Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 15:37:22 -0400
From: SBronzell-AT-aol.com
Subject: Re: human body transformation


Patrick writes:

>Well, in some sense, of course (maybe the most important sense) everything
is
virtuality because everything is our perception of it.  And "perception" here
doesn't just mean our variously skewed interpretations but our literal, 
physically mediated/generated perceptions.  Given the right technology a 
*virtual* world is indistinguishable from a *real* world because both are
real and both become relevant and meaningful to us only by virtue of our 
perceptions.  

>If this sense of virtuality is supposed to show that it is just a short hop
to
the gas chambers, then it also shows that it is Not a short hop to the gas 
chambers, because many people also readily believe that others they *only*
know
virtually (the Pigmies, the Poor, the Starving Children, the Third World, the
Oppressed) are noble and feeling and valuable and worthy of aid.  I don't see
that virtuality places us on any particular trajectory with regard to our
constructions of O/others. 

>Patrick

Well, here I go, about to scandalize and cause trouble...

I'll say it plainly as perhaps a shock.  That kind of virtual good is
meaningless.  Having said that in *perhaps* exaggerated terms, let me pull
back a step and look at it more questioningly.

What I am questioning is the virtual as a whole process, not just the
supposedly bad side of it, to be balanced by the positive side and all that.
 That it has a positive side does not lessen its virtuality.

What I am suggesting is that to "save the world" is a virtual idea and an
atrocious one probably, *in it's own positive way.*  Whose world will you
save?  If salvation were only so easy!  If it were only a matter of getting
an idea and following it out faithfully!  If it were only a matter of
righting wrongs, of defending one's family, of dying for or even just
supporting a cause!

Helping somone who asks for help, who obviously needs physical help,
etcetera, I am not about to say such things should not be done.  I will
gratefully accept, for instance, any money you want to send.  ;-}

These people I know of virtually who are noble and in need of aid, what do I
really know of them?  Probably at least that they are human.  For the moment.
 And I am human.  And knowing myself I know humanity is not just some noble
creature deserving of aid.  No human is.  It's more poetic than that, more
integral.  Or so I might put it.  

It is the "constructions of others"  that I am questioning, not to mention
the constructions of ourselves.  My eyes are constructing all the time; I'm
not going to attack that.  But at the same time I don't have to be ruled by
it.  And to not be ruled by the virtual, or our perceptions, or worldview or
idea of salvation, is to not rely upon anything, not any other virtuality
either.  To have your virtuality out in the open.  To not really know.  To
take one's own senses with a grain of salt.  So to say the virtual is
indistinguishable from the "real" doesn't change much.  

We already live virtually.  And science continues to broach into new worlds
or realms.  But nowhere has science found a nonvirtual world.  This last
sentence can be read negatively or positively.  What we have found is
relationship.  All these virtual realms seem to overlap and interact, etc.
 There doesn't seem to be one world sealed off from all the rest.  And if
there is, by definition we will never know of it, because any broaching of
any such seal would involve relationship...

So, trans-formation becomes a very interesting word.  To be trans-forms.  The
trans-virtual.  It is not the virtual as such which seems so deadly; it is
our ignorance.  Ignorance as ignoring.  However, one can say that to ignore
is part and parcel of the virtual, of our perceptions, etc.  So.

The virtual is seductive because it has its own power.  That I can lead a
rich and varied life within the virtual.  This is too old a thread throughout
humanity's history, in practically every sphere of endeavor.  It is a major
problem or crux or tricky wicket.  Not just to be shrugged off.

The latest technology is a manifestation of this age-old condition.

Sean



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