Virtual worlds: a journey in hype and hyperreality

Free lunch - introductory remarks on the concept of artificial and reality flying high - the origins of computer simulation virtually there - the concept of virtual in computing, the mysterious ability of computers to be able to be bigger and more powerful than they really are computer universe - a look at the limits of what can be simulated using a computer, and at the claim that the universe itself might be in a computer made up minds - the greatest challenge of simulation - reproducing human thought - the evidence so far seems to show that this is in practice, perhaps in principle, impossible euphoria - the origins of the idea of reality are traced back to 1960s drug culture, some of its claims are revealed to be more matters of marketing than technology cyberspace - the concept of cyberspace, central to reality, is a way of making sense of the information era and media age, what sort of space is it? stories - the emergence of critical theory and its influence over our concept of reality hyperreality - the Gulf War as a case study for the postmodern reality - the scientific conception of reality is itself being forced to change in response to strange phenomena discovered in the subatomic realm reality - how the changing perspective of reality in science and cultural theory is reflected in the concept of cirtual reality, a sceptical examination of the claim that fiction is a virutal reality, that even reality is a reality.