In a Virtual Sense

Several notions in McLuhan’s Visual and Acoustic Space parallel directly with my family life. The philosopher writes, “…blindness heightens certain sensations, giving sudden and often disturbing sharpness to the senses of hearing and touch…it develops inner as against outer experience, and sometimes to excess…” This heightening of the senses certainly relates to mother and her struggles with MS, or multiple sclerosis. Years ago when she first contracted the disease, which leaves scars parts of the brain and impairs various functions of the body, she nearly lost all sight in her left eye. However, her hearing drastically improved, to the point where she could here my phone conversations from across the house (which got annoying at times). Her auditory power became so strong that she would wake up from the subtle sound of footsteps downstairs (or me trying to sneak out late into the night). Fortunately, with this loss of sight my mother has become an excellent listener whenever someone in the family has problems and they need someone to vent to. In a sense my mother unintentionally reflects McLuhan’s argument that western culture in the late 20th century experienced a shift in perception toward the acoustic rather than the visual.

McLuhan also predicts that by the 21st century, technology will be transferred to “acoustic and visual modes…if we realize that our skulls really contain two brains straining to be physically united.” This prediction can be illustrated by the pioneering of virtual reality, which undoubtedly unites both senses, and its discussion in Katherine Hayles’ Seduction of Cyberspace. Virtual reality allows one to harmonize the senses, escape the physical body, and to take control of one’s environment. Virtual reality has also become useful in medical practice. Hayles writes that “about 10 percent of the U.S. population are cyborgs (a virtual construction of a man or a woman) in a technical sense…” My father could even be considered a cyborg because he uses an electronic machine to help him breath properly at night to alleviate problems with sleep apnea. However, the emergence of VR has also posed obvious threats to our culture. Similar to Maggie’s idea, if we allow our bodies to become consumed in a virtual reality, we could become reliable on this artificial world to spike our emotions and perform menial tasks. A cyber world could ultimately strip us of our individuality if it becomes a dependable aspect of everyday life. Undoubtedly, this can also be tied back to the consequences of a man-computer symbiosis we discussed in class.