Description: As the technological phenomenon known as the worldwide web permeates civilizations, it inevitably alters them, creating some cultures and anticultures and destroying others. In this pioneering book, philosopher Thomas Langan explores virtual reality -- an inherently contradictory phrase -- and technology's effect on our very being. In our present-day high-technology environment, making simple, everyday decisions is difficult because the virtual world we've created doesn't necessarily operate according to reason. To retain our intellectual fitness, we should, Langan urges, consider some essential questions: If virtual reality is, in fact, real, what is this life that we are caught up in? What is being within the context of virtual reality? How can we establish a system to assist us in distinguishing truth from fiction?

Although technology minimizes the distance between people and the information they want, it simultaneously blurs the line dividing fact from falsehood and real from virtual. The individual's intellectual survival is threatened as each technological advancement challenges our collective definition of reality. As reality shifts and changes around us, it becomes more difficult to distinguish true reality from the virtual reality we have created. Because much of the information that is presented as fact simply works to fulfill a certain agenda, we cannot accept as truth everything that appears on the internet or in the media. To survive, we must learn to manage our lives and resources amid the flood of information we are bombarded with daily.

Expertly interweaving the worlds of technology and philosophy, Surviving the Age of Virtual Reality pushes the analysis of thistechnological and human phenomenon to new depths. Written in a style that will appeal not only to the philosopher but to the general reader as well, this book furnishes a clearer idea of our world.

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