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Virtual worlds, real knowledge: towards a hermeneutics of virtuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2001

ESPEN AARSETH
ESPEN AARSETH
Affiliation:
Department of Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen, Ibsengatan 66, Bergen, Norway. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

What is the ‘virtual’ and what types of phenomena can be so described? This article tries to establish the context within which this unclear and ideological term can be constructive. Phrases such as ‘virtual community’ are paradoxical and weak, but ‘virtual’ applied cognitively to simulated phenomena, such as virtual worlds or computer games, has validity and represents an alternative discourse mode to narratives and storytelling in conveying experience and knowledge.

Type
Original Article
Information
European Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 2001 , pp. 227 - 232
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2001

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Footnotes

Presented at the Paderborn Conference on Informatics, supported by Westfalia Stiftung: ‘the Virtual Society?’ Programme of ESRC and by the European Commission.