The Distortion Machine

Our diet of online films, music, books and news has created a new type of consumerism; one where virtuality and disposability are on the rise and have become the norm. At the same time, our personal data are mined to ensure our wants and needs are met quickly and efficiently by online robots. With the rise of commercially affordable virtual reality, a new type of hyper-reality may be upon us. We are unsure what this means for our sense of what is real and what is certain. We are entering a new era of transhumanism with the rise of assistive, implanted, robotic devices and the emergence of nanotechnology. We try to negotiate this changing landscape and understand what this may mean for the next generations of children and young people, and the role of schools in making sense of this all. This book examines the social, technical and educational implications of a society where hyper-reality, artificial intelligence and robotics may be at the centre of the new online spaces that will surely further shape us into an unknown future.