Technological advancement has increased exponentially. However, biological evolution continues to move slowly. Are our animal selves dangerously out-of-sync with the progress made in the digital world? We must, perhaps counter-intuitively, use the technology of virtual reality to re-align our organic identities with our digital ones, write Mike Heim.
The evolutionary loop between embodied selves and media production is out-of-sync. Dangerously out-of-phase. People adjust to new technology, and the producers in turn target a new kind of user. Over time, the gap between our embodied selves and the online world produces a Divided Self. We might draw on past models to better synchronize the loop to create an alternate and more deliberate evolution. The changing relationship between evolving organisms and their technology is an art project of major proportions. The artists might consider the feedback model explored by Robert Monroe in the 1960s.
The Divided Self
During the February 2021 US Senate Impeachment trial, Senator Rand Paul looked down and doodled on a yellow pad while the shocking video evidence of the January 2021 assault on the Capitol Building showed the violence and death in the attempted coup. Hundreds of mobile phones recorded the riot. It would take a political psychoanalyst to explain the Senator’s reaction to the weeks-old spectacle, but simply watching from afar, we might tag the senator another instance of the “Divided Self.”
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