从技术史看“元宇宙”——信息革命的新环境

Metaverse in the History of Technology:The New Environment Shaped by the Information Revolution

“元宇宙”的概念包括“元”“宇宙”两层含义,前者是沉浸性或者说超脱性,后者是开放性或联通性。元宇宙有超越自身并反身自指的特性,这种特性蕴含在从岩洞壁画以来的技术史趋势之内。元宇宙不是虚拟现实,不能把沉浸性和逼真性混同。元宇宙并不追求逼近现实而是要超越现实。人们之所以会移居元宇宙正如人们之所以移居城市,并不是以新老环境相似为原因的。元宇宙是媒介环境,媒介环境学打破了物质与精神的二分法,人类生活于其中的媒介技术环境本来就是现实与虚拟相交织的。人类通过技术革新不断重塑自己的环境,正如农业革命和工业革命,元宇宙是信息革命所创造的新环境,新环境反过来为旧环境重塑秩序。区块链技术为元宇宙下的新秩序奠定基础。

The concept of"metaverse"includes two meanings:"meta"and"universe",the former including immersion or transcendence,and the latter including openness or connectedness.The metaverse has the characteristic of transcending itself and referring to itself,and this characteristic is embedded in the trend of the history of technology since the cave paintings.The metaverse is not virtual realities,and we should not confuse immersion with realism.The metaverse does not seek to approximate reality but to transcend it.People emigrate to metaverse just as people emigrate to cities,not because the old and new environments are similar.The metaverse is a media environment,and the Media Ecology breaks the dichotomy between the material and the spiritual,and the media environment in which human beings live is intertwined with the virtual and reality.Human beings constantly reshape their own environment through technological innovation,just like the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution,the metaverse is a new environment created by the information revolution,and the new environment in turn reorders the old one.Blockchain technology lays the foundation for the new order under the metaverse.