Pt. 2: Spatiality & the Body

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As creatures clothed in flesh, human beings need an excess of empty space in order to move freely; this is the use of the spacial plane. To consider which aspects of human experience are broadened or inverted on the virtual plane via technology, we must assess the natural state of our situation as material beings on the spatial plane.

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Human beings are bound within space and time. A person uses the space around them to move toward or away from other objects, places or persons. Physical closeness between persons gives opportunity for interpersonal communion, while distance necessarily cuts off this opportunity for communion. Similarly, time is a necessary feature of communion, for it allows multiple persons to constantly experience the same moment of shared time (the present). For these reasons, both spatiality and time are closely tied to interpersonal communion.

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The body is the sole interface with which humans can navigate the spatial plane directly and it is the body's faculties (its senses and abilities) that allow the possibility for communion with other persons. This communion can take a near infinite number of forms: an embrace at meeting, the exchange words, laughing together, sharing a meal, etc. Even more physically passive kinds of communion (a conversation between two persons, for example) couldn't take place without the faculties of speech and comprehension (mouth/ears/eyes). It demands bodily action, even though it is primarily the process by which minds are connected. The common tie in each kind of interpersonal communion is that ones body is central to any activity, basic or complex.

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Only the physical/spatial reality allows all senses the possibility of full engagement with the world and other persons to any desired degree. By emphasizing the body as a central feature to the human experience, it becomes clear that any diversion away from the body leaves that experience somehow incomplete. From this point, we can move to the next concept which can both expand and degrade the human experience: technology.