Lecture 4 Summary

In today's lecture Associate Professor Stockwell introduced to the class the topic of Virtual Reality. He enabled us to go beyond what we know as reality as Professor Stockwell illustrated as the 'positive realism' to a different world of virtual reality. During the 19th and 20th centuries "development in technologies...radicially altered the economy of the planet" (Stockwell) With these changes in turn it introduced screen age and virtual rationality.
Virtual Reality can be defined as "a system that enables one or more users to move and react in a computer-related environment"

The idea of virtual reality are evident today in movies such as the Matrix, which provided audience with a view into the future of computer generated worlds, which machines dominate humans, on the otherhand eerily to some certain degree isn't our society today dominately operated by machines?

For me I found it interesting to learn how Virtual Reality works by the convergence of techniques used in simulation, animation and computer games - entertainment as the catalyst for other purposes. Prior to this lecture, I did not know that there were varoius types of Virtual Reality simulations. Another point I found fascinating was the problems associated with dabbling in a Virtual Reality environment. The applications of Virtual Reality and its different uses has provided me with a new outlook on how to utilize this fast growing technological advancement.