an example that virtual reality has now arrived, you know. The multiple billion dollar purchase

of Oculus Rift shows that now they have the resources to bring this thing into the mainstream.

And, of course, virtual reality like other media technologies like cinema is an engine

of empathy because it speeds up the capacity to achieve presence in the mediated world,

right. And so with a movie theater the size of the screen, the surround sound audio puts

you there. With the Oculus Rift potentially you’re surrounded now by the media, by the

simulated dreamscape. So you are even more there. So when I say an agent of empathy,

the UN, just released a virtual reality film of a Syrian refugee camp, you know. The fact

that we’re able to put reporters now virtually on the ground it elicits a sort of experience

that is so much more visceral, so much more powerful, that the elusive sense of presence

that literally puts you in a liminal trance state. Your defenses get lowered. You forget

yourself. You forget your problems. You are there. You are in the moment. And so, you

know, the power of that as an engine of empathy I think can’t hurt humanity, you know. I

think it’s like they talk in the movie Interstellar our empathy rarely extends beyond our line

of sight. And I think with virtual reality and the Oculus Rift we now are extending our

line of sight by being able to go everywhere at the speed of mind.

And I think that’s transformational. Furthermore the psychonautic philosopher Terrence McKenna

says that the goal of humanity is to turn ourselves inside out, right. And he says that

with virtual reality the canvas for intersubjective intimacy is taken to the next level. You know,

before if I want to share the contents of my mind I smile and I move my lips in a certain

way. I make crude little grunts to convey meanings. I might make a painting, you know,

or I might write a poem. And the point is these are a rich tapestry of tools that human

beings have used for achieving something akin to telepathy, to know each other’s minds,

to enter the intersubjective space of one another. But with virtual reality each of

us potentially, the full flowering of this technology means each of us can create a universe

of our own construction. A universe that reflects our own archetypical spaces, you know, our

own iconographies. We turn ourselves inside out. You don’t just come into my room and

see my books to see who I am. Now you get to come inside my mind. That’s what kind

of blows my mind. The new spaces of intimacy that will be made possible when you can invite

your lover or your friend into your world. Come visit my world and you get to inhabit

that as a sort of cosmos of the mind.