Carcosa Bound

I’ve been viewing life from the inside a Virtual Reality headset a lot recently – maybe clocking in 40 hours per week, for… a few weeks now.

This was in large part driven by recently watching the charming Fallout television show. So, I’ve been playing Fallout 4 VR, adventuring around an alt-historical greater Boston. This has been massively improved with the addition of dozens of great mods from the passionate and skilled modding community.

I’m not alone in revisiting this, either in the flatlands of 2D, or VR; there has been a major resurgence in interest and player hours in this recently.

Getting a body makes a huge difference – FRIK takes it to a whole new level, and is a big contributor to my extended stay. The game, in its original state, has no body; somehow, the wizard mod author Rollingrock16 made this work here.

All of these fixes come from the Nexus – the community of gameful creatives who take existing software and improve or completely reinterpret it, according to their will and skill. It really is one of the most interesting and vitalistic things about modern gaming I’ve found.

Basically, and fittingly, it was only mechanical failure that really stopped my continued engagement as a well-armed rubbish man (scavenging materials to rebuild settlements is a core game element). One of the “Lighthouses”, the infrared devices that the Valve Index VR system uses to translate an accurate representation of the user’s position in the generated space, broke.

Possible health effects

Staring into a black mask that weaves a compellingly immersive world is not without its dangers, however.

Physical

I really wonder and worry about the long-term effects of having two high-definition screens an inch from your eyeballs.

For this, among other reasons, I take Lutien and Vitamin D, and am mindful of my diet. I’ve not really noticed any especially negative effect yet, though I have come to appreciate the richness of textures in the world outside of VR, as well the artistry of the skybox above us, and the subtlety of the weather effects.

Also, more general body degeneration – I’ve found standing largely in the same place for six to eight hour sessions has a negative effect on knees, shoulders and back. Hands can also feel like claws after so long wrapped around the input controllers, that form and position the user’s hands inside the virtual environment.

Despite the “Chaperone zone” – the feature that lets you know you’re at the edge of the playing space – I’ve still found myself punching walls, or walking into bookshelves. It’s also disorienting and hilarious to take off the headset, and find yourself tucked into a corner of your room, inches away from a wall that you’d somehow managed not to collide with.

I’ve also noticed much more visual Dreaming – especially when supported with glycine and chaga. It definitely has an effect on the brain.

Social-temporal

Like any effective virtuality, it imposes its own compelling grammar of time. Other people in your life may not get it.

If you don’t have a lot going on, this perhaps could be an easy retreat into an environment that is ultimately hedonic. Better a winner alone than a social loser.

Kind of like how junkies are terrible, unless they are great at music or art or something. There is something of the mysteries of Narcissus in this – staring into your reflection, of the world as you want it to be, largely under your control, full of beautiful textures, tasteful lighting, heroic actions and solvable problems.

You can win there. You can win, and keep winning. This makes it more compelling than many other types of reality you’re called or compelled to participate in.

Let’s face it, a lot of the time, we have to work to make interactions not bullshit, boring, and largely meaningless. People wasting your life by forcing you into a larval expression of their time, to meet the criteria of their own needs systems.

It is an unfair stereotype, but the risk of the Incel wirehead with a virtual girlfriend who never leaves the house is a very real possibility, especially as the threat of ersatz abundance looms (e.g. universal basic income, without a shared goal, probably provided by a corporation).

Or worse, a deeper, more insidious and more fully-virtualised progression of climbing a meaningless organisational ladder, to take part in managing an essentially circular logistics network. Moving pixels on a screen to generate rewards in your local flavour of CBDC, which you trade for lab-grown meatbix, recycled polyester clothing items and new, distracting, status-conferring electronic devices.

Luciferian Tech: dealing with dangerous abundance

In really good VR, there is no outside. The problem with a sandbox is it can be a sandpit – a place where you put children when you don’t want them to bother you.

Distraction prevents disruption. It is hard to be both dangerously free and distracted at the same time.

VR offers continuous, simple (not necessarily easy) progress over Sisyphean mundanity. I have conquered fortresses and killed dragons. I have built cities, rescued people, and freed slaves. Many others have too. We dream together, though apart.

There is something ancient you brush up against when wearing this high-definition dream mask, too; obliquely felt but never addressed directly, like Lovecraft’s Hounds of Tindalos. An island of Lotus Eaters beckons, in flashing neon; good times, no worries. The serpent’s song: Anything you want, just take one bite.

I suggest entering with a clear plan and outcomes, and self-defined limits, for yourself, before engaging in this world. Make sure you read the fine print carefully in deals like this.

The emancipatory power of Virtual Realities has not yet been realised. Completely immersive, experiential environments – it seems perfect for learning, planning, thinking, fucking around and finding out, without overly negative consequence. These realities will get better, especially when augmented and optimised with generative AI tools.

In this way, it is a Luciferian Technology – you can get anything you want there. If you don’t know what you want, you’ll get anything, in infinite quantities, in a weightless world spun from light itself.

Equally, this technology can inform, and liberate, and make you dangerous, not in the least by by creating a powerful experiences – “I have won there, so I will win here”.

You need to bring this back. Prometheus’ act snatching of fire from the gods was not complete until he gave it to people. Come back, better, with the fire in your eyes.