Virtual Reality as Alternate Life

Metaphor: Virtual reality (VR) is often described as a “parallel world” where one can “exist” independently of the physical environment.

Problem / Misleading Aspect: This metaphor encourages the assumption that VR creates a self-contained, autonomous reality, disconnected from bodily, social, and environmental contexts. It can mislead users into thinking immersion implies independence, agency, or alternative identity, rather than understanding VR as an extension of relational and embodied potentials.

Relational Ontology Correction: VR is a relational actualisation: sensory, cognitive, and social potentials are aligned through hardware, software, and human interaction. The experience is inseparable from the embodied and social context in which it occurs. There is no independent “world” existing outside relational alignment.

Parody / Conceptual Highlight: Taken literally, one might imagine someone moving into a headset as if entering a separate apartment, holding meetings with digital avatars over breakfast, or arguing with a virtual cat about rent. The humour exposes the conceptual misstep: treating VR as an autonomous alternate life risks misrepresenting relational dependencies that structure all experience.