We are forced to develop a new idea of reality because the non-real in the sense of the virtual is obviously becoming all too real. This is not a new phenomenon; media historians such as William Uricchio have studied it in detail. New media has always frightened parents who worry that their children will not be able to distinguish real reality from virtual reality. There may still be proponents of the theory that computer games lead to violent crime, that television makes people stupid or that comics are rubbish. Proponents of the latter theory are currently dying out; those who were concerned about the radio, telephone, railway, photography or book printing have already died out.
It was always the same recurring worry that arose in “our time”, the worry of drowning in information and no longer being able to distinguish between what is true and what is false. So far, we have managed to adapt to these new realities brought about by new technologies, at least the next generation has more or less managed it. However, we seem to have fallen behind in terms of adaptation if you look at the number of confused people around us. Quite subjective, quite mean, quite honest.
We need to develop a new conception of reality, not just in the way it has been capped over the last few hundred years, namely in adapting our understanding of reality, but we need to develop a fundamentally new understanding of what reality is.
This is also nothing new in history, as Davor Löffler describes in compressed words. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Mayans all had “mystical” notions of reality that are incompatible with our concept of reality.
We cannot, for example, have an adequate idea of the reality in which the Egyptians or Mayans lived because they had a different idea of reality that is incompatible with ours.
Such will be the new idea of reality that we must develop as quickly as possible. Before our current reality, or rather the inadequate representation of it, kills us.