“Moving Through Me”
By using another source or thing through which we communicate to another, creates a paradigm. You see, By talking to a person who translates our words, a third step or receptor is introduced to the situation. The internet is another third step, which we can communicate to you, but not in the traditional sense. The problem arises of interpretation. Is it truly what you are saying, or what the third receptor is interpreting about what you are saying, or is it a matter of the final person’s interpretation that matters? Really, this is all problematic. How do we interpret these things? It was almost as hard as interpreting this article. Most in “First Person” are reasonably written, almost like they were intended for a layman. This was a few steps above that, and was a little tough to get through at first.
“The Pleasures of Immersion and Interaction”
Books have always been immersive for me, and videogames even more so. This article really just proved how much fun those things are. Videogames ask you to interact with it and give it direction, you feel like you are in control. This freedom of choice and total control makes the game immersive and almost real. But, unlike reality, we can shut it off or pause it at any time, and return later. It is the solving of puzzles or resolving of issues that makes the game fun. The game makers skillfully give wrapped up conclusions to things, to make it feel like a journey ended. This completes the immersive experience and makes the games, for lack of a better phrase, wicked fun.
“Unusual Positions: Embodied Interaction”
The virtual world may be immersive and realistic feeling to us, but for a computer, we are nothing more than “one eye and one finger”. The mind may wander to great places and experience all sorts of things, but the physical body experiences nothing, becoming almost a useless form in which we absorb information. The virtual world can mimic the physical world, but be nothing like it at the same time. For example, a virtual waterfall looks like real water falling and swirling among the rocks. It acts like water, but it is really nothing at all. So, this brings up the question of the sacred in virtual reality. How can it be sacred if it is nothing at all? Can anything be viewed as sacred if it does not exist in the physical sense? I truthfully have no idea, but someone might.
“Symbols in Ndembu Ritual”
First of all, I had no idea what “Ndembu” meant or even what it really was, so I was instantly interested. I am still not one hundred percent clear on all of the Ndembu symbols, but I think I got the basic concept. Symbols are the basis for ritual. Without the symbols, rituals would be meaningless. For example, taking the communion wafer is a symbol of taking in the body of Christ and accepting him into your soul. Without the wafer symbolizing the body of Christ, it would just be a person eating a cracker. There needs to be a significance to what you are doing in the ritual, otherwise it is just a daily activity.
