{"product_id":"fantasies-of-virtual-reality-isbn-9780262549165","title":"Fantasies of Virtual Reality","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe fantasies that underpin common perceptions of Virtual Reality—and what we need to know about VR’s potential risks as well as its opportunities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVirtual reality is the next new frontier for Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg, who has overseen Meta’s investment of billions into VR, pitches it as the next dominant computing paradigm. More than just a gaming technology, VR is top of mind for academics, tech reportage, and industry evangelists who all see the potential for VR to revolutionize fields such as education and health, as well as the way we work and communicate. But will VR achieve all this? In \u003ci\u003eFantasies of Virtual Reality, \u003c\/i\u003eMarcus Carter and Ben Egliston strip bare the tech industry’s vision of a future dominated by immersive VR experiences, challenging the utopian promises of this technology’s potential.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarter and Egliston offer a critical account of VR in a variety of contexts, from gaming to human resources to policing and the military. They argue that while VR does hold significant potential, the overhyped expectations surrounding it, from achieving true empathetic understanding to transforming traditional education and office work, are often overstated and fraught with issues of privacy, control, and exclusion. What’s more, there is nothing truly virtual about virtual reality: VR is deeply entrenched in the material world, driven by tangible technological, economic, and social logics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn accessible introduction to this emerging technology, \u003ci\u003eFantasies of Virtual Reality \u003c\/i\u003eis essential reading for anyone interested in what VR can really do—and what is just plain fantasy.Contents\u003cbr\u003e1   Fantasizing about Virtual Reality\u003cbr\u003e2   Fantasies of Gaming\u003cbr\u003e3   Fantasies of Empathy\u003cbr\u003e4   Fantasies of Enclosure\u003cbr\u003e5   Fantasies of Violence\u003cbr\u003e6   Fantasies of Perfect Data\u003cbr\u003e7   Our Fantasy\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex“An indictment of VR and its discontents, an antidote to the endless hype cycle, and a laundry list of necessary repairs. VR can go no further until it addresses the critiques presented in \u003ci\u003eFantasies of Virtual Reality\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Mark Pesce, University of Sydney, author of \u003ci\u003eAugmented Reality: Unboxing Tech’s Next Big Thing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This book unpacks VR’s complex cultural and ethical challenges, offering a crucial critique of its technological and social implications.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kavya Pearlman, Founder and CEO, X Reality Safety Intelligence (XRSI)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Fantasies of Virtual Reality\u003c\/i\u003e provides a critical and enlightening picture of the state of virtual reality that doesn’t require metaverse hype to be compelling.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Paris Marx, Host of the \u003ci\u003eTech Won’t Save Us\u003c\/i\u003e podcast and author of\u003ci\u003e Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eMarcus Carter is Professor in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Sydney and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eTreacherous Play \u003c\/i\u003eand the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eFifty Years of Dungeons \u0026amp; Dragons[KAC1]  \u003c\/i\u003e(both MIT Press).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBen Egliston is Lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300922249445,"sku":"NP9780262549165","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262549165.jpg?v=1767726711","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/fantasies-of-virtual-reality-isbn-9780262549165","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}