Irving and the Monsters of the Id

Irving Wladawsky-Berger has a fascinating piece on Dealing with the (Virtual) World in our Minds, introducing his reflections on the recent IBM - MIT Media Lab Conference on Virtual Worlds with the Monsters of the Id and the movie, Forbidden Planet.

He concludes

Some may find it ironic that an all day conference on virtual worlds is taking place with flesh and blood people at the Media Lab auditorium in Cambridge. But in the end, it is all about balance and harmony. We all live in two worlds - the physical world and the world in our minds. Perhaps what we are now seeing is the emergence of a hybrid world that attempts to close the gap and make it easier for us humans to deal with these two very different worlds, helping us better integrate them into our lives and into our work. Needless to say, each has its pros and cons. Creating such appealing, powerful and simple hybrid worlds may very well be one of the most important aspects of the Knowledge Age on which we are embarking.