{"id":1115,"date":"1994-10-29T07:44:05","date_gmt":"1994-10-29T07:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qa-virtual-reality-worldq\/"},"modified":"2014-02-02T07:47:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T07:47:26","slug":"october-qa-virtual-reality-worldq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qa-virtual-reality-worldq\/","title":{"rendered":"A Virtual Reality World"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Men seek stronger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense . . . They try to stab their nerves to life, as if it were with knives of the priest of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G.K. Chesterton<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The February 8, 1993 issue of Time magazine introduced us to \u2018\u2018Cyberpunk.\u2019\u2019 It is \u2018\u2018technology with an attitude.\u2019\u2019 The word describes the growing world of \u2018\u2018Virtual Reality,\u2019\u2019 the fusing of humans and machines. \u2018\u2018Cyber\u2019\u2019 is taken from \u2018\u2018Cybernetics\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2018Punk\u2019\u2019 from the idea of an antisocial hoodlum. This technological underworld is a labyrinth of hypertext such as cyberspace, interzones, synaesthesia, cryonics, dystopia and rants. Thousands of otherwise bored souls are exploring worlds that only exist in the mind and a computer link.\u00a0 According to Time, during WW II, Norbert Wiener of M.I.T. designed systems for antiaircraft guns and found that the critical component in a control system is a feedback loop that gives a controller information on the results of its actions. He called this type of study \u2018\u2018Cybernetics\u2019\u2019 (from the Greek word kubernetes), the science of communication and control theory.<\/p>\n

In the New Testament, kubernetes means the \u2018\u2018master\u2019\u2019 (Acts 27:11) or the \u2018\u2018shipmaster\u2019\u2019 (Rev 18:17). It was a person linked together with the rudder (from a word signifying hardness) that controlled the ship. Whereas I might call this device a \u2018\u2018steering wheel,\u2019\u2019 my kids would most likely call it a \u2018\u2018joystick.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The concept of virtual reality grows out of cybernetics. It is the ability to contact and control a situation without actually being there and without actually suffering negative consequences for inappropriate action. As Neil Postman writes in his 1992 book Technopoly, \u2018\u2018Putting on a set of miniature goggle-mounted screens, one may block out the real world and move through a simulated three-dimensional world which changes its components with every movement to one\u2019s head.\u2019\u2019 Gene Veith, writing in his 1994 book Postmodern Times adds, \u2018\u2018When this technology is perfected, we will be able to take part in multi-sensory fantasies, as if we were the main character in a science fiction movie. Some people are even looking forward to virtual reality body condoms which will offer pre-programmed sexual fantasies.\u2019\u2019 The fact is, according to Time, magazines already exist that are user guides to \u2018\u2018everything from virtual reality and wetware to designer aphrodisiacs and techno-erotic paganism, promising to make cyberpunk\u2019s rarefied perspective immediately accessible.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

We should not be overly negative nor alarmists. There will also be amazing educational tools developed from this technology. Students may be able to travel to foreign lands or take a simple field trip without leaving the classroom. I may be able to go fly-fishing along a mountain stream but never leave the office. But human nature being what it is, the dangers will overshadow the benefits. That is why the market is already flooded with attractions to the flesh while the classroom sits empty. And I am not sure I am willing to give up the real thing for what is virtually real anyway. I can see my old professor Noel Smith, who wouldn\u2019t drink coffee out of a paper cup and disdained clip-on ties, thanking the Lord that he \u2018\u2018checked out\u2019\u2019 when he did!<\/p>\n

We may, however, be witnessing the inevitable outcome (coupled with the technological know-how) of a long infatuation with the unreal. My first trip to a theme park was to Disneyland. I loved it and always have. I could be Tom Sawyer riding a raft down the Mississippi, a star fighter in outer space or Pinocchio inside a giant whale. Now, almost every town has a mall which creates the idea of being outside while you are really inside. Some, like Minnesota\u2019s Mall of America takes you virtually anywhere else you want to go. We can go to Mexico to eat Mexican food at Chi Chi\u2019s or to the great outdoors to buy a fishing rod at Bass Pro Shop. We can even jump from dangerous heights to experience the sensation of falling to our death only to be yanked back to reality by a bungee cord. Of course, we may add to this the theater, television, video arcade and computer.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018The problem,\u2019\u2019 says Veith, \u2018\u2018comes when the mind-set of the malls and theme parks becomes confused with Christianity.\u2019\u2019 Witness, for example, Rev. Tommy Barnett, pastor of Phoenix First Assembly with its $500,000 special-effects system (copied from Bally\u2019s casino in Las Vegas), as he ascends into the auditorium\u2019s ceiling after finishing a Sunday sermon (Wall Street Journal, 12-11-90). Does such miraculous simulation make real or virtually real believers? Can we turn such faith on and off like a television set? Do we exit the game by exiting the auditorium? Robert Wenz in Room For God? writes, \u2018\u2018The marketing church has led to dangerous application of church growth principles to the \u2018now\u2019 generation that demands instant gratification or at least instant feedback.\u2019\u2019 Exactly like being at the controls of the latest video game.<\/p>\n

To gain our bearings we might download a bit of information from Webster. We might conclude, for example, that \u2018\u2018virtual reality\u2019\u2019 is a bit of an oxymoron. Virtual is from the Latin virtus meaning \u2018\u2018being in essence or effect but not in fact.\u2019\u2019 Virtu is a noun form describing an art lover \u2018\u2018especially of a curios or antique nature.\u2019\u2019 Art, after all, is a representation but not a reality. Virtue is a derivative which means \u2018\u2018conformity to a standard of right\u2019\u2019 but never attaining the real perfection. On the other hand, reality is from the Latin Res meaning fact. Real is to be \u2018\u2018fixed, permanent, or unmovable.\u2019\u2019 It is \u2018\u2018agreement between what a thing seems to be and what it is.\u2019\u2019 That is why we call a piece of land \u2018\u2018real estate.\u2019\u2019 So what is virtual reality? It is unreal reality. Nonreality. Nonsense.<\/p>\n

Christopher Meyer, a cyberpunk himself, said that cybernetics is \u2018\u2018all data. It all takes up the same amount of space on disk, and a lot of it is just plain noise.\u2019\u2019 But we must remember that we all have a kubernetes, a pilot over our body and soul. Seneca said, \u2018\u2018No man is free who is a slave to the flesh.\u2019\u2019 Hermes said of Christ that he is the \u2018\u2018kubernetes ton somaton hemon,\u2019\u2019 the \u2018\u2018Pilot of our souls.\u2019\u2019 That is not virtual reality but reality that is virtuous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Men seek stronger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense . . . They try to stab their nerves to life, as if it were with knives of the priest of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G.K. Chesterton The February 8, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nA Virtual Reality World - Aletheia Baptist Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/october-qa-virtual-reality-worldq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Virtual Reality World - Aletheia Baptist Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Men seek stronger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense . . . They try to stab their nerves to life, as if it were with knives of the priest of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G.K. 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