Recent discussions in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind have defended a theory according to which we live in a virtual world akin to a computer simulation, generated by our brain. It is argued that our brain creates a model world from a variety of stimuli; this model is perceived as if it was external and perception-independent, even though it is neither of the two. The view of the mind, brain, and world, entailed by this theory (here called “virtual world theory”) has some peculiar consequences which have rarely been explored in detail. This paper sets out virtual world theory (1. 1) and relates it to various central philosophical problems (indirect realism (1. 2), the role of the perceiver (1. 3) and the problem of the existence of the external world (1. 4)). The second part suggests three interpretations of virtual world theory, two familiar ones (a strong and a weak one, 2. 1) and a somewhat less familiar one (the irrealist interpretation, 2. 2). The remainder of the paper argues that the irrealist interpretation is the one we should adopt (2. 3–2. 6).
Ziat M., Gapenne O., Lenay C. & Stewart J. (2007) Zooming experience in the haptic modality. In: E. D. (ed.) Proceedings of the 4th international conference on enactive interfaces (ENACTIVE/07). Association ACROE, Grenoble: 305–308.
The objective of this work concerns the design and the implementation of a zoomable interface implying the haptic modality. The initial postulate is that the zoom experience is not a natural, a direct experience, but supposes instrumentation and learning. In other words, the zoom experience is built by the appropriation of a technical substitution which makes it possible to modify the properties of the space-time flow; these properties which bind the subject to his (real or virtual) world are relational. To conceive this new interface, directly inspired from technologies known as of sensory substitution, we carried out a set of experiments allowing to define and to qualify the technical conditions and of use which favour the emergence of a perceptive experience of the zoom type. More generally, it concerns the proposition of more intuitive or immediate modes of instrumental interaction engaging explicitly the body in action.