Sunday 22 April 2012

Reality Digital




What a strange world I live in…

    I paint pictures on the computer and then upload them to the internet, to be viewed by the virtual world. At no point today do I draw on paper or paint on canvas. There are no physical versions of my art in my world; it is all just ones and zeroes floating around inside machines.

    I write books on the computer, I edit them on the computer, and then sell them on the internet as eBooks on Kindle. At no point do I write or print the story out to edit on paper. If I want to make notes I jot them down on my mobile or keep them stored in that mass of electrons called my brain. I don’t even sell my book as a traditional book with traditional paper. There are no physical versions of my stories in my world; it is all just ones and zeroes floating around inside machines.

    I talk to people on the computer, and I have conversations and make jokes with them all over the world. I never met these people, so I assume they are real, but these people live in my computer. They are digital personalities, who might turn up when I turn on my computer, and disappear when I turn it off. There are no physical versions of my friends in my world; it is all just ones and zeroes floating around inside machines.

    I think while sitting at my computer, about this world. I make art that isn’t in reality, I write stories that aren’t in reality, and I have friends who aren’t in reality. My world is all just ones and zeroes floating around inside machines.

   I wonder if I exist in reality.

   If I turn of this machine will I stop being me?

    Shall I give it a go…


4 comments:

  1. Well, some people pay their bills through digital means also and if they miss a payment on the light bill: Poof! They could soon be sitting in the dark, panicked by the pending doom of all the ice cream soon to be melting in the freezer ... the computer is down and so is the internet, does the electric bill no longer exist, hmm? I am pretty sure it does, since if you actually pay it (some how) the lights will come back on and the ice cream would be saved except you've already eaten it all, lol.

    NVM that is silly.

    Only you would know if you were still you in any given "reality"... 'cause virtual, "real life" or a mix of the two can only be what you let others see or know, they fill in the blanks whether that is right or not ...

    Besides all that, I own quite a few prints of your work, though you didn't hand them to me personally I still view them with the understanding that these creations came from your mind. Dunno, maybe I am not me and only think I am.

    Peace,
    LTW

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    1. If you had no electricity then you wouldn't have an electricity bill... so both share a reality of the unreal.

      And are you sure the ice cream is real, or is it just ones and zeroes floating around inside the human machine? :)

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  2. A fun post. Sorta. But then again, a little creepy.

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    1. Welcome to the reality of my Blog, Jess. Fun and creepy just about sums it up around here :)

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