What enables VR to serve as a metaphor for a complete habitat for the
mind and the body is its reconciliation of two properties once
described by Marshall McLuhan as polar opposites. In its pursuit of
immersive interactivity, VR wants to be at the same time a hot and a
cold medium. (Hot medium: high definition/lots of information. Cool
medium: low definition/little information) (Essential McLuhan, 162) (p:
347 - 348)
Though the term participation may suggest immersion, the type of involvement that McLuhan associates with cool media is much closer to the interactive than to the immersive dimension of VR. A hot medium facilitates immersion through the richness of its sensory offerings, while a cold medium opens its world only after the user has made a significant intellectual and imaginative investment. The media that offer data to the senses are naturally hotter than language-based media because in language all sensations must be actively simulated by the imagination. (p: 348)
Anticipating the vocabulary of hypertext theorists, McLuhan observes that “in reading a detective story the reader participates as co-author simply because so much has been left out of the narrative” (166). (p: 349)
Though the term participation may suggest immersion, the type of involvement that McLuhan associates with cool media is much closer to the interactive than to the immersive dimension of VR. A hot medium facilitates immersion through the richness of its sensory offerings, while a cold medium opens its world only after the user has made a significant intellectual and imaginative investment. The media that offer data to the senses are naturally hotter than language-based media because in language all sensations must be actively simulated by the imagination. (p: 348)
Anticipating the vocabulary of hypertext theorists, McLuhan observes that “in reading a detective story the reader participates as co-author simply because so much has been left out of the narrative” (166). (p: 349)
