Article July 7, 2014 Issue

Virtual reality

Paul Gutelius

Virtual reality is an amazing technology. This was confirmed recently in a broadcast on US National Public Radio that got my attention. It showcased technology that monitors the motion of your head, tracks your eye movements, and puts compelling graphics on a screen that fits into goggles. The company that makes this technology added audio through headphones, and a platform and a fan for motion simulation.

The report also included some startling comments from one of the designers, who said the technology allows us to “finally trick people into believing that they’re in a virtual space, instead of just watching what happens through a window.” He added, “You simply can’t believe how much your brain is being tricked. ... Each layer, your brain gets more deeply and deeply fooled, and it just kind of makes you either smile or maybe let out a little yelp.”

Human consciousness is easily tricked! But we don’t have to allow ourselves to be fooled if we know the truth stated unequivocally by Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power” (p. 296). With that thought in mind, one might say that what the technologists are calling virtual reality, Christian Scientists would call virtual unreality.