Q2. Can virtual sense of place replace actual sense of place? Should it?
No
Apple's new iPod Nano,
"nano-chromatic."
I've argued that virtual sense of place should not replace actual reality, but I have dificulty in claiming that virtual cannot replace actual, for it's happening all around us. There are, of course, inherent risks in technology, something I explore in my essay "Songbird," appearing in a recent issue of Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability. In the case of the essay, the technology is the iPod, often called the isolation-Pod, and for good reason:
Beyond the real possibility of hearing loss — listen no more than five minutes at full volume or four-and-a-half hours at seventy percent volume per day, researchers have determined — the broader risk is disconnection from landscape and community altogether. Video game developers, computer manufacturers, and the corporations behind them may well want us to substitute virtual for actual reality (and with today’s threats to the global environment, who isn’t tempted every now and then?). After all, the less engaged we are the more complacent we become, and complacency breeds a willingness to purchase whatever product — necessary or not — is placed before us. But it seems to me that being a part of the community’s full landscape requires informed and active participation. And active participation is not possible with earplugs. Instead, face-to-face communication, sustained discourse, and keen listening must prevail.
Just as we must act on the greatest environmental and technology challenges of the day, we must also guard against the complacency that our ever-evolving virtual worlds foster. Though the risks to person and place are considerable, the risks to ecological media are also significant: apathy, ignorance, and negligence in the largest sense. And yet — can't virtual platforms foster the goals of educating people about the environment and promoting action at almost every level? Can we use the One Ring for good...?
Next: Q3