The Real And the Virtual

Jeff Pack '99, Brown University (English 112, 1996)

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Cyberspace isn't Tron; there's no way for any analog object to directly enter. Instead, the analog universe is transferred through the implementation of simulacra that approximate analog objects in a digital space. The upshot of this is that everything in a digital space is virtual, and thus distinctions between the real and the fabricated are necessarily arbitrary. Given a digital picture, one cannot determine with certainty whether it has an analogue in the analog.

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