Diego's ITP Projects

While watching Dennett’s TED talk on consciousness, Pinker’s on the myth of violence, and Helen Fisher’s love+hate, I discovered that illusions occur due to a lack of perception of reality, but illusions are part of our consciousness. Having said that, the world is a very ambiguous place were the brain tries to reconstruct reality through limited sensory input.  if our consciousness is composed of an estimated guess of reality, could reality itself be an illusion?

Understanding and the full picture.

The better understanding of human consciousness through evolution and technology is causing certain human traits to change. I’m defining violence as a part of our reality and with its understanding, real violence is becoming less necessary to people’s consciousness. Over an extended period of time, I believe humans are changing how violence is expressed and experienced through new and interactive media.

I don’t know how long violence has been part of reality, but it has defined human history. We definitely don’t burn witches or feed humans to lions as a spectacle or in order to please a regime any more. Treating people as sub-human has also been diminishing thanks to civil rights. Violence has been detrimental to humankind’s prosperity through time, yet I feel that it is a human need.

Are we less violent than our ancestors? According to Pinker, yes we are less violent, and we are living in the most peaceful time in human history. Can we say we are less violent? Real acts of violence are in decline, and I think this is due because violence is transferring into a digital world were a user satisfies the need vicariously. We now experience acts of violence through broadcast and interactive media on a screen.  Through violent movies and video games, violence comes to our reality distorted, an illusion that we think it’s real.

Punishments, gore, and deaths.

Public displays of violence due to punishment and entertainment has declined immensely. Human sacrifices were the first ones to go, for this I am glad. Imagine a football game ending with the losing team is killed. This Mesoamerican Game and Child-sacrifices were popular and part of society when their particular societies thrived. Pinker talks about this bizarre for of  17th century French entertainment as cats were burned alive for laughs.

Real violence is in decline.

Pinker points at how violent we were in the past and how gore in the public eye was something accepted within a society. Today we don’t witness gruesome acts of violence unless they are on television or video games.

I feel that violent video games and movies satisfy a certain thirst for violence. From Street Fighter to Man Haunt violence is present in different degrees as well as it is present in most movies in existence. In the public setting, arcade/restaurant/bar establishments where the majority of arcade games have some sort of weapon attached to it makes me believe that we are still violent. It’s harmless, yet it is present, and I wonder why? Some people like to shot and kill things I suppose.

Has the actual need of violence changed it’s source? Are we fulfilling our need of violence by watching violent movies and playing video games? The emulation of violence on a screen gives us the best resolution of violent acts that we can experience. Is our mind being tricked into believe that this violence is real thus satisfying this need? Will violence disappear from the real world? If the world is becoming a larger community where sustainability has to be achieved, then violence shouldn’t exist.

This can answers Pinker’s question of “what are we doing right to help the decline of violence?” Is violence being transferred into another realm were it is less harmful to society? I believe by experiencing the illusion of violence on a screen, human beings can understand why we are violent without harming other fellow humans.