Between Heaven and Headsets: Revelation in the Virtual Age
👤講者：李彥彤 (中央研究院歐美研究所博士後研究人員)
👤主持人：洪子偉 (中央研究院歐美研究所研究員)
📅時間：115年7月28日 (星期二) 上午11: 30
📍地點：中央研究院歐美研究所一樓會議室
🧾摘要：In the digital era, virtual reality (VR) has been playing an increasingly important role in our lives. Reflecting on the impact of this technology, Hong Kong Mandopop artist G.E.M. (Gloria Tang Tsz-kei) explores the themes of the self-other relationship that interconnect the virtual and physical realms of life in her recent artwork series, Revelation. This paper examines the philosophical ideas embedded in Revelation, analyzing the relevant implications as envisioned in these works. Revelation illustrates how sufficiently advanced VR enables authentic human flourishing, serving as a philosophical resource for reconceiving personhood, interpersonal relationships, and the meaning of life. This paper focuses on these issues: 1) the user-avatar relationship, 2) virtual friendship, and 3) the meaning of virtual life. First, avatars function as genuine extensions of personhood rather than distorted representations. By adopting a user’s first-person perspective and consciousness, avatars allow individuals to authentically embody themselves across different forms of embodiment, challenging traditional skepticism about virtual self-presentation. Second, genuine friendships can flourish in virtual worlds through shared activities and mutual self-disclosure. I demonstrate that collaborative virtual experiences can foster the intimacy, mutual caring, and authentic self-presentation that characterize meaningful friendships, countering arguments that virtual relationships lack essential depth. Third, virtual lives can be meaningful through our consciousness and genuine connection. I argue that subjective experience underpins the meaning of life, regardless of whether consciousness arises from neural or digital systems. Together, these claims suggest that virtual and physical existence function as complementary modes of human experience rather than fundamentally opposed alternatives.