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Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution
“Enough with speculation about our digital future. Infinite Reality is the straight dope on what is and isn’t happening to us right now, from two of the only scientists working on the boundaries between real life and its virtual extensions.”
—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed
How achievable are the virtual experiences seen in The Matrix, Tron, and James Cameron’s Avatar? Do our brains know where “reality” ends and “virtual” begins? In Infinite Reality, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two pioneering experts in the field of virtual reality, reveal how the human brain behaves in virtual environments and examine where radical new developments in digital technology will lead us in five, fifty, and five hundred years.
—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed
How achievable are the virtual experiences seen in The Matrix, Tron, and James Cameron’s Avatar? Do our brains know where “reality” ends and “virtual” begins? In Infinite Reality, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two pioneering experts in the field of virtual reality, reveal how the human brain behaves in virtual environments and examine where radical new developments in digital technology will lead us in five, fifty, and five hundred years.
320 pages, ebook
First published February 1, 2011
69 people are currently reading
381 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
January 5, 2018
I don't think this book had any substance at all, the author just kept talking about virtual reality in very vague terms without giving any new speculations to how it's use could actually change things. Anyone can read an article on virtual reality or second life and find out all the things he talks about in the book. Even the psychology stuff was simple and can be easily found all over the place in every discussion of virtual reality.
May 7, 2012
This book reads like a drab intro to digital media. I'd suggest reading Wikipedia articles on Virtual Reality and Second Life and save $10. It does seem well researched and provide some interesting facts but that being said I am also disappointed with the lack of discussion around what any of this means from a humanitarian, philosophical or moral stand point. This really borders anti-intellectualism, it does raise questions but backs off any attempt to discuss, much less relate them. If you're just looking to learn something about VR and online MMRPG's by all means this is the book for you. If you are looking for a discourse on where technology is/going and the meaning surrounding that, look elsewhere.
February 28, 2015
Really cool book that I managed to discover while watching a Matrix trilogy marathon on tv. I had seen the matrix trilogy several times, and as it was on tv in the background I realized I never truly understood the meaning of how it all ended. I decided to look for a forum with explanations and found a spectacular one for all things Matrix that, after sifting through it, made me appreciate all the ins and outs of the series that I hadn't ever appreciated before. On this site were some highlighted books that were critical to the inspiration of the movie. While Infinite Reality wasn't one of the specific ones listed, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to find it. In a nutshell, it dives into how our brain works and how the social cues and connections we make daily in grounded reality translate directly into virtual reality, why so many find it so easy to get lost in games, and how the human brain and it's everlasting need to not be alone is the driving force behind more and more using social media, dating sites, and immersive role playing games like Second Life, which is referenced repeatedly throughout the book. Very interesting too are the educational and teaching applications for virtual classrooms, being able to step inside historical battles to better learn from them, and how technology and its increasing ability to render life like images make the same areas of our brain fire off that would if we were experiencing these same situations in grounded reality. Bottom line: when the brain feels it's "real", it's real. Written by two scientists who pioneer in the field, I enjoyed it and was continually saying "wow" as examples of case studies showed just how universally the same we are when put in specific social situations, whether these situations are occurring in virtual reality or in grounded reality. and how because of this, the virtual reality that most feel is too sci-fi to be taken seriously, is actually present now and continually visited as our technology grows more and more immersive.
November 11, 2012
Disappointing. There was little in the way of new speculation on any of these topics and to be perfectly honest I think these topics have been better covered by the sci fi genre than they are here. A lot of the stories and points brought up in the book were not only unoriginal but stimulated short snibbets of further ideas that were in no way discussed or fleshed out. I would love to live forever virtually though :) sign me up!
February 16, 2019
I got through the first three chapters of this book, and just couldn't subject myself to anymore of it. With that in mind, this is what I have to say about Infinite Realiy.
I know the authors said in the beginning that they were writing for a broad audience, but they took 'dumbing down' the material too far. The text in general has the feel of someone talking down to the reader, some examples are so simplified as to be incorrect/misleading, and the authors completely ignore evolutionary psychology, a topic that would have very much benefitted this book. Modern humans essentially try to navigate the twenty-first century world and all its technology with a body and neurology better equipped for hunting and gathering in the pre-stone age era, and this is so influential on the topic of perception and VR that to ignore it removes all context from the information that the authors are trying to convey. This is not a book I would recommend, and I will be attempting to return my copy to amazon because it is worse than worthless.
Early 2019
I know the authors said in the beginning that they were writing for a broad audience, but they took 'dumbing down' the material too far. The text in general has the feel of someone talking down to the reader, some examples are so simplified as to be incorrect/misleading, and the authors completely ignore evolutionary psychology, a topic that would have very much benefitted this book. Modern humans essentially try to navigate the twenty-first century world and all its technology with a body and neurology better equipped for hunting and gathering in the pre-stone age era, and this is so influential on the topic of perception and VR that to ignore it removes all context from the information that the authors are trying to convey. This is not a book I would recommend, and I will be attempting to return my copy to amazon because it is worse than worthless.
Early 2019
October 5, 2018
Published in 2011, at that time the info should be pretty updated, but not for 2018.
It covered various parts of developing VR. The part i find fascinating is the healing function for phobias, or PTSD. Through the over-exposure of the targeted fear environment, this could actually cure the PTSD from wars. I am curious how our human brain actually adapts to the repeatedly seeing the same scary scenes and becomes numb to them.
With more and more advanced technologies, we will be able to simulate more realistic scenes. I can not imagine what is to come, but i am with hope!
It covered various parts of developing VR. The part i find fascinating is the healing function for phobias, or PTSD. Through the over-exposure of the targeted fear environment, this could actually cure the PTSD from wars. I am curious how our human brain actually adapts to the repeatedly seeing the same scary scenes and becomes numb to them.
With more and more advanced technologies, we will be able to simulate more realistic scenes. I can not imagine what is to come, but i am with hope!
November 5, 2019
Bonus points for the 2011 publish date, it's an amusing enough thing to just read quickly during an hour or two of boredom.
Pretty much reinforces the position that the future will be worse than the present, if psychologists and capitalists have anything to say about it. It's all very well to say a technology is 'dual use', but when you know precisely what the people funding your research intend to do with it, and you do it anyway, or choose to pretend you believe it will be used to other ends, well, yer a tool.
Pretty much reinforces the position that the future will be worse than the present, if psychologists and capitalists have anything to say about it. It's all very well to say a technology is 'dual use', but when you know precisely what the people funding your research intend to do with it, and you do it anyway, or choose to pretend you believe it will be used to other ends, well, yer a tool.
November 7, 2017
Honestly, a kind of boring read. Just reading around on the internet provided the information in this book with more depth. It has a kind of breathless, "This will change everything!" attitude without substance to back it up, and only glancing research results to prove points. Most damning of all, to my mind, was that ethical issues (of which there are plenty) are brushed aside with a kind of, "And that's something we'll have to think about."
March 20, 2017
the theory is still valid, but the examples are outdated and most of the predictions are off. Nonetheless a worthwhile book if you are interested in Virtual Reality and Virtual Worlds. But it can be left lying if you want to read an interesting book on new tech.
February 26, 2019
alot of fun to read about the different ways peole are alienated, how to best assist students to learn, (eye contact, eye movement) etc, and how virtual reality can help people adjust their mental states using experiences.
March 21, 2021
Great read and insightful for today's climate when maintaining social distancing. Not all of us are living a virtual reality, but we are constantly online almost out of necessity (work, school, relationships, etc.). Glad that I picked up this book for this month.
March 4, 2020
I had no idea second life was ever this popular. Maybe just in social psychology circles.
May 21, 2020
Very informative and nice
October 24, 2021
Fascinating, well written and super cool.
January 7, 2024
covers the basics. nothing really new.
June 13, 2011
The notion of virtual immortality differs from the notion of preserving consciousness. The idea is that, with virtual “tracking data” collected over a long period of time, one can preserve much or even most of people’s idiosyncrasies, including a large set of behaviors, attitudes, actions, appearances, etc. One will not be able to “relive” life through an avatar, but nonetheless, a digital being that looks, talks, gestures, and behaves as they once did can occupy virtual space indefinitely. In this sense, there are two ways to think about “immortality.” One is extending the nature of one’s life to be able to continue to enjoy the fruits of living. The other, less experiential, is about preserving one’s legacy.
***
With The Matrix as their cultural touchstone for many of the arguments in this book, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson have put together an easy-to-digest primer for the future—and in some cases present—possibilities of living being our flesh and bone shells.
Virtual Reality is the book’s bread and butter—the creation of worlds and universes to slip into without ever having to leave our homes, or our bodies for that matter. The authors begin by taking us on an exploratory tour of virtual reality—through its conception, experiments performed, and even pop culture extrapolations of common ideas and hypotheses regarding the medium. Through virtual reality, the whole of human experience—things long since past or yet to come; fears to overcome; loves and relationships to explore—can theoretically be replicated, allowing users to expand far beyond the limitations of a soft, destructible human frame in an attempt to explore avenues rarely travelled.
As the authors dive deeper into this subject matter, it becomes clear that virtual reality is only the beginning. Through such means, and our increased incorporation of digital and online faculties into our daily lives, humans are leaving a wealth of digital footprints on the world—detailed information that can be used to construct experiences, eventually leading to the documentation and digitization of an individual’s life, possibly even one day uploading such information to an online avatar that, in a sense, can act and learn based on the accrued knowledge of the living body. Should we one day crack the secret of cloning, uploading a slate of memories, knowledge, and experiences into a replica body a la the mindjack experience of Neo learning kung fu in The Matrix, could prove the key to immortality.
This is, of course, assuming the makeup of an individual is based solely on their quantifiable experiences and memories. There’s an entire ethical and metaphysical side to the question that remains untouched in the book, though not to its detriment—engaging in a religious or spiritual debate regarding what it is that makes a human unique and impossible to replicate would have diluted the strength of the book’s focussed argument.
Blascovich and Bailenson’s book is a spark for a much larger, infinitely more complex set of questions and arguments both for and against the basic possibility of living forever through digital means. The science is presented well through a series of examples that build upon one another with no room for confusion. Though the book feels as if it is just scratching the surface of what this technology has to offer humanity, on individual, social, and historical levels, Infinite Reality offers a compelling introduction into a world far beyond what we can imagine, one that we’ve only begun to explore.
***
With The Matrix as their cultural touchstone for many of the arguments in this book, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson have put together an easy-to-digest primer for the future—and in some cases present—possibilities of living being our flesh and bone shells.
Virtual Reality is the book’s bread and butter—the creation of worlds and universes to slip into without ever having to leave our homes, or our bodies for that matter. The authors begin by taking us on an exploratory tour of virtual reality—through its conception, experiments performed, and even pop culture extrapolations of common ideas and hypotheses regarding the medium. Through virtual reality, the whole of human experience—things long since past or yet to come; fears to overcome; loves and relationships to explore—can theoretically be replicated, allowing users to expand far beyond the limitations of a soft, destructible human frame in an attempt to explore avenues rarely travelled.
As the authors dive deeper into this subject matter, it becomes clear that virtual reality is only the beginning. Through such means, and our increased incorporation of digital and online faculties into our daily lives, humans are leaving a wealth of digital footprints on the world—detailed information that can be used to construct experiences, eventually leading to the documentation and digitization of an individual’s life, possibly even one day uploading such information to an online avatar that, in a sense, can act and learn based on the accrued knowledge of the living body. Should we one day crack the secret of cloning, uploading a slate of memories, knowledge, and experiences into a replica body a la the mindjack experience of Neo learning kung fu in The Matrix, could prove the key to immortality.
This is, of course, assuming the makeup of an individual is based solely on their quantifiable experiences and memories. There’s an entire ethical and metaphysical side to the question that remains untouched in the book, though not to its detriment—engaging in a religious or spiritual debate regarding what it is that makes a human unique and impossible to replicate would have diluted the strength of the book’s focussed argument.
Blascovich and Bailenson’s book is a spark for a much larger, infinitely more complex set of questions and arguments both for and against the basic possibility of living forever through digital means. The science is presented well through a series of examples that build upon one another with no room for confusion. Though the book feels as if it is just scratching the surface of what this technology has to offer humanity, on individual, social, and historical levels, Infinite Reality offers a compelling introduction into a world far beyond what we can imagine, one that we’ve only begun to explore.
July 22, 2015
How do people interact in virtual reality? Pretty much as they would in actual reality. There's an underlying assumption in this book that virtual reality sophisticated enough to allow people to walk around inside a virtual world, or out in the real world using some kind of avatar, with all of their senses in tact, is inevitable. This seems an incredibly difficult thing to accomplish, to me. A lot of major breakthroughs in biology, artificial intelligence, and robotics would be needed. Those breakthroughs certainly aren't inevitable, and unless someone has a sudden insight that is the metaphorical equivalent of a Darwinian Finch hitting a Newtonian apple and splashing into an Archimedean bathtub, it won't happen soon. If these advances do happen, well, it would be kind of cool, although I am concerned that individual immortality in virtual worlds could lead to our species extinction in the physical world.
December 5, 2014
Just as an idea it mentions simpsons, neuromancer, ender's game, snow crash, cast away, avatar (the movie), theories, family guy, Being John Malkovich, 6 degrees of kevin bacon, social learning theory, Sopranos, Twilight, proteus effect, virtual immortality, CSI, Farmville, Harry Potter, superbowl ads, the pinto car, Mr. Ed, Second Life (meh.), The Office, PTSD, Sun Tzu, War Games, America's Army and Cyberpunks
February 11, 2015
I attended a seminar by Dr.Jeremy Bailenson and got into the idea of virtual reality as a teaching tool. Picked this book up at the public library and kinda skimmed through it. The explanations are good, but the technology is sort of dated as the book is from 2011, Also it stresses a lot about the psychological aspect of VR users rather than solely focussing on the tech.
May 22, 2016
Readability 6. Rating 5. Worth reading for the original way of thinking about the history of virtual reality and the notable similarities between reactions of people to real and virtual experiences. Then it kind of went off the rails - too much on Second Life (does that even exist anymore?), too many things that made this recent book feel dated (MySpace?!), and too much drifting off topic.
August 19, 2011
Nothing too much new to me here. Talks about how what we perceive is what is real to us... even if it's all virtual. He goes on to say that more of our interactions with the world will become 'virtualized' over time. Interesting point, but not the most interesting read.
October 4, 2011
It was an interesting overview of virtual reality. As a generalist, and not a hardcore VR person (never been on Second Life, for example), I learned some things. Too much of it read like a laundry list of experiments past, however, and I would have enjoyed more synthesis and prediction.
December 10, 2012
He says that more of our interactions with the world will become 'virtualized' over time. Id I personally consider it a very Interesting point. Tis is about how what we perceive is what is real to us... even if it's all virtual.
January 14, 2014
A good overview of current uses for virtual reality and the possible future of it. Easy to read even if you don't have a computer science degree.
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April 14, 2011Reviewed in New Scientist
December 2, 2012
Good introduction showing the effect and the potential of virtual reality.
May 16, 2011
Like a primer about virtual reality for people who've had their head in a virtual bucket for the last twenty five years. ( But some useful info toward the end )
August 24, 2011
Listened to the audiobook and went to a talk by the author (Bailenson). Very interesting studies and anecdotes, generally takes a forward-looking perspective.
October 1, 2011
Good introduction to the science and uses of virtual reality.
September 16, 2012
Didn't really have anything original to say
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews