At the event, which was organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Pope said:
New technologies and the progress they bring can make it impossible to distinguish truth from illusion and can lead to confusion between reality and virtual reality…
…The image can also become independent from reality, it can give birth to a virtual word, with various consequences—above all the risk of indifference towards real life.
Yeah, yeah, just wait until he’s hooked on Minecraft. [MontrealGazette via Slashdot]
freaky
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 6:39 AMThat’s because they don’t like the competition. They want you to believe in their imaginary friends not someone else’s and they don’t have the political power they do in the “real” world in a virtual one.
[doa]
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 7:56 AMIsn’t VR going to eventually save “religion” by offering a REAL life after death, rather than just a “trust us” imaginary one.
The Gremlin
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 8:36 AMCall me cynical, but I find the Pope concerns about people not being able to distingish truth from illusion, well, ironic.
Matt L
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 8:36 AMThe pope must have been living under a rock for the last 20 years – Virtual Reality is fast becoming a part of actual reality. I think it’s meant to be this way :D
Owen
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 9:14 AMAt least with VR we can actually use our senses to detect something/one, eh Benny? Ah, the ironing is delicious.
Rod
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 10:02 AMOooh, TRONPope!
Josh
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 11:28 AMAnd once again gizmodo’s shoddy journalism posts something out of context. IIRC, this comment was actually to do with previous comments about how readily child porn is available on the internet, and how because it is on the internet it is seen more and more by pedophiles as not being real, being virtual, even to the point where porn companies are getting 18 yr olds that look like 14 yr olds to do porn so they can cater to pedophiles.
The REAL Josh!
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 1:41 PMYeah, because popular media journalism NEVER EVER takes things out of context right?
I read the Montreal Gazette article but it didn’t seem to be much different than the Gizmodo one, there wasn’t any mention of child porn stuff. I feel it might have been a little harsh to judge Giz when their source material didn’t supply any information about what your talking about; how about some links to help educate?
Also, gimmie my name back! :P
[doa]
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 2:32 PMWell said, and wouldn’t they be FOR child porn anyhow.
The prophet
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 6:19 PMIt’s crazy people still believe and listen to this pope when he said that using contraception won’t help prevent AIDs in Africa. Pope is a schmope.