Virtual reality as a reflection of absorption: space and temporality from Heidegger, Heraclitus and Borges

Abstract

Virtual reality as a characteristic phenomenon of modern technology
postulates an unfolding of certain spatio-temporal features of “real”
reality. Based on Heidegger´s reflection on technology and his critical
reading of metaphysics as a process of radical objectification of reality,
we will outline in a general way reality’s consistency for those who
live in the postmodern paradigm. In this analysis we will see how the
provocative unmasking of our milieu annuls the world that Dasein
needs precisely for being-in-the-world (in-der-Welt-sein). Finally,
using the images proposed by Borges on the one hand, and Heraclitus
on the other, we will show the superlativization of what is described
in the phenomenon of virtual reality and its corresponding spatiotemporal
dislocation within a “reality without a world”.