Being consoled?. Virtual nature and ecological consciousness

Abstract

New techniques in the simulation of nature are giving computer-generated environments a more organic appearance. In particular, developments in 'artificial life' modelling promise to populate future cyberspaces with diverse, autonomous beings. This can be viewed as an impending estrangement from 'real' nature, but we might better conceive of virtual natures as a culmination of a lengthy Western tradition of representing the natural world in increasingly exuberant two- and three-dimensional forms. It is suggested that the ecology movement is implicated in the ascendance of simulated nature, and must come to terms with the 'reality' of mediation, rather than privileging the notion of unmediated, 'primordial' nature. © 1995.