Is the virtual what is really real? The ideas about the film ask whether or not life is as material and solid as we think it is. We are all collections of atoms and quanta; our bodies are ecosystems called the microbiome in relationship to the evolutionary and ecological contexts; experiences, language, culture, love, mathematics—these are all intangible, invisible things that radically shape our daily life. Technologies also operate mostly on invisible (virtual) forces that shape our daily lives. Given this, and what you heard in the movie, pick one of the thinkers and focus on their understanding of what “life” is. Then, answer the question: are the things around us that we think of as objects and organisms—our bodies, trees, tv’s, tables, roads, cities—really real? Or, is the underlying flux of the exchange of energy, information, and materials what is really real?
