![the realization that everyone has a story the realization that everyone has a story](https://ralphhoweministries.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/iStock-856679342.jpg)
Maybe it’s not novel, and maybe I am crazy, but to me this is the most amazing thing I have ever contemplated making in my whole life. (Lovemaking is the closest.) So, I’m not just talking about seeing from another’s viewpoint, which I admit is also incredibly cool (Machine to Be Another have already brilliantly accomplished this), but actually seeing one’s own viewpoint WITH another’s as well, creating a new perspective that is shared. We have never before shared it with a “you” in any way, it’s a physical impossibility. How is that not novel?! Our whole experience as we know it happens from this point of view, linked with a sense of self or “I”. Performing an action from this perspective together at the same time. Yes, I did say sharing a first-person point of view. This is done for the love of discovering other minds, a love that I have felt my entire life.Īlso, let’s just take a moment to step back here. So, when today my colleague said that sharing a first-person point of view simultaneously with another was not novel enough to garner conference acceptance, I thought, “I’m not in the right place.” I never want to have to make cool technology just for the sake of showing off. The reason why VR and AR are important in this equation is that they can open new perspectives on self and other. Specifically, I think that our capacity to empathize is linked to our flexibility to re-conceptualize what it means to be a self. The reason that I got into working with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmened Reality (AR) was because I wanted to solve a communication challenge, which is the difficulty we have in understanding the subjective lives of others. I realize that I am tackling the problem of empathy from the wrong field.
![the realization that everyone has a story the realization that everyone has a story](https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.onecms.io%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F6%2F2021%2F06%2F24%2FGhost_1.jpg)
Paul Bloom argues that empathy does not drive moral action and decision making, and to this point I agree.
![the realization that everyone has a story the realization that everyone has a story](http://img.picturequotes.com/2/707/706200/when-you-look-at-a-person-any-person-remember-that-everyone-has-a-story-everyone-has-gone-through-quote-1.jpg)
We empathize most readily with those who are close in proximity and kinship, those who we can easily imagine ourselves to be. One of the main limitations of empathy is that it triggers a deep and intense emotional response to another person or persons.