In Any Other World Could You Tell The Difference? Information Ethics and Virtual Worlds - Presentation E-CAP 2008

8/19/2019 In Any Other World Could You Tell The Difference? Information Ethics and Virtual Worlds - Presentation E-CAP 2008

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European Conference on Computing And Philosophy

- , - une , on pe er, rance

In An Other World Could You TellThe Difference?

n orma on cs an r ua

School of Innovation, Design and Engineering,Mälardalen University Sweden

http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc


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, ,

We are engaged, both on the workplaceand at home in virtual di ital

informational worlds, making thingswhich are impossible to do in reality.

“ ”

c an ac ons are un one. everse.Cut and paste. Visit a virtual museum.Play a game. Borrow money. Send an

instant message to hundreds ofrec p en s. uy a oo .

Model and simulate a problem. Add asound. Animate, emulate, and createartificial worlds. Interact throu h virtualcommunities.


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We are taking part in an interesting

rocess in which central functions of

information society are shifting fromhard, real, and physical to soft, virtual,

and s mbolic.

We are spending an increasing part of

our lives in virtual digital worlds,,

roles, taking various characters, making

things impossible to perform in reality.


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Reality, Representation,

Simulation

Simulations of reality can be made in variety ofways and with different purposes intechnology, science, business,entertainment and many other areas.

Simulations/emulations can never replace the- ,and events but in lack of those, simulationscan be very attractive substitutes.


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The Info-Computationalist View

The info-computational understandingof cognition: the world, be it real or

virtual, is taken as a source of

n orma on or an agen . gency n e

world means the process of information

structuring through interactiveprocesses.


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Virtual Worlds And RealMemory And Perception

a o we now a ou ow o ec e on w a s reawhen all we think and feel is information. All ourinput data are informational, be they caused by

“natural” events or a simulation/emulation (“virtual”).

In the limiting case in a Matrix-like virtual world allinteractions with the physical reality are replaced by

,

the brain which is not able to discern.


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n erac ve a ure ogn on

Memor And Perce tion

,is how we learn to know the world.

complexity of the physical, to handle environmental conditions with avariety of responses by adaptation, variation, selection, learning, and/ orreasoning for which we use our physical bodies as information processingmachines.


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Interactive Nature Of Cognition

Virtual Worlds And Realemory n ercep on

ncreas ng y comp ex v ng organ sms ar seas a consequence of evolution. They areable to register inputs (data) from theenvironment, to structure those into

ScienceDaily (Jun. 13, 2008) —

Less than a week after Los Alamos

' n orma on, an , n more eve opeorganisms, into knowledge, all of whichis essential for survival.

supercomputer began operating at

world-record petaflop-per-second

As on the present stage of the developmentwe are relying more and more on pre-processed information, often in a form of

- ,

Alamos researchers are already

using the computer to mimic

new emerging realities formsinformational eco-systems (Floridi).

processes.


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Hierarchical models and their inversionTop-down messages Bottom-up messages

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http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Friston/Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging


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Neuronal hierarchies and hierarchical models

lateral

Backward Forward

(nonlinear) (linear)

Processing hierarchy

http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Friston/Karl Friston, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging


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How To Make The Difference?

In this informational ecology

with real and virtual origins,

what is the limit where we

connections with the

physical world?


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Can a world exist

where all

n orma on s

virtual and no direct

human experience


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Games And Arts – Embodied

ogn t on

At the same time as cognition is influenced byinformation used to produce knowledge, atleast as much it is affected by our bodilyreactions to the worlds we are immersed to – our feelings and emotions. They are mostmanifestly present in arts and games.


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The Importance Of Emotion – ames n r s

A virtual world designer is aMagister Ludi of Hesse’s TheGlass Bead Game, who decidesthe available set of possibilitiesof meanings and experienceswithin a world. This includes theinteraction modes iven b therules of the game.


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By modeling the relation of an act to itsconsequences, the designer signalssocial significance, ethicalframework value s stem and similar. In this way, a sound ethicalmodel may, (or may not), be builtinto the virtual world, affecting the

.


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The Ethics Of The Virtual

consequences of the virtual, arguing for a broadspectrum of views, the frequent ones being

variations on the theme “it makes no difference it

is anyway not real” which amounts to the claim

that we just have to keep a clear distinction

between the real (to which usual norms apply) andvirtual (which represents a space of unrestricted

choices).


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Summary: Questions On

Living in both physical and virtual worlds how canwe make the difference?

We are clearly able to distinguish betweenfictional characters and real people. Thequestion is how to make difference betweenfictional/softbots/s nthetic a ents and real people when we never meet in real world?

Do we need to make a difference betweenn e gen agen s, rea an v r ua

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051101223046.htm


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Our morals depend crucially on information about ”what is the case”?

What sort of information in a mixed real/synthetic world can we rely on?

Is a scenario possible where humans cut off direct contacts with physicalenvironment and let the intelligent machinery do the job? Robots designing

survive in a virtual world?

What about cognitive enhancements and humans converging towardsmachines – a smooth transition to a mixed human-machine society?


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Conclusions

Our experiences (given hardware we areborn/grown/enhanced into will form

, ,

and reaction forms.Coming from both real and virtual

worlds, the are informationprocessing similar in character so wehave good reasons to be careful

when forming the “rules of the game”or e v r ua as v r ua s ncreas ng ybecoming constitutive for a human.


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Info-computationalist approach makesevident the need of ethical judgment ofour current state of affairs, as it points

function on a basic level, and howmuch potential choices can be for thefuture development.

The question is not only if a user feelsgood in the given virtual environment,

but also what kind of long-termconsequences life in the increasinglyvirtual world may cause for thehumanity and civilization.

In Any Other World Could You Tell The Difference? Information Ethics and Virtual Worlds - Presentation E-CAP 2008

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