#edcmooc SIGHT

This video is about a man who perceives the world in a very different way. He does not see reality as it is but he has got a digital data base so he can get extra objective information besides the information one can get when we receive sensorial input, objective or subjective (input through senses and the possible interpretations one can make depending on his or her own experience).

He sees the world as a game and he lives his life as if he was part of one.  He can interact and modify reality, changing what he does not like (the topic when he is talking to the girl), choosing features if he requires so (wine at the restaurant) and he has got the control at all times.  And everything he knows is what he can get from his database. He even got kind of annoyed when she told him something about herself (she was a vegetarian) and he did not know that in advance and he could not find that information in his virtual files. He has to have the control over everything as that is the way he can play a proper game.

This video shows how an addicted mind to virtual games works.  Everything he performs or does has an aim: to win the game. It is funny how he scores points when he is cutting cucumbers in the kitchen, but I think this vision is even scary when the video goes on as he does not only want to win in superfluous things like these but he only wants to control people.

I guess most of you will recognize yourselves in the following thoughts. When you spend a lot of time playing a game and you are not playing at a certain moment of the day, you can even see the screen and the moves you would do, or you can even imagine that real objects could be part of the game. There are so many addictive games nowadays and most of us know people who spend most of their time doing so. Therefore, this video is not that futuristic as I think that if we had the opportunity to make our lives a game, loads of people would accept.

There is another point in this video. It is related to virtual reality or games but the main actor also has a plain life and he does not need material things as we can see his house and it is almost empty. He supplies what he does not have with virtual objects, information and input. His life is merely passive as he cooks what “he is being told the way he is being told” or he talks about what the “game” tells him to talk for the conversation to be successful and he uses applications to make the date perfect.

To win a game means that you do it perfect or you lose, so he must not commit any errors, as it happens when he cuts the cucumber and it not perfect so he has to do it again). What he seeks in life is perfection and technology can help his life being as perfect as it can be, but that is not natural. Humans commit mistakes and must fail to learn, that is one of the basis for education, in my view. So, another question here would be: can technology make our lives perfect? Can technology provide everything we need? Can technology make us happy?

This is also a reflection of what virtual relationships work nowadays. Most people meet new people using technology:  internet applications or pages which connect people. Most mobile phones campaigns talk about communication: without communicating at all times, wherever you are or whatever you are doing you do not exist, or you will not have a successful social life. This video pushes this idea to an extreme but it is a metaphor of personal relationships.

Now the question is: how do you live your experiences?

http://vimeo.com/46304267