“Where does the online world stop and the physical world begin?”

Buried in a comment to another post on this blog, the following reflections and questions by Extropia DaSilva deserve–no, demand–to be brought to the fore as, to my mind, perhaps the most interesting–and probably most important–questions it is possible to ask at this time:

Extropia DaSilva

The other thing that complicates matters is the changing nature of online space itself. When the portal of choice was a PC or laptop, perhaps it was easier to draw a boundary between online and offline identity. The screen itself served as the border between the two realities. But now, devices are so much more personal. Of course they still have screens but because they go everywhere with us and we are connected to our social networks 24/7, psychologically the boundaries have blurred. Where does the online world stop and the physical world begin? Does it even make sense to imagine any seperation between the two? Did it ever? What aspects of my identity are authentic and which are mere performance? Can I even trust my own judgement regarding this issue?

We are, it seems to me (as it does to Extropia and others), at the cusp of a Ballard-meets-cyberpunk era in which cosy assumptions with respect to personal identity, self-perception, and inner transformation are, at the precarious interface of psychology and technology, being brought into question, being challenged, as never before.  It’s tantalising to speculate that Philip Rosedale and Mark Zuckerberg may unwittingly turn out to have laid the foundations for a more radical reappraisal of what it means to be human than did Darwin or Freud.

I’ve neither the time, nor the wit, at present to address the issues raised by Extropia, so use this occasion solely to welcome Extropia to this blog as a contributor, and to express my delight that she has accepted my invitation to do so.  Read her story under the Who are you? menu.