Are we living in an artificial reality?

I thought I would share a short video that I narrated about my new chapbook, The Absence of Reality. The book provides aphorisms and short observations about the nature of reality and perception. The quotes are sometimes long, sometimes as short as free verse poetry. The book provides commentary and criticisms about our increasingly digital world and the future of humanity. – E. Hughes

The Absence of Reality explores human existence and whether we are living in an artificial reality. An artificial reality is the construct of social and technological advances, the hidden objective reality, and humanity’s inability to perceive the world in its natural unaltered state. As the human population marches forward to the Initium Novum Era of human existence, the next stage of artificial reality, simulacra, and simulated environments, are we coding our own extinction?

An exploration of reality, artificial realities, human constructs, existence, and the finite nature of time, through a series of philosophical and poetic observations. On sale now. Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Blackwells | Amazon UK.

E. Hughes Quotes

“What options offer us is the illusion of choice.”

On Reality:

“As reality becomes more artificial, the less it resembles objective “physical” reality. It becomes abstract; the environment and social conditions becoming intangible and virtual. Socially, humankind’s immersion into the unreal, an imitation (simulation) of reality is not a conscious or willful act of defiance against reality, but a willful act of defiance against nature through technological advancement.

The arrow of time plays an important role in reality’s progression to artificial reality. Artificial realities do not retrogress to earlier states; it becomes more artificial as time moves forward, with reality becoming less tangible and increasingly more virtual (or digital) over time.”

– From The Absence of Reality: Aphorisms and Observations of the Nature of Reality and Existence by E. Hughes