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Virtual Reality is not as simple as we think. As a concept and a metaphor, Eliott Edge sees VR as a robust, powerful, and enduring way to think about everything from matter, to civilization, to the very faculty of thought. 

"Human civilization has always been a virtual reality. At the onset of culture, which was propagated through the proto-media of cave painting, the talking drum, music, fetish art making, oral tradition and the like, Homo sapiens began a march into cultural virtual realities, a march that would span the entirety of the human enterprise. We don’t often think of cultures as virtual realities, but there is a no more apt descriptor for our widely diverse sociological organizations and interpretations than the metaphor of the ‘virtual reality.’ Indeed, the virtual reality metaphor encompasses the complete human project." 

Complete with a new Introduction, 3 Essays on Virtual Reality: Overlords, Civilization, and Escape features essays written by Edge for the prestigious Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. These essays were the #1 and #2 most read essays in 2016 for the IEET, and the #2 essay in 2015. All three are about virtual reality. 

 

      Read a sample hosted by Mondo2000

Reviews

"Terence McKenna would have loved Eliott Edge and his plan for escape."
— Douglas Rushkoff

“Wow! This is fantastic. I expected some essays about the promise of virtual reality (the headsets) and instead got a real, real, real reality. Edge actually took the effort to cite how everything is virtual reality! Religion (nice!), language (thank you!), and then our own conception of ourselves. Eliott argues that we all live in virtual worlds, starting with language, written material and religion, and that virtual reality is core to our humanity. Our institutions are ultimately projections that create virtual worlds, whose power exists because we believe in and participate in their propagation. This collection of essays is a short and fascinating introspection into closely held concepts of virtual reality and our own identity as a species.”
— Amber Case

 

"The idea that our most cherished beliefs and deeply held 'truths' are simply symbolic 'virtual realities' is nothing less than an ontological awakening - a realization that we experience reality through a tightly woven matrix of perception and belief. This book shows how deep the rabbit hole goes."
—Jason Silva


"Eliott Edge is a vital voice offering a fresh perspective on how we conceptualize our history as well as our future; concepts applicable to the full breadth of human experience from the individual to society to humankind as a whole." —Vanessa Sinclair, Psy.D

"What Edge does in his work is move the conversation on, with a range of nice thought experiments and observations delivered in an engagingly rigorous yet conversational style. For each generation there are those who who remind us that ‘the map is not the territory’. Using the language of VR Edge analyses the world-views or reality tunnels we inhabit and reminds of this perennial (multiple) truth. 3 Essays on Virtual Reality does not fall prey to solipsism but instead addresses the very real consequences of simulated reality theory."
—Julian Vayne

"A must read for anyone interested in virtual reality, culture, philosophy, and especially how the three intertwine. After you read this book, you will look at this world, yourself, VR, and pretty much everything in a whole new way. A paradigm shifter packed into about 100 pages."

—Michael Waite, Psychic VR Lab

Get a copy of 3 Essays on Virtual Reality on Amazon

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