Altered Being in the Physical World
摘要
Chapter 6 examines the transformative impact of having ubiquitous, networked information about individuals and objects accessible nearly anywhere in the physical world and to almost everybody. The chapter starts with a scenario of a solo traveller, equipped with various mobile devices, to illustrate how our experiences of the physical environment are significantly altered by the widespread utilisation of digital technology. The physical realm can now be enhanced with several layers of information, customized to the preferences and desires of the individual, sometimes as Augmented Reality (AR), more commonly in a more ad hoc way. Consideration is given to the impact of perceiving the physical as well as the virtual world as information, wherein both the technologically-enhanced physical realm and the virtual domains of social media and mobile communication are regarded as equally real. Technology is also increasingly capable of altering and enhancing human senses through artificial sense technology, not only mimicking traditional senses but also extending them and creating new sensory experiences of the world. Following on from the points made in the previous chapter about distributed embodiment, we examine how we can experience re-embodiment and a sense of individual and social presence in the physical realm, but without being bodily out in the world, through the use of remote interactive machines such as drones and robots.