"The Condition of Virtuality"

The first thing I must say about this essay is when I read it all I could think was, "I'm in over my head." It took me three tries just to get the article started. Katherine Hayles goes so deep in this essay at times its hard not to get lost. There were some interesting points she brought up though that I think I at least have a very basic understanding. She defines Virtuality as "the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns." She explains that Virtuality itself along with its definition is a duality; the conveying of materialistic content in a purely informational medium/pattern, or in this case computers. Its somewhat difficult to grasp at first, but after some contemplation one can begin in a superficial way to grasp the idea.

She then dives into the much explored idea of humans only being informational patterns, and therefore transferrable to computers. She presents this idea through the works of others but then admits how horrible this concept really is, as it would disregard the human ability to emote. Even more disturbing in connection to this idea is the theory that information is completely separate from meaning...leading one to the idea that humans have no meaning and could be accurately represented through binary codes on the computer. Later though she states that the main reason why this concept of re-embodiment of humans is so disturbing is simply because they will be embodied into computers, if they were embodied back into their own bodies and immortalized it would not be so shocking. I don't know if I can agree with this assesment, personally the idea of living forever on this planet in any way or form is very daunting.

Another interesting concept she touches on: how Virtuality relates to postmodernism. Within this concept a very provocative question comes up. In postmodernism possession was a main concern; however, in Virtuality possession no longer holds wait, access does. She says that this shift if priorities will most likely alter the plots of literature, and I wonder myself how it will all play out.

Hayles goes on to discuss books and their interplay with computers and how they affect one another. Computers visualize books as ancient archaic materials connected with desire. This gives books a very physical nature. Again I must draw a line. Books do have a physical nature, however I still do not connect them purely with the physical as they cause people to escape physical realms and enter into the world of their imaginations. She is correct however in her assessment that no matter what Virtuality has and will change books and literature.

Lastly the most interesting of her points, I thought, was her discussion of the spaciality of virtual writing. She compares the ease and flow a user may feel in going from hypertexts to hypertext to the feeling an experienced tennis player has with her racquet, as though it is an extension of her arm. I can somewhat see where this goes. The links are extensions of eachother, and are very easy to navigate making the user feel at ease and comfortable with the medium.

Katherine Hayes compels her readers to dive deep into thought about the usage of virtuality and what it really means...to the point where it really makes my head hurt.