Overcoming Bias [via]
posted on Sep 10, 2008 - View this thread

Mr. Show skits that became reality . (Warning: mature language)
posted on Feb 6, 2008 - View this thread

A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila. MTV made a show out of her because, amongst other reasons, she has over 2.5 million friends on myspace and she claims not to discriminate. The cast bios are interesting fucking ridiculous. The latest has her and some dude named Bobby breaking up. Fan sites are abuzz.
posted on Jan 11, 2008 - View this thread

Still no takers? But it's a proven success.
posted on Dec 3, 2007 - View this thread

Atom. -- The Clash of the Titans -- The Key to the Cosmos -- The Illusion of Reality
posted on Nov 24, 2007 - View this thread

Artag: Augmented reality on your desktop. via Digital Urban, with a HowTo.
posted on Jul 13, 2007 - View this thread

Gamers and their avatars
posted on Jun 17, 2007 - View this thread

Are You Living In A Computer Simulation? The Simulation Argument is a regularly-updated site, organized by Nick Bostrom, examining the hypothesis that we are currently living in an "ancestor simulation" run by a future "post-human" society.
posted on May 21, 2007 - View this thread

Reality Sandwich is a new web magazine whose subjects "run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies." Daniel Pinchbeck, the author of Breaking Open the Head, is the editorial director of the site. [Via Disinformation.]
posted on May 11, 2007 - View this thread

The Hamster Ball for Gamers
The VirtuSphere is a fully immersive virtual reality sphere that enables free movement in any direction for military and first-responder training (gaming), tourism (gaming), education (gaming), real estate walk-throughs (gaming), the possibilities are only limited by your imagination (gaming). You can run, jump, walk or otherwise locomote (i.e. roll a wheelchair) through an endless virtual world. And look like a total dork doing it but who cares? The videos make it look totally badass and fun and great exercise too! Though I do wonder what happens if/when you trip and biff.
posted on Feb 19, 2007 - View this thread

Global warming is to blame for the disapearing act of Polar Bears in the arctic. After years of so called "Scientific proof" the Bush administration finally admits they were wrong.
posted on Dec 28, 2006 - View this thread

Being and Seeming: the Technology of Representation an essay by novelist Richard Powers
posted on Sep 24, 2006 - View this thread

Pentagon to Soldiers: Don't Post those Trophy Videos Online ... another said it made him feel good to bring the gruesome reality of a soldier's life in Iraq to those living safely behind their "clean, white picket fences at home". ...the taking and posting of trophy video served as some kind of relief from the psychological stresses of serving as a soldier in such a violent and acutely dangerous place. ... and from PBS' Mediashift: Your Guide to Soldier Videos From Iraq
posted on Aug 5, 2006 - View this thread

[NSFW] Heavy Rain From Quantic Dream Sets a new standard for realism in interactive cinema... I found this to be really creepy. I have a hard time looking into their eyes. Something about it is just...well, see for yourself. Anyway the flash technology is getting better and better. Along with what has become know as augmented reality. Pretty amazing stuff.
posted on Jul 25, 2006 - View this thread

Writing has been around for a long time, but that doesn't mean we've mastered it yet. Want to make fiction? Perhaps it makes itself, perhaps it makes you... Self reference breeding infinite hyperrealities. Which world will you choose?
posted on May 10, 2006 - View this thread

Researchers have found that prolonged concentration on a difficult task actually switches off a person's self awareness. Fancy experiencing this sensation for yourself? That would be an oxymoron in existence. Just lay back and let the orgasm take hold.
posted on Apr 20, 2006 - View this thread

As the Pentagon ousts plans to turn insects into cyber war machines you'd be forgiven for asking the question: Where does the real digital end and the faked life begin? Are we simulating life synthetically? or just speeding up an entirely natural process? Technologically engineered life is here to stay. Its not far fetched to speculate that simulacra may become all there is.
posted on Mar 15, 2006 - View this thread

Who wants to be a superhero? Forget Survivor. Forget Beauty and the Geek. This is the ultimate reality show. Who wouldn't want to see a middle-aged comic-book geeks decked out to fight crime? Apply now! Our safety depends upon it! (Maybe Peter Pan would be interested?)
posted on Mar 15, 2006 - View this thread

' "Predictive programming works by means of the propagation of the illusion of an infallibly accurate vision of how the world is going to look in the future". Through the circulation of science "fiction" literature, the ignorant masses are provided with semiotic intimations of coming events. Within such literary works are narrative paradigms that are politically and socially expedient to the power elite. Thus, when the future unfolds as planned, it assumes the paradigmatic character of the "fiction" that foretold it...........' The Illuminati: an all encompassing conspiracy stranger than any fiction
posted on Dec 11, 2005 - View this thread

Does God Play Dice?
posted on Dec 3, 2005 - View this thread

If the universe is a hologram and the healthy human brain a valve of consciousness then where'd this mental infinity come from? Are we simply living the simulacrum? Or does Pi protect us all, forever, infinitely?
posted on Nov 22, 2005 - View this thread

So You Wannabe A Shaman, Huh? Or got a Spiritual/Shamanic Crisis? Trouble with Mystical and Psychotic Perceptions of Reality? Some tips on How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later may help. Maybe just go watch Predator, with a Shaman's view. Or skip the lot and Transcend Duality.
posted on Nov 21, 2005 - View this thread

I want your child ... and nothing else! The newest reality show from billionaire, and Big Brother creator, John de Mol about a woman looking for a sperm donor to conceive a child. Sounds like more great programming.
posted on Aug 24, 2005 - View this thread

What's the difference between reality and unreality? In real life you have no options. It's like when JFK is assassinated and you're in a method acting class, trying to become a mourning American citizen. Thomas De Zengotita's (reality is so passé) new book is out.
posted on Apr 12, 2005 - View this thread

Augmented Reality at the Media Lab. Via Bruce Sterling.
posted on Apr 4, 2005 - View this thread

Inside the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic. Memorize the keywords with which the lizards of the stage world will attempt to distort your reality. Can you accept your own vampirism? Are you familiar with the most common reality fishing techniques and horse movements? This is the painstaking record of a man for whom delusions have completely overtaken reality. Spend some time with it - the detail is mind-numbing and the reality he has created is utterly insane... and occasionally convincing. Mirror in case Geocities croaks.
posted on Mar 17, 2005 - View this thread

Reality's Apprentice Reality TV may seem a world away from real life, but what happens when Donald Trump’s The Apprentice moves in upstairs? Worse, what happens when it seems to be a sham? Keith Hollihan reports with a fascinating account of his life’s surreal intrusions.
posted on Apr 13, 2004 - View this thread

Boy Meets... Boy?!!?

NBC-owned Bravo will court viewers this summer with American television's first primetime gay-themed reality dating series. But in a twist worthy of the bogus baron on Fox's "Joe Millionaire," some of the suitors are actually heterosexual men who were paid by the program to pretend to be gay -- unbeknownst to the eligible bachelor.
I'm not sure whether this will be an example of a leading broadcaster leading the sociological agenda, or of another chance to humiliate folk on TV for entertainment, but with a heterosexist flavour:

Revoke the Oscar. Should "Bowling For Columbine" be considered non-fiction if it manipulated scenes and knowingly left out key information? Would a new category be better, like say adjusted documentary or propaganda? Or is it impossible to make a documentary without some point of view?
posted on Apr 18, 2003 - View this thread

Yesterday's NYT magazine section (reg req'd) featured a profile of Jack Osbourne---whose family's show premieres its second season tomorrow---and discussed the unpleasant repercussions of his new fame: a prescription to Zoloft, a discontinued high school education and severe threats that warrant his own eye-patched bodyguard. Is this kind of exposure (especially in a reality TV context) too much for a 17 year old kid to handle?
posted on Nov 25, 2002 - View this thread

Indecent proposal? "People usually find love and marriage in the traditional way. You meet, fall in love and tie the knot...What if there's a better way? MARRIED BY AMERICA (tentative title) is a groundbreaking reality-based show that invites the viewing audience to be your personal matchmaker." How else would you expect beautiful people to meet?
posted on Nov 16, 2002 - View this thread

Real reality tv. OneWorld TV has launched. "The site features short, Video Nation-style contributions from film-makers, both amateur and professional, from around the world. Subjects range from Aids and global warming to the conflict in the Middle East and the plight of child gold miners in Burkina Faso". You can create your own story line, with different perspectives and sources.
posted on Jul 29, 2002 - View this thread

The Age of Simulation. Do we live in Reality or do we live in a Simulation? Following themes most popularly found in movies like The Matrix or in books like Stanislaw Lem's Futurological Congress, we are being told via email and even by philosophers at Yale, that what we perceive is not what is. Is this merely paranoia?
posted on Jul 1, 2002 - View this thread

The East Coast knows... Survivor Africa is over. You may not have noticed it ever starting... But Kim, Lex, Ethan, or Tom won. I'll let someone else spoil the surprise for those West Coast viewers.
posted on Jan 10, 2002 - View this thread

Deconstructing Deconstructionism: "It is based on the proposition that the apparently real world is in fact a vast social construct and that the way to knowledge lies in taking apart in one’s mind this thing society has built." (via Reductio ad Absurdum)
posted on Nov 29, 2001 - View this thread

Are you looking for a new religion? Why not try Church of Reality? The Church of Reality is an alternative religion that is based on the dedication to seeing reality the way it really is. Our motto is, "If it's real, we believe in it."
posted on Nov 3, 2001 - View this thread

Question concerning the notion of the social construction of reality. If enough people cease to believe in the Holocaust, or if enough of them have just never heard of it, as detailed in another MeFi thread, does that mean it didn't happen?

If it only means "well, as far as those people are concerned it never happened" then that's a truism and hardly worth any hoo-hah. But does social constructivism, if I can call it that, go on to make the much stronger claim that if the millions cease to believe in it, or forget about it, then it reallyo-trulyo never happened?
posted on Jul 12, 2001 - View this thread

Silicon Graphics announces the end of reality. (Via Segfault) Where will we all live now?
posted on Jul 5, 2001 - View this thread

Survivor begat SurvivorBlog, which begat SurvivorCam!
posted on May 15, 2001 - View this thread

As a struggling ex-smoker, I applaud these people for the effort. But part of me still wonders if Unfiltered (a "reality TV" webshow about 5 teenage smokers) is going to have any impact on teens who smoke.
posted on May 9, 2001 - View this thread

Last One Standing. Now this is reality tv. Just came on at 8PST on USA. About 10 people have to keep a hand on a car in order to win it. After 3 days awake, they started losing their wits and begin to imagine that they're being plotted against. What Big Brother should have been.
posted on Aug 13, 2000 - View this thread

Big Brother, around the world... Like Survivor, it started in Holland and Germany, then spread across continental Europe, and finally to the UK and USA. And like Millionaire, the duplication of the format is a good way of distinguishing cultural differences. The British version seems more candid than its American cousin, in keeping with Channel 4's character; it's also a lot less chummy. Anyone else keeping track of the two different houses?
posted on Aug 7, 2000 - View this thread