Week 5 response
I am curious about the “culture of simulation” that Squire mentions on the first page of his paper. I have read plenty of arguments that the introduction of computers has fundamentally changed our culture, but I have never encountered a critique from this approach. I wonder:
- What are the other significant simulations we encounter each day? And how does Squire define “simulation?”
- What are the advantages and disadvantages to such a culture? Are we learning things better? Are we out of touch with reality? Both?
- How deeply has this culture really reached into the larger society? I think there are plenty of people (older people come to mind) who are fairly cut off from many simulation-based forms of culture.
Something related to simulation that wasn’t covered in these readings: Where does the literature currently stand about our ability to separate fantasy from reality, or the impact on children of subjecting them to ever-more-realistic fantasy worlds? Does it matter that so much time is being spent in computer simulations? We read last week about the potential social impacts of robots; couldn’t computer simulations affect our perceptions of the real world in the same way?
