Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of Our Virtual Lives

by Jim Blascovich, Jeremy Bailenson

Overview

“Enough with speculation about our digital future. Infinite Reality is the straight dope on what is and isn’t happening to us right now, from two of the only scientists working on the boundaries between real life and its virtual extensions.”
—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed

Can our brains recognize where "reality" ends and "virtual" begins? Where will technology lead us in five, fifty, or five hundred years? An unrivaled guide to our digital future that has been cited by the Supreme Court, Infinite Reality is a mind-bending "journey through the virtual universe" (Wall Street Journal). Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two pioneering authorities, explore the profound potential of emerging technologies and reveal how our brains behave in digital worlds.

Along the way, Bailenson and Blascovich examine the timeless philosophical questions of the self and "reality" that arise through the digital experience; explain how virtual reality's latest and future forms—including immersive video games and social-networking sites—will soon be seamlessly integrated into our lives; show the many surprising practical applications of virtual reality, from education and medicine to sex and warfare; and probe further-off possibilities like "total personality downloads" that would allow your great-great-grandchildren to have a conversation with "you" a century or more after your death.

Equally fascinating, farsighted, and profound, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our virtual future, where the experience of being human will be deeply transformed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061809514
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/14/2012
Series:	P.S. Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Jim Blascovich is the director and co-founder of the Research Center for Virtual Environments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is Distinguished Professor of Psychology. Professor Blascovich has served as the president of international scientific societies, including the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and he has been invited to lecture on social neuroscience and virtual reality topics worldwide.

Jeremy Bailenson is the founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Professor Bailenson has been featured on Frontline, All Things Considered, and Today, and in Time, Discover, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Science, Health, World, and Style sections of the New York Times, as well as in the New York Times Magazine.

What People are Saying About This

Jaron Lanier

“Read this book if you want to understand the future.”

Philip Zimbardo

“Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our futures.”

Michael S. Gazzaniga

“Infinite Reality sends chills down the spine.”

Editorial Reviews

An exhilarating book ... Blascovich and Bailenson are ideally situated to write this guide to the new world ... Infinite Reality is a must-read for anyone who wants to prepare for the coming revolution.” — Los Angeles Times

“Read this book if you want to understand the future.” — JARON LANIER, author of You Are Not a Gadget

“Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our futures.” — PHILIP ZIMBARDO, professor emeritus of psychology, Stanford University, and author of The Lucifer Effect

“Infinite Reality sends chills down the spine.” — MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA, director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara

From the Publisher

An exhilarating book ... Blascovich and Bailenson are ideally situated to write this guide to the new world ... Infinite Reality is a must-read for anyone who wants to prepare for the coming revolution.

|Los Angeles Times

Infinite Reality sends chills down the spine.

MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA

Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our futures.

PHILIP ZIMBARDO

Read this book if you want to understand the future.

JARON LANIER

An exhilarating book ... Blascovich and Bailenson are ideally situated to write this guide to the new world ... Infinite Reality is a must-read for anyone who wants to prepare for the coming revolution.

Los Angeles Times

"Infinite Reality sends chills down the spine."

Michael S. Gazzaniga

"Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Infinite Reality is an essential guide to our futures."

Philip Zimbardo

"Read this book if you want to understand the future."

Jaron Lanier

Enthusiastic exploration of how virtual reality is impacting human consciousness, perception and social interaction.

Humans have been engaging with virtual realities since the dawn of storytelling, write the authors, experiencing them as printing, theater, radio and film and other mediums. Blascovich (Psychology/Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) and Bailenson (Virtual Human Interaction Lab/Stanford Univ.) focus on digital-technology–based immersive virtual reality, 2-D and 3-D environments that the mind buys into and responds to as "real"—although the authors are clear in their distinction between "grounded" (the natural or physical world) and virtual realities. While they provide an illuminating introduction to the processing cycle that generates today's virtual realities, and an overview of appropriate social theory used therein, they hit their stride with their discussions of shaping and using avatars: digital representations of ourselves. The experiential possibilities of avatars are vast: "virtual worlds offer an unprecedented opportunity to separate people from the physical identity, and to role-play in a variety of manners." Virtual classrooms help eliminate such problems as overcrowding and lack of direct teacher contact. Creating an avatar is also a step toward immortality: Your biological self may not be present, but future generations can engage with your likeness, where 3-D digital modeling sculpts your face and body, motion-capture technology acquires your gestures and soon-to-be artificial-intelligence technology will frame your personality traits and idiosyncrasies. On the downside, there is the spooky idea of someone pirating your avatar; indeed, the authors introduce a number of serious virtual-reality pitfalls, from over-identifying with your avatar to privacy violation through tracking. And there is a serious weakness with the lack of touch in the virtual world—yet behold forthcoming teledildonics, "sexually stimulating devices that can be controlled by others via the Internet."

A sweeping presentation of virtual reality's ability to create new and multiform experiences and perspectives—likely to beguile more than a few skeptics.

Kirkus Reviews