The Body In Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is popular in the area of technology.Not only it has a great impact on computer science,robotics,and cognitive science;but also it is deeply involved in some traditional humanities disciplines.In philosophy,the emergence of virtual reality has made it possible to revisit some of the traditional philosophical issues.The body,as an important part of the traditional subject,have also received attention in the virtual reality related research.In the area of virtual reality,body has important implications.This importance comes from the ambiguity of the body in the theory of virtual reality.On the one hand,the body indicates importance on the technical level,but on the other hand,it is ignored in theories.The problem that we must face nowadays is what dose a body mean to a virtual reality theory,and how to understand the relationship between the body and the subject and the relationship between the body and its technical construction by an effective way.This article discusses the body in the virtual reality,starting with Philip Zhai 's theory of virtual reality.This problem was mainly developed in two orientations.On the one hand,it is about the subject.In Philip Zhai 's virtual reality theory,the subject is a purely identical subject of consciousness.By the construction of Philip Zhai,subject is the basis of the entire virtual reality.However,we can see that Philip Zhai's subject has serious flaws.By Merleau-Ponty,we have rediscovered this missing part—the body.This body is not only a physiological-physical body,it is also an important element of the subject 's composition.It presents a possibility of the subject,a potential,and an ability to face the world.On the other hand,the difficulties of the subject matter inevitably leads to the difficulties of the entire theoretical framework.This point emerges from the interpretation of the problem of telepresence: this virtual reality theory of presupposed non-body subject leads to an unavoidable conflict.The physiological-physical body and body in the virtual reality are both completely separated and interconnected.Following Merleau-Ponty,I indicate the concept of coupling which shows the two types of body are not separated in prior but are co-constructed in the processes of virtualization of body and embodiment of technology.The body-subject are coupling with two types of body.