in such a world. Rushkoff declares that, in a virtual world, individuality will be lost and won't really exist. To me that is what makes a world, a nation, a city, a community, and a family. Individuality is the foundation of our world. It is a world full of ego. The statements about psychedelic drugs being like cyberspace might be true, but that is not the argument in this essay. The argument, and the side that I will choose as the right side, is that one cannot make a claim, have the grounds to support it, and have little rebuttal when most people don't understand what it is one is trying to explain.
Rushkoff, Douglas. "Seeing Is Beholding." CyberReader. 2nd ed. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. 250-252.
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