Hamlet on the Holodeck

Last week I pulled a TON of books from the library. I'm slowly blocking out all light coming from my window with stacks and stacks of books. Most of them are only tangentially related so I probably wont end up reading them cover-to-cover. In my wanderings through the library I kept getting drawn toward books with a more philosophical leaning. While I'm absolutely fascinated by the brain chemistry behind our perception of reality and how we interact with technology, that would open up a whole new can of worms. In the approximate words of Bones McCoy, "I'm an animator, Jim, not a neuroscientist/philosopher." Same goes for robots. I love all debates regarding the singularity, but I don't plan on doing any heavy programming and building myself a little friend. I will, however, touch on the singularity as a potential extreme future prospect regarding what we define as augmented reality.

Anyway, back to the books. There are a few gems that I think compare/contrast nicely. Their strange synergy kind of shows the direction that my research is starting to take. They are Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet H. Murray and Hand's End: Technology and the Limits of Nature by David Rothenberg. I'm in the middle of H.o.t.H. right now and loving it. I thought it would be a good place to launch into my project not only because of the content but because prior to becoming a programmer the author had a background in English and the humanities. This multidisciplinary approach is very relevant not only to my research, but to nearly all technology today since it is so broadly prevalent in almost every arena of modern life.