Jack Trembath The Stories of Ibis Intermission 2-Story 2


As I am not an active social media user or virtual connoisseur, I don’t always see my virtual spaces necessarily playing a role in my relationships and crossing over in to my real entities.  There are some minor areas that I do notice.  For example, video games are a common pass time amongst many of my friends, and this is a means of bonding and spending time with each other.  Through a common goal, video games bring people together and bring out characteristics otherwise unseen in reality just as it does the same for the characters in Dream Park.  I feel this isn’t always the case with certain social medias.  With both Twitter and Facebook (I joined a month ago), I see social media putting a strain on relationships.  These mediums add extra social constructs and rules that can regulate a person’s interactions with others.  At least in some of my experiences, social media calls for acceptance from an outside/removed community through the construction of an online identity.  If someone posts something a friend doesn’t like or if someone doesn’t like their friend’s post, there may be a tension that otherwise didn’t exist in the relationship.  At the same time, when a friend tags another friend, it is a way of saying this made me think of you and you may grow closer.  In many ways, virtual relationships can be seen as both an extension of real relationships as well as a space in which new parts of the relationship are created.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
This first link follows the history of the invention of Facebook in 2004.  The invention of Facebook created interpersonal virtual relationships on a new level.  People could connect from around the world by logging in and creating an account.  In my mind, Facebook is a semi-beginning of the virtual world that the characters exist in.  You can control your profile very similar to how you do it in the MUGEN NET.
https://futurism.com/images/the-sword-of-damocles-the-worlds-first-virtual-reality-headset-infographic/
This second link is about the first invention of the virtual reality headset invented by Ivan E. Sutherland.  The invention of the virtual reality headset marks the beginning of the attempts to create virtual worlds in which users are fully consumed.  MUGEN NET is obviously a greater extension of this early creation, and potentially a peak in to the future of what VR has to offer.
https://www.fundable.com/learn/startup-stories/amazon
This final link is to the story behind the beginning of amazon.  One thing that stood out to me for Cherry Street was the consumeristic aspect of the virtual world.  You could buy VR items or real-world items as if you were shopping in the real world.  In general, this is the direction the internet has headed with advertising and online shopping.  Amazon.com epitomizes this idea, especially considering amazon’s recent developments as a company.
I think fiction is a good lens in which to discuss the technological cultures and the future and unknown that technology brings.  Through stories especially creative, new perspectives and understandings can be gained about the technology and the dystopic and utopic futures it paints.  The book as a translation and anthology furthers these new understandings.  As a translation, the reader gains a non-American understanding of technology through the eyes of an author immersed in different cultures and technologies.  As an anthology, it has the opportunity to approach the different topics surrounding technology in a myriad of ways allowing for many different understandings.



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