Many researchers of the transcendental levels of reality suggest that our universe is a kind of virtual world in relation to a certain Absolute that creates it. It is quite difficult to imagine such a thing, but do not forget that since the end of the last century, the Earth has developed its own unique and powerful virtual environment, which is created by their minds and talent (and sometimes, it is true, stupidity and mediocrity) by millions of inhabitants of our planet
Over the course of a decade, the Internet has become a major source of information, a communication platform, and a powerful entertainment industry. However, the debate about whether the virtual has a positive or negative impact on the real world and its inhabitants does not subside and, it seems, will never subside.
The pioneer in the field of virtual reality research, American Myron Kruger, not without reason, believes that with a skillful approach, the "other world" can open up hitherto unseen horizons for a person. The scientist is sure: a competently modeled virtual reality helps to acquire new knowledge of the most diverse nature and gives the skills of communication in society to a single individual. And if, perhaps, no one will argue with the first part of this statement, then the second part causes fierce disputes. And not without reason.
Many sources give various interpretations of the term "virtual reality", but in the generally accepted understanding it is a kind of environment for human interaction with objects created in computer networks. Today, on the Internet, which drags in like a swamp, you can find anything, and neither schoolchildren, nor stock brokers, nor social workers - in short, no one can resist it. The reasons why people turn to the Web are very different, but the result is always the same - all Internet users, to one degree or another, develop a constant dependence on the virtual world. You can, of course, argue with this statement, but ask yourself a question: how do you feel when the Network suddenly disappears, when the computer suddenly starts to freak out? Annoyance, irritation, anger - confess, you probably experience one of these feelings. What is this if not addiction?
In the virtual wilderness, you can wander aimlessly for hours, absorbing, like a sponge, all unnecessary, and sometimes downright harmful information. The result of such "walks" is absolute chaos in the head.
A brain overloaded with useless information, trying to process and structure it, can respond with various somatic and mental disorders. Even if this does not happen, the brain will most likely play a cruel joke with you by refusing to memorize really important information. Parents of schoolchildren must have come across situations when children, keen on computer games, cannot simply memorize a quatrain from the works of Pushkin or Lermontov.
The child's brain, filled with information about the many levels, the peculiarities of their passage, traps, passwords, etc., refuses to perceive other information. But as soon as the child takes a break and put the game console aside for at least a couple of days, the trained brain begins to crack the Russian classics like nuts.
THE PLAGUE OF THE XXI CENTURY
Virtual addiction (or netagoliem) has become a disease of the 21st century. So far, it has not been included in the official classification of psychiatric diseases, but it is known that up to 10% of Internet users suffer from this pathology. The Internet attracts people with unlimited access to data, which gives rise to information vampirism: the user can skip a meal, but try not to miss the communication session.
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Addiction is characterized by a painful inability to disconnect from the Internet in time, depression and depression if a person cannot access the Internet or has been deprived of it for some time, sometimes for a very short time, as well as unwillingness to live in the real world, preferring the virtual space of real life. It includes a pathological addiction to games (including gambling, online auctions, electronic purchases on the Internet), information thirst-compulsive (irresistible) desire to be on the Web, searching for information in all kinds of databases.
Addiction to social networks, chatting, group games and teleconferencing often leads to the replacement of real friends with virtual doubles. Likewise, addiction to pornographic sites and discussion of sexual topics in adult chat rooms works. In this case, Internet users especially value the sense of security (though false), anonymity, the ability to realize all their fantasies.
Virtual addiction by its nature resembles alcohol and drug addiction, but with the only difference that it does not lead to the destruction of the body, but cripples the soul. Just six months are enough for inevitable transformations to take place in the psyche, behavior changes, depression and irritability. A similar bad habit has a devastating effect on family relationships - new online acquaintances replace family and friends. Recently, psychologists are increasingly registering the emergence of "computer widows" - the wives of Internet addicted people. In such a family, a husband with a computer lives in one room, and a wife with children in another.
Various mental deviations can be hidden behind netagolism. People who often suffer from it face serious difficulties in life.
It is easier for them to communicate anonymously - under a nickname and experiencing the illusion of communicative freedom, in reality they are even more distant from reality. A person ceases to be worried about social and everyday problems, he is not interested in the future, he does not make any plans, his whole existence is devoted to the realization of his dependence.
WEDGE WEDGE
So what pulls a person to the Internet, because the World Wide Web is just a copy of reality, albeit improved and greatly embellished. With all the positive aspects, such as, for example, the opportunity to see the world without leaving home, the substitution of reality causes profound changes in the personality, and sometimes this does not manifest itself immediately. Such results are described by many science fiction writers, dozens of films have been shot on this topic.
Clifford Simak's 1957 short story, The Founding Father, describes a human-invented device called the dimenzino that virtually fulfilled any human whim. Dimenzino was used to facilitate the settlement of other planets by the human race - it removed the unwanted effects of loneliness and new terrain on the psyche. In his mind, the conqueror of space traveled across the expanses of the Earth, lived with good friends in a posh house, where a bottle of wine and an amazing dinner were waiting for him every evening, although in fact he was in a barrack with robots and meager provisions.
When the robots turned off the device, the founder of the human colony realized that he could not live without the device. No matter how he tried to regain his sober mind, he was in for a fiasco.
The brain persistently returned the person to where he felt good. The halves of real images merged with distorted virtual pictures, and the mind - the most valuable thing a person had - was irretrievably lost.
People who are addicted to the virtual space need qualified help. Since such a person cannot be dragged to an appointment with a psychologist under any pretext, foreign experts decided to knock out a wedge with a wedge. In Western Europe. America. Japan and South Korea have already developed effective psychological trainings to get patients out of the crisis - through the ICQ program, which acts as a kind of helpline and "virtual" psychological service. Unfortunately, experts note a low cure rate without full-time individual or group psychotherapy with an emphasis on working with images and emotions.
But the beginning has already been made, and I really want to hope that humanity will avoid the fate prepared for it by science fiction writers.
10 MOST UNUSUAL "VIRTUAL" WORLDS
What do Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, the animated series The Simpsons and the just-released fantasy film Avatar have in common? The authors of these outstanding works in their genres have come up with amazing worlds that are unlike anything else and have become an object for imitation.
SAGA ABOUT MEDITERRANEAN
When for the first time you pick up the weighty - almost a thousand pages - tome "The Lord of the Rings", you understand why DRR. Tolkien worked on the sequel to The Hobbit for over ten years. When the book ends unexpectedly, you already wonder how such a powerful work, filled with the smallest details and vivid events, was written in such a short time. There is a very popular version that "The Lord of the Rings" is largely allegorical. Part of it was written during the war, and in Mordor many saw Hitler's Germany. In the 1960s. Tolkien, in the revised edition of the book, even found it necessary to point out that his goal was to write a story that could hold the reader's attention. But only.
LET STRENGTH COMES WITH YOU
"A long time ago, in a distant, distant galaxy …" - few people imagined that the stellar saga with a simple plot about the struggle between good and evil would lay the foundation for a whole cult that would drive more than one generation of moviegoers crazy. Spaceships, interstellar travel, mysterious planets and green (as well as blue, red, purple, etc.) men were in the movies before Star Wars, but only George Lucas managed to mix all these ingredients in perfect proportion. the force will come with us. "- used to say the old Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi. I think with the same words Lucas admonished his team, working on the film, - for more than 30 years no one has been able to repeat this success.
MOVIE ABOUT MOVIE
The music video "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, filmed at the request of the singer by director John Landis, is considered by many to be a short film due to its length {14 minutes). For its time, Thriller was truly revolutionary. Blurring the line between reality and fiction, the clip, constantly changing, like its main character, turns out to be a kind of werewolf. The final title, accompanied by Homeric laughter, tells us that all the characters in the clip are fictional and any resemblance to living people or the living dead is completely accidental, today causes a bitter smile. The metamorphosis with Michael Jackson that began just after filming in real life gave a head start to the most terrible thriller.
DINOSAUR PEOPLE
A computer game about the adventures of a mustachioed plumber Mario and his brother Luigi appeared in 1985. The “walker” itself, in the eyes of modern gamers, was not distinguished by originality, but the film, shot on it eight years later, was remembered for that. that in a parallel world formed as a result of the fall of a meteorite 60 million years ago, people did not descend from primates, but from reptiles. Along with people breeding giant eggs, from which quite cute blonde princesses hatch, lizard-like giants live in that world, a sponge fungus grows everywhere, constantly saving the main characters' lives, and smoky electric cars roam the roads.
YELLOW FAMILY
The animated series about an ordinary American family living in the small town of Springfield has become a phenomenon of modern mass culture. In 1999, "The Simpsons" was recognized by the authoritative Time magazine as the best television show of the 20th century. It would seem. then series creator Matt Groening could have retired on his laurels. But no - over the past ten years, The Simpsons have become even funnier, sharper and more original. The fictional world, in which the heroes for 20 years have not aged a day, erasing boundaries, increasingly breaks into the real world. Each of the more than a dozen American Springfields claims to be the home of the Simpsons. and recently, Marge Simpson graced the cover of a popular men's magazine.
DRAWED MUSIC
Gorillaz is an intriguing phenomenon in contemporary music. For several years since the founding of the group, fans did not know who was hiding behind the masks of the drawn characters - Murdoca. Noodle, Russell and 2D. All official information boiled down to fictional biographies of the quartet members, which would be enough for several exciting full-length films. Even when the secret of Gorillaz was revealed and the names of the ideological inspirers of the project became known, the musicians did not deviate from the images they had invented, giving a series of "virtual" concerts. During their performances, a three-dimensional image was projected onto the arena, creating a complete illusion of the presence of cartoon characters on stage.
NO SPOONS
In a groundbreaking action movie from 11 years ago, the Wachowski brothers made us wonder; what is reality? The real world, according to the authors of The Matrix, is far from perfect. Humanity has lost the war against artificial intelligence, and now all the benefit from it lies only in generating energy for machines. People's consciousness is immersed in virtual reality that simulates the "ordinary" world, but having a number of knowledge, you can change it at your discretion - break the laws of attraction, leak through telephone wires, bend spoons with one glance. After the premiere, many raised the Wachowski almost to the rank of gods. One can argue with this, but in the ability to “see the future” by them. perhaps you will not refuse.
THE GIFTS OF DEATH
The work of J. K. Rowling can be treated in different ways, but what you really can't deny is 8 wild fantasy. Having laid a powerful foundation in the first three books, the writer, starting with the fourth volume, did not bring anything fundamentally new to the world of wizards. She only diligently tightened the screws, transforming children's fantasy into a dark thriller. The denouement, as expected, comes in the finale - at the end of the seventh book, in which, in addition to the main story about Harry Potter and Voldemort (Vofdemort), Rowling delicately looped the story of three brothers, about Death and its Gifts, which influenced the whole world of magicians and Muggles. On us with you.
IT ALL STARTED WITH TAMAGOCHI
Do you want to feel like a god and dispose of someone else's life at your own discretion? Then The Sims is what you need. Video games in the genre "simulator of life" for 13 pet from the appearance of the first "Tamagotchi" have gone far ahead. Their popularity only increases every year. The third reincarnation of The Sims, which took place in the summer of 2009, became the most pre-ordered game in history - at the time of its premiere, the number of orders exceeded 6 million copies. The player must constantly make sure that the sims are in comfortable conditions, eat on time and fulfill their natural needs, make a career, have fun and bring each other little joys in life.
YOU ARE NO LONGER IN KANSAS
By the time you read these lines, you may already be familiar with the "Avatar" universe invented by James Cameron. In the meantime, little is known about the film, which is rumored to have spent $ 500 million in filming and advertising. People fly to the planet Pandora to lead the development of a certain mineral there, and are faced with the confrontation of local aborigines - three-meter giants with blue skin and feline grace. The first drafts of the script appeared back in 1995. During this time, the universe of "Avatar" has grown to such a cyclopean scale that there will be enough material for several sequels. However, provided that the painting will pay off.