Anas Maghfur

In 2012 the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality (VR) headset display, made headlines in the technology world when it raised US$2.5 million through crowdfunding. In 2014 it was acquired by Facebook for a whopping US$2 billion. Ever since then leaders in technology have been pouring money in VR research & development and there is no shortage of creative studios producing VR content. Although VR have not reached universal adoption, the data looks to be auspicious. In 2010, just 2 years prior to VR's supposed harbinger, I wrote a chapter in my Sufficiency in the Philosophy of Technology under Prof. John Sanbonmatsu titled 'The Ontology of Virtual Reality'. Rereading it, I think it is still relevant today. Here it is: There are two aspects of virtual reality that pertains to human use: information and communication (Valentine and Holloway n.d.). Virtual reality is a space filled with information provided by its architects. Perhaps the easiest example to grasp is the internet...

DigiBlox – The design and realization of Lego-esque blocks containing highly affordable microprocessors that when assembled communicate with each other to calculate and transmit their assembly configuration to a PC which will then render a representation of the assembled blocks in a virtual environment. The DigiBlox was motivated by the desire to promote a creative learning environment for children. With the DigiBlox, children will be able to build structures like they would with normal Legos and witness their creations come into existence in a virtual environment. They would then be able to perform experiments on their creations in the virtual environment that would otherwise be impractical should it be done in real life. For example, a group of children may build a bridge using the DigiBlox and may want to see if the bridge could withstand a dynamite explosion under it. Dynamites would be too dangerous for children to play with but in the virtual environment, where that bridge th...

Like many dramas, Antigone and The Celebration (originally realeased as  Festen in Denmark) tells the journey of the protagonist’s resistance to the antagonist's power. But what is the nature of this resistance to power and what is the basis of power in general? Among the many challenges that Christian and Antigone had to overcome, one of them was physical force. In both dramas, neither Helge nor Creon had to directly exert physical force on those who resisted them. Everything was done indirectly. Creon had influence over agents of the sovereign so all he needed to do was to issue some law or “proclamation” (Sophocles, line 34) and use his agents to physically enforce them. Just like Creon, Helge had influence over his guests and Michael in particular. In fact, Helge’s influence was so strong that Michael and a couple of the other guests forcefully removed Christian from the dinner party without needing Helge to instruct them first. They were quick to brush off Christian’s ...