In SEL, the wired is presented,,, strangely. It's something you can access
through a computer, yet it's something all consuming. You can "slip into"
the wired, entering it almost like one would a lucid dream. That's not
really something you can do with technology - it's more closely related to
the magical skill of astral projection. And this is something that the show
teaches to you:
In this scene, a
man, clearly some idiot, does not understand this truth. He tries to merge
the wired and the real world, but in the process of doing so he forgets what
the wired really is. That, no matter how great your VR headset is, the wired
is a state of consciousness - not the ordinary state of consciousness + some
technology around it.
Okay, some guy doesn't understand the fictional technology in your cartoon -
so what? To me, it illustrates to us precisely what our real world wired is,
too.
It is like how a good book transports one to the astral plane in some sense,
as the edges of the pages blur away, and you forget you're reading entirely.
A good webpage, a good session on the internet, can do exactly the same.
When the immersion in the hyper text becomes so complete that it becomes
real. When the borders of the screen blur away, and you forget you're
browsing at all. And you are simply immersed in its world. Its world of
factions and cliques and the great dramas that unfold, or of great and noble
works, collaborations of many people, or grand compendiums of interesting
tidbits. There is no need for the VR. The wired is more immersive than you
can ever imagine - you just have to let it suck you in.