Page - 138 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

138 • Cyborg Mind are seeking to escape. Thus, virtual reality seeks to support the creation of new, alternative and imaginative realities. The greatest benefit of virtual reality is that it suspends and improves the existential threats, concerns and constraints of real reality.157 It then becomes a place where finite experiences are transformed into an infinite set of imaginative possibilities that a person can explore. However, if the chain grounding virtual reality is broken from the basis of real reality, cyberspace could quickly become something far more threat- ening. This would happen if persons begin to reject the real world and seek to spend their whole existence in virtual reality. Instead of presenting a safe place in which exploration is made possible, it may become, as Brent Waters explains, ‘a Gnostic and Manichean inferno whose inhabitants loathe the very existential features that anchor humans to the real world’. He adds that: ‘It will be a state populated by cyborgs, who, in loathing the finitude and frailty of the body see it as rancid meat to be discarded.’158 Hopefully, such an experience can be avoided so that virtual reality may instead become a sanctuary in which it is possible to find a temporary release from the cares and limitations of the real world. But the best that virtual reality can offer is only a temporary rest from a world where difficulties are present. Any long-term or permanent existence in such a world would mean a life in which the heavy burdens of finitude and temporality would have no real meaning.159 Nevertheless, the wonders of cyberspace may tempt some individuals to become disillusioned with the real world, while others become so completely absorbed in virtual reality that they no longer pay attention to the real world, forgetting even to sleep, eat or drink. A previously mentioned example was the young South Korean man who died while constantly playing computer games for nearly fifty hours.160 In such a context, it could be argued that, due to his vulnerability or obsessive-compulsive nature, his freedom had been taken away. Moreover, seeking to always escape reality may be detrimental, in that reality is what human beings normally inhabit. It helps to define and shape them into who they are, while enabling them to be genuine. It offers the unexpected and the chance to grow and develop in ways that had never been imagined. On the other hand, increasingly living in an imaginary reality may create difficulties for communities such as families. Indeed, existing in a pretend world may turn human beings into pretend persons. In this way, the devel- opment of avatars may represent an escape from the real self. Questions can then be asked about whether this is always right. Should individuals not instead learn to accept themselves as they really are and not live a lie? There is responsibility, courage, nobility and even beauty in reality that enables individuals to become real persons confronting the real joys and This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.