Cyberselves in Immersive Technologies

从通过恍惚或迷幻药物使用带来的神秘体验，到电影幻想，如黑客帝国，阿凡达和代理人，人们长期以来一直着迷于将自我投射到身体之外的想法，或者进入一个不同的身体，甚至进入一个完全不同的世界。在历史和文学中，这样的经历通常被描述为一个改变生命的事件通过超越肉体的限制，或者完全离开你自己的身体，也许暂时居住在另一个人身上，你可能会以新的和更开明的方式来看待和理解自己。随着下一代虚拟现实和远程呈现技术的发展，从我们自己的眼睛后面以外的角度体验世界的可能性正在成为我们所有人的可能性。完全沉浸式的技术，通过它你有一种令人信服的感觉，就在另一个地方或身体，在不久的将来，科学家和技术人员每天都在发现新的方法来直接操纵你的经验，你在哪里，什么，甚至是谁，你是。随着越来越多的人将时间和精力投入到虚拟或“网络”现实中--不同程度的沉浸--我们的网络自我，我们在这些虚拟世界中成为的人，对我们来说可能会变得和我们的“真实的”自我一样重要。由于技术发展如此迅速，几乎没有时间考虑广泛使用深度和长时间沉浸可能对人们，他们的关系和我们的社会产生的变革性影响（包括真实的和虚拟的）;例如，在一个实施例中，虚拟世界不如现实世界“真实”的观点正受到人们的挑战，对他们来说，关系比那些发生在“真实的”生活中的关系更重要。“沉浸式技术中的网络自我”项目认为，我们必须研究沉浸式技术对我们的社会和文化的变革性影响。为了有效地做到这一点，需要采用多学科的方法，同时采用人文和科学的方法。我们的项目包括哲学家和文化理论家，与心理学家，技术专家和认知科学家一起工作。我们寻求探索和理解沉浸在其历史和文化背景下的概念，并在“此时此地”-研究沉浸式技术如何运作以及它如何影响我们的大脑对身体的影响。我们计划从这些分析中得出结论的文化感知和可能的社会影响，这项技术的短期和长期。我们的项目将涉及使用虚拟现实环境的实验研究，并在这个虚拟世界的沉浸感与体验的真实的世界通过远程呈现（远程存在）接口先进的人形机器人的比较。我们将使用最先进的动作捕捉，虚拟现实和机器人设备已经在谢菲尔德中心机器人和庞培法布拉大学，巴塞罗那，探索沉浸式体验的客观和主观方面，并了解我们的身体概念如何可能被这种经验所改变。通过跨学科合作，并通过将这种方法与文化和伦理分析相结合，我们希望（i）围绕虚拟现实和投射自我的概念产生对文化，历史和意识形态结构的更好理解;（ii）改变认知科学家调查沉浸式和虚拟现实技术的方式，作为发现更多关于自我本质的方式;（iii）确定沉浸式技术带来的关键文化焦虑和未来社会挑战;（iv）促进科学和文化方面的辩论，讨论更多地以网络自我生活的潜在好处和风险。

From mystical experiences brought about through trance or psychedelic drug use, to film fantasies such as The Matrix, Avatar and Surrogates people have long been fascinated with the idea of projecting the self outside of the body, or into a different body, or even into a radically different world. In history and in literature, such an experience is often described as a life-transforming event-through transcending corporal limits, or leaving your own body entirely, perhaps to temporarily inhabit another, you might come to see and understand yourself in new and more enlightened ways. With the development of next generation virtual reality and telepresence technologies, the possibility of experiencing the world from a point-of-view other than that from behind our own eyes is becoming a possibility for all of us. Fully immersive technologies, through which you have the compelling feeling of being in another place or body, are on the near horizon, and scientists and technologists are everyday discovering new ways to directly manipulate your experience of where, what, or even who, you are. As more-and-more people devote time and energy to life in virtual or 'cyber' realities-with different degrees of immersion-our cyberselves, the people who we become in these virtual worlds, could become as important to us as our 'real' selves. Since the technologies are advancing so rapidly, there has been little time to consider the transformative effects that widespread access to deep and prolonged immersion could have on people, their relationships, and our societies (both real and virtual); for example, the idea that the virtual world is less 'authentic' than the physical one is being challenged by people for whom their cyber-relationships are more important than those happening in 'real' life.The "Cyberselves in Immersive Technologies" project considers it imperative that we examine the transforming impact of immersive technologies on our societies and cultures. To do so effectively, a multi-disciplinary approach is required that embraces methods from both the humanities and sciences. Our project includes philosophers and cultural theorists, working alongside psychologists, technologists, and cognitive scientists. We seek to explore and understand the notion of immersion both in its historical and cultural contexts, and in the 'here and now'-examining how immersive technology operates and how it effects our brains on bodies. We plan to draw from these analyses conclusions about the cultural perception and likely social impact of this technology near- and long-term.Our project will involve experimental studies using a virtual reality environment, and the comparison of immersion in this virtual world with that of experiencing the real world through telepresence (remote presence) interfaces to an advanced humanoid robot. We will use state-of-the-art motion capture, virtual reality and robotics equipment already operating at the Sheffield Centre for Robotics and the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona to explore objective and subjective aspects of the immersive experience and to understand how our conceptions of our bodies may be transformed by such experience. By collaborating across disciplines and by combining this approach with cultural and ethical analyses we expect to (i) generate an improved understanding of the cultural, historical and ideological constructions around the notion of virtual reality and the projected self; (ii) transform the way that cognitive scientists investigate immersive and virtual reality technologies as a way of discovering more about the nature of the self; (iii) identify critical cultural anxieties and future societal challenges raised by immersive technologies; and (iv) promote a scientifically- and culturally- informed debate about the potential benefits and risks of living more of our lives as cyberselves.