Drama makes us taste the souls of our fellow humans directly, membrane to membrane. This second-born existence is not the linear result of the sensorium's efficient work, as it is with a lower animal. It is nonlinear, chaotic, unpredictable, generating emergent forms of order. So cyberspace is just one more way that we are creating a feedback loop in our experience. It is a re-cognizing of our lives, a recognizing what was always there but which we could not see because it was staring us in the face.
Virtual reality is a tutorial in appreciating the depth of real experience.
Frederick Turner is Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. A former editor of the Kenyon Review , his most recent books include April Wind and The Culture of Hope . Easy, seeing how he's my father. Banned ad server hosts. A Sleeping Giant .