The term ‘Cyberspace’ encapsulates fascinating technologies such as 3D displays, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality as well as simply surfing the web. Therefore Cyberspace is a relevant concept to almost everyone even today. • Why are we attracted to Cyberspace? • The moral issues and aspects faced in Cyberspace • Hierarchies of realities and Platos' concept of 'Ideas' • Rene' Descartes and scepticism - Can we differentiate between realities? • Are we faced with the worst drugs ever known to mankind?

1. Philosophy of the Future
Amnon Carmel
Amnon Carmel

2. Introduction to the
Philosophy of the Future
"I never think of the future,
it comes soon enough.“
(Albert Einstein)
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3. Why Philosophy?
• Humans are mentally
identical for the last
200,000 years
• We have been questioning
our world ever since
• Plato lived 2,400 years ago,
Descartes lived 400 years
ago. We are still dealing with
similar issues today
• We truly are standing on
the shoulders of giants
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4. Why Future Technologies?
• Amazing technologies are emerging, but
are still at early stages
• Technology advances exponentially
(The law of accelerating returns)
• Technology is advancing much faster
than culture, morals and ethics
• We should think and plan ahead
• Robots, Genetics, Nanotechnology, Life
extension, VR, BMI, AI, and more...
• Tonight I will discuss the Philosophy of
Cyberspace
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5. Cyberspace Technologies
“This is just the beginning, the beginning of understanding
that cyberspace has no limits, no boundaries.”
(Nicholas Negroponte)
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6. What Is Cyberspace?
• Cyberspace = Space & Cybernetics
• Coined by William Gibson in his book
„Burning Chrome‟ (1982)
• Refers to „Real‟ Virtual Reality (VR)
• Relates to all virtual environments
• Cyberspace is in its early stages
• Real VR will change everything...
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7. Cyberspace Technologies
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8. Cyberspace Technologies
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9. The Philosophy Of Cyberspace
“The further backward you look. The further
forward you can see”
(Winston Churchill)
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10. Cyberspace as Ultimate Drug
• Addiction
• Creativity
• (False) sense of
Freedom
• Alternative reality
• Disconnection
between mind and
body
• False interpretation
of the senses
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11. What Draws us to Cyberspace?
• Aesthetic attraction
• Home for our souls
• Social interaction
• Thirst for knowledge (Erotic attraction to Eros)
• We long for escapism – Escape reality
• Escape from our physical prison
• Escapism is common in many cultures
• Cyberspace will be the ultimate drug
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12. A Higher Realm Of Reality?
“The surrogate life in cyberspace makes
flesh feel like a prison, a fall from
grace, a descent into a dark confusing
reality.
From the pit of life in the body, the
virtual life looks like the virtuous life.”
(Michael Heim)
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13. Plato And The „ Ideas ‟
• Plato claims that
there is a higher
realm of reality
• In this reality all
„true‟ forms
(Ideas) appear
• Our reality is a dull
shadow of the Ideas
• We cannot relay on
our senses, only on Plato
logic, math and ideas 348–347 BC
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14. Allegory of the Cave
• Thought Experiment Written by Plato in „The Republic‟
(380 BCE)
• Imagine a group of prisoners in a cave
• Captors display shadows on a wall
• Prisoners believe that this is the reality
• One of them escapes and experience the „real world‟
• He tries to free his friends but they don‟t believe
him and reject freedom
• Moral:
We must not rely on our senses
There is a hierarchy of realities
We might be blind in the face of the ‘real’ reality
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15. Hierarchy of Realities
• Similar to Plato„s “Ideas”, Cyberspace can be
seen as a different form of reality
• Cyberspace creates an illusion for the
senses and the mind (a.k.a. Virtual Reality)
• Cyberspace is viewed by most people as a
lower form of reality
• Yet Cyberspace can be seen as a higher
level of mental reality – Hyperreality
• Mental freedom is key to understand the
attraction to cyberspace
• Our world fails to compete with cyberspace
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16. Preferred Reality
• Being in Paris is
better than watching
a documentary
• But what about a 3D
IMAX movie? / Virtual
Reality? / „Real VR‟?
• Where is the border
line between
preferred realities?
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17. Post-Avatar Depression
“When I woke up this morning after
watching Avatar for the first time
yesterday, the world seemed ... gray.
It was like my whole life, everything I've done
and worked for, lost its meaning,”
“It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't
really see any reason to keep ... doing
things at all. I live in a dying world.”
(User named „Eltu‟ in the "Avatar" forum page)
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18. Rene Descartes Scepticism
• Tried to set a base
for science
• The apple basket
allegory
• Takes Scepticism to
the extreme
• One cannot rely on
our senses
• We can rely only on
the Cogito (not
even on math!)
• “Cogito Ergo Sum” René Descartes
1596 - 1650
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19. The Cogito In Cyberspace
• Cyberspace provides a
home for our Cogito
• Our Cogito is free to
roam in cyberspace
• Our senses are fooled
by a digital illusionist
demon
• All knowledge is in
doubt including physics
and mathematics
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20. Is Cyberspace Our Salvation?
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21. Is Cyberspace Our Demise?
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22. Is Cyberspace Moral?
“It is better to be a
human being
dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied...
And if the... pig, (is) of a
different opinion, it is
because they only
know their own side
of the question.”
[John Stuart Mill]
John Stuart Mill
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23. Summary
• Cyberspace provides gradual
progression towards „Real VR‟
• Cyberspace could be seen as a
higher realm of reality for the mind
• Cyberspace provides amazing benefits
yet also holds horrific dangers
• We need to prepare ourselves for the
coming technologies in order to have a
better tomorrow
• “We do not inherit the earth from our
ancestors, we borrow it from our
children” (Native American Proverb)
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24. Questions?
Amnon Carmel
amnoncarmel@gmail.com
twitter.com/amnoncarmel
amnoncarmel.wordpress.com
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