New Reading

As I procrastinate the actual writing process of my thesis, I have found myself reading something new – something I was told I was not allowed to do until my thesis was completed. But I could not help myself. The book has been sitting on my shelf for over 6 months (i cannot believe that I took this book out of the library in March, and not one person has recalled it on me!). Nonetheless, in order to prep my brain for thinking deeper than holiday recipes and new decor ideas for my new house, I cracked open the pages and started reading. I am not sure how helpful it will be for THIS thesis (good thing I have one more left!), but the ideas in it move me. The idea that our longing for a technological state of being has been with us much longer than today’s virtual revolution gives credit – as Ihde puts it, techno-fantasies has been a part of human culture since at least the thirteenth century with Francis Bacon.

In this book, Ihde, who is a ‘phenomenological materialist’ , seeks to understand the current state of the relationship between the body and technology. The impacts of ideas (perhaps even moreso than actual occurences) of virtual reality, embodiement and the internet.

Although I am not done the book, it is taking me in a direction that I have been craving for. A desire to think about games, technology and the self on a relative philosophical level … on a level that has no answers, but only digs up more questions about who we are as a culture and society, what drives us and how long it has been so much the same even though it seems like things are changing at light speed.