New realities are imminent: how VR reframes big questions in philosophy
The virtual reality (VR) industry is currently in its infancy, but in just a few decades it’s possible that virtual environments will be nearly indistinguishable from reality. Along with transforming everyday life, a VR revolution could fundamentally change how we understand and define what is real. In this instalment of Aeon’s In Sight series, the renowned Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers considers how VR is reframing and shedding new light on some of philosophy’s most enduring questions about cognition, epistemology and the nature of reality.
videoKnowledge
Why David Deutsch believes good explanations are the antidote to bad philosophy
10 minutes
videoPhilosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
3 minutes
videoSocial psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes
videoHistory of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
videoMetaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes
videoBioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
A haunting scene from ‘Minority Report’ inspires a voyage into time and memory
7 minutes