The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (Oxford Handbooks)

The book is a compendium of thinking on virtuality and its relationship to reality from the perspective of a variety of philosophical and applied fields of study. Topics covered include presence, immersion, emotion, ethics, utopias and dystopias, image, sound, literature, AI, law, economics, medical and military applications, religion, and sex. Cover THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF VIRTUALITY Copyright CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CONTRIBUTOR AFFILIATIONS ABOUT THE COMPANION WEBSITE INTRODUCTION PART I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF VIRTUALITY 1. THE VIRTUALITY AND REALITY OF AVATAR CYBERSPACE 2. THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL REALITY OF VIRTUAL WORLDS 3. ENVISIONING THE VIRTUAL 4. BEING MORE THAN YOURSELF: VIRTUALITY AND HUMAN SPIRIT 5. MYTHOLOGIES OF VIRTUALITY: “OTHER SPACE” AND “SHARED DIMENSION” FROM ANCIENT MYTHS TO CYBERSPACE 6. THE PARADOX OF VIRTUALITY PART II. PSYCHOLOGY AND PERCEPTION 7. AVATAR PSYCHOLOGY 8. NOT QUITE HUMAN: WHAT VIRTUAL CHARACTERS HAVE TAUGHT US ABOUT PERSON PERCEPTION 9. EMOTIONS AND ALTERED STATES OF AWARENESS: THE VIRTUALITY OF REALITY AND THE REALITY OF VIRTUALITY 10. APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL PLAUSIBILITY TO THE UNCANNY VALLEY PHENOMENON 11. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADDICTION TO VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS: THE ALLURE OF THE VIRTUAL SELF 12. BEING PRESENT IN A VIRTUAL WORLD 13. IMMERSION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS PART III. CULTURE AND SOCIETY 14. COMMUNICATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS 15. SO GOOD, THEY NAMED IT TWICE? A LACANIAN PERSPECTIVE ON VIRTUAL REALITY FROM LITERATURE AND THE OTHER ARTS 16. HISTORY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS 17. FLIRTING, CHEATING, DATING, AND MATING IN A VIRTUAL WORLD 18. CYBERSEX 19. A VIRTUAL ASSEMBLY: CONSTRUCTING RELIGION OUT OF ZEROS AND ONES 20. ACOUSTEMOLOGIES OF THE CLOSET PART IV. SOUND 21. BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL? USER-GENERATED SONIC CONTENT IN VIRTUAL WORLDS 22. SONIC VIRTUALITY: UNDERSTANDING AUDIO IN A VIRTUAL WORLD 23. VIRTUAL WORLDS: AN ETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 24. THE MUSIC THAT’S NOT THERE PART V. IMAGE 25. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE ART OF VIRTUAL WORLDS 26. RECREATING VISUAL REALITY IN VIRTUALITY 27. THE TRANSLATION OF ART IN VIRTUAL WORLDS 28. PAINTING, THE VIRTUAL, AND THE CELLULOID FRAME PART VI. ECONOMY AND LAW 29. VIRTUAL LAW 30. VIRTUALITY IN THE SPHERE OF ECONOMICS PART VII. A-LIFE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 31. ON THE ROLE OF “DIGITAL ACTORS” IN ENTERTAINMENT-BASED VIRTUAL WORLDS 32. EVOLUTION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS 33. VIRTUAL ECOLOGIES AND ENVIRONMENTS 34. COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF BRAIN FUNCTION AND THE HUMAN HAPTIC SYSTEM AT THE NEURAL SPIKE LEVEL: LEARNING THE DYNAMICS OF A SIMULATED BODY PART VIII. TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS 35. DISTRIBUTED EMBODIMENT: REAL PRESENCE IN VIRTUAL BODIES 36. LEVEL OF REALISM: FEEL, SMELL, AND TASTE IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS 37. DEVELOPING HANDHELD AUGMENTED REALITY INTERFACES 38. AVOIDABLE PITFALLS IN VIRTUAL-WORLD LEARNING DESIGN 39. MEDICAL CLINICAL USES OF VIRTUAL WORLDS 40. MILITARY SIMULATIONS USING VIRTUAL WORLDS PART IX. UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA 41. ETHICS AT THE BOUNDARIES OF THE VIRTUAL 42. THE SOCIAL IMAGINARY OF VIRTUAL WORLDS 43. VIRTUALITY AND HUMANITY 44. VIRTUAL DYSTOPIA AN AFTERWORD IN FOUR BINARISMS INDEX As this comprehensive and multidisciplinary book makes clear, virtuality has a pedigree that pre-dates the computer age and modern virtual worlds, a pedigree that can be traced back to classical mythology and beyond. Equally, the concept of virtuality is not the province of one field of study alone but is the foundation and driving force of many, both theoretical and applied. Our conceptualizations and applications of virtuality are multiple, as contributors demonstrate across the nine sections of the book that move from philosophy to technologies and applications before returning to philosophy again for a discussion of the utopias and dystopias of virtuality. The almost 50 essays contained within range freely across subjects that include the potential of virtuality, ethics, virtuality and self, presence and immersion, virtual emotions, image, sound and literature, computer games, AI and A-Life, Augmented Reality and Real Virtuality, law and economics, medical and military applications, religion, and cybersex. Throughout, contributors discuss differences between virtuality, reality, and actuality, in debates filtered through the lenses of the disciplines represented here, and speculate on future directions. It is not at all clear that there are differences and, if such distinctions are to be found, the boundaries between virtuality, reality, and actuality continually shift as ideas, modes of organization, and behaviors constantly flow from one to the other regardless of direction. The Handbook presents no unified definition of virtuality to comfort the reader, rather a multiplicity of questions and approaches underpinned by provocative statements that should further fuel the debates surrounding our notions of virtuality. This text makes clear that virtuality has a pedigree that pre-dates the computer age and modern virtual worlds, a pedigree that can be traced back to classical mythology and beyond. Equally, the concept of virtuality is not the province of one field of study alone but is the foundation and driving force of many, both theoretical and applied. Our conceptualizations and applications of virtuality are multiple, this text moves from philosophy to technologies and applications before returning to philosophy again for a discussion of the utopias and dystopias of virtuality. The essays in this book range across subjects that include the potential of virtuality, ethics, virtuality and self, presence and immersion, virtual emotions, image, sound and literature, computer games, AI and A-Life, Augmented Reality and Real Virtuality, law and economics, medical and military applications, religion, and cybersex. This text discusses differences between virtuality, reality, and actuality, in debates filtered through the lenses of the disciplines represented here, and speculate on future directions. The boundaries between virtuality, reality, and actuality continually shift as ideas, modes of organization, and behaviors constantly flow from one to the other regardless of direction. This book presents no unified definition of virtuality to comfort the reader, rather a multiplicity of questions and approaches underpinned by provocative statements that should further fuel the debates surrounding our notions of virtuality An anthology of thinking on virtuality from the perspective of a variety of philosophical and applied fields of study, the Oxford Handbook of Virtuality comprises 44 chapters covering topics such as presence, immersion, emotion, ethics, virtual utopias and dystopias, image, sound, literature, AI, law, economics, education, medical and military applications, religion, and sex. A variety of views on virtuality is offered from each discipline represented, and the relationships between virtuality and reality and actuality are extensively debated. First wide-ranging anthology of virtuality as it relates to a number of diverse fields of study, newly commissioned chapters by established and rising scholars alike, provocative assertions and novel ideas balanced against scholarly debate and new research, multidisciplinary volume ranging from philosophy to technologies to applications, Visit the companion website at www.oup.com/us/ohov Book jacket