--- Begin Forwarded Message --- Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 13:06:57 -0500 From: David Cobb <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Reality's Geographical Limits? Sender: David Cobb <[log in to unmask]> >WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE UNREALITY OF VIRTUAL REALITY > Denmark's leading science writer, Tor Norretranders, comments on life >in the information age: > "The information society can seem stressful because it contains not >too much information but too little. Nobody will traverse the material >terrain anymore; people will merely sit plotting routes on a map. New >technologies are being introduced under the banner of virtual reality. A TV >over our eyes, headphones on our ears, and sensory gloves on our hands (and >in the long run our whole bodies): we are in virtual reality. The author of >'Alice in Wonderland,' the mathematician Lewis Carroll, predicted this >development a hundred years ago when he wrote the story of 'Sylvie and >Bruno Concluded.' At one point, the narrator meets a figure by the name of >Mein Herr, with whom he exchanges the following remarks: > "Mein Herr looked so thoroughly bewildered that I thought it best to >change the subject. 'What a useful thing a pocket-map is!' I remarked. >'That's another thing we've learned from your Nation,' said Mein Herr, >'map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you >consider the largest map that would be really useful?' > "'About six inches to the mile.' > "'Only six inches!' exclaimed Mein Herr. 'We very soon got to six >yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came >the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the >scale of a mile to the mile!' > "'Have you used it much?' I enquired. > "'It has never been spread out, yet,' said Mein Herr: 'the farmers >objected; they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the >sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure >you it does nearly as well.'" *************************************************************************** David A. Cobb Tel. 617.495.2417 Harvard Map Collection FAX 617.496.0440 Harvard College Library Email: [log in to unmask] Cambridge, MA 02138 HTTP://hcl.harvard.edu/maps ************************** VERITAS **************************************** --- End Forwarded Message ---