— Borderline Situations of Unnoticed Sensory Deprivation —
Deriving Wisdom from Experiences Obtained during Immersion without Awareness of Virtual Presence.
In an age of sophisticated audiovisual technology, screens have become portals into vivid, immersive realities—capable of transporting users into hyperreal worlds with such fidelity that the boundary between presence and projection can become imperceptible. With the advent of photorealistic rendering, spatial audio, and increasingly intuitive interfaces, virtual environments are not only entertaining but are becoming surrogate spaces for social interaction, learning, and even spiritual experience. However, a critical philosophical tension arises when users enter immersive states without conscious recognition of their departure from physical immediacy—when virtual presence replaces the awareness of actual presence. This tension leads to what we might call borderline situations, where users extract life lessons, personal meaning, or even wisdom from experiences rooted in environments that are, at their core, simulations. The risk lies not in immersion itself, but in the unnoticed transition into immersion—a liminal state where the subconscious believes it perceives truth, while in fact, it is being fed curated, often sanitized stimuli.
Though virtual experiences may feel complete, they deprive the subconscious of a myriad of sensory inputs that constitute true presence: the unpredictable dynamism of weather, body language in peripheral vision, microexpressions, ambient olfactory cues, spatial dissonance, even the subtle texture of air pressure and heat. Our subconscious depends heavily on these microstimuli to evaluate reality, authenticity, and threat—elements critical in deriving wisdom from experience. Immersion through screens provides a closed-circuit reality that, though visually and auditorily rich, excludes these visceral aspects. As resolution increases and interfaces become more refined, this deprivation may remain unnoticed, allowing users to operate within the illusion of completeness.
Certain conditions amplify the risk of acquiring false wisdom—interpretations or life lessons drawn from experiences that, while emotionally resonant, are contextually incomplete or distorted. These borderline situations often occur when:
First-time experiences happen within virtual settings. For example, a person might explore a simulation of grief, war, or intimacy without ever having encountered the real equivalent. The impression may be emotionally powerful, but without the grounding chaos and nuance of reality, the takeaway can lean toward oversimplification or ideological distortion.
Marginal users—those inexperienced with virtual environments, such as children, elders, or certain neurodiverse individuals—may lack the cognitive scaffolding to distinguish virtual constructs from authentic presence. Their judgments, therefore, are based on partial data presented with the authority of realism.
Echo chambers of affirmation arise. In immersive environments that cater to one’s biases, users might interpret emotional validation as wisdom, mistaking reinforcement for truth. Virtual spaces rarely challenge assumptions with the same visceral urgency and ambiguity that the physical world imposes.
Simulated moral dilemmas are encountered. When ethical decisions are made in a controlled environment—one devoid of real-world consequences—the user may believe they’ve learned something profound, while in reality, they’ve practiced a kind of safe, consequence-free moral theater.
Impressionable immersion in times of vulnerability—grief, heartbreak, or identity crisis—where a simulated environment offers the illusion of healing or insight. These moments may indeed bring temporary clarity, but without enduring physical context or social feedback, the insights may lack resilience when tested by reality.
At the core of real wisdom lies the confrontation with the unknown—the chaotic, the unpredicted, the uncontrollable. Wisdom often arises not from clarity, but from grappling with the murky, the unresolved, and the dissonant. Virtual spaces, despite their growing complexity, are fundamentally finite and constructed. They reflect human design, algorithmic logic, and aesthetic constraints. They are incapable of introducing truly unknown variables in the same way as nature, social spontaneity, or human emotion in real-time. A thunderstorm that disrupts a conversation, a power outage in a hospital, the unintended glance of a stranger—all possess the potential to jolt one into awareness, provoking real insight. Virtual environments, by contrast, often shield users from such interruptions.
Thus, immersion—especially unconscious immersion—tends to smooth over the unknown, creating emotionally satisfying but philosophically shallow experiences. The risk is that users will exit these experiences with conclusions that feel profound but are actually products of curated design rather than existential encounter.
Different user classes interact with immersion in fundamentally distinct ways:
Still, all users risk false wisdom when immersion blurs the border between simulation and embodiment without conscious awareness. It is this lack of awareness—the creeping entry into artificial presence—that constitutes the core danger.
To counteract these risks, designers, educators, and users must advocate for meta-immersion: a practice where one engages deeply while maintaining a reflective awareness of the medium itself. Like a lucid dreamer within the dream, a conscious user can explore virtual landscapes while continuously questioning their structure, limits, and implications. Only through such critical engagement can immersion become a tool for insight, rather than a trap for illusion.
Screens are not just windows; they are filters. Their increasing realism does not erase the fact that they are curated worlds, bounded by design and intention. Wisdom, in its truest sense, emerges from confronting the unpredictable, grappling with complexity, and being shaped by raw, unmediated presence. In the age of immersive technology, we must learn not only how to dive into virtual experiences, but also how to surface from them—with awareness, humility, and a sharpened sense of what is real. Only then can wisdom flourish, not in the shadow of simulation, but in its light.