Now it is time to look at the notion of an extended or virtual reality. Negroponte looks at the ways in which we will interact with machines in the future as they become sensitive to our physical and emotional needs. He suggests that as we learn to tailor our surroundings to meet our individual needs we will a kind of digital liberation. We will be led through the internet in a way which has never been seen before as we move around in a virtual world, in a not dissimilar way to how we move around the real world. We will interact with what he calls a “Cyberdock” in which we are not just presented with information but we are able to interact with it as if were a ‘real’ and evolving piece. It will also allow internet companies to provide relevantly links which are interlinked with the information and ideas present. It does, however, appear to give a sense of a virtual world which is every bit as frantic and fast paced as the real world. This suggests that although we may be able to move human experience into a different dimension, these experiences will always remain the same, based around capitalism and the pursuit of a materially better wellbeing.
In Cronenberg’s Videodrome he attempts to look at the consequences of humans directs interaction with technology, with the biggest problem being that of the separation of the ‘real’ and ‘virual’ Worlds. The movie succeeds in creating the sense that although we rely heavily on technology in the modern world, it is important that we keep these two vastly different worlds as two separate entities. Considering this film was made in 1982 it is remarkably relevant even today. As we watch the gradual convergence and advancement of the technological sector, the issues raised in the film become ever more relevant.
