The Iraq War Is Virtually Taking Place1
Robert Mackey
(The Lede, New York Times.com)
Part of “Virtual Iraq” a
soldier undergoing therapy sees.
(Institute for Creative
Technologies)
The French philosopher
and critic Jean Baudrillard, who died this week, famously claimed that “the Gulf war did not take place.” One of
his better known theories postulates that we live in a world where simulated
feelings and experiences have replaced the real thing. This seductive
“hyperreality,” where shopping malls, amusement parks and mass-produced images
from the news, television shows and films dominate, is drained of authenticity
and meaning. …
In 1986 he published America,
in which he wrote, “America is the original version of modernity,” referring to
what he considered the almost complete blurring of reality and unreality. To
his French readers, he said: “We are a copy with subtitles.” Baudrillard’s
work, or rather what he termed “misunderstandings” of his work, also inspired The
Matrix.
It is difficult not to think of Baudrillard when listening to an
interview with an American psychologist named Skip Rizzo on Guardian Unlimited’s
“Science Weekly” pod cast. Professor Rizzo, who recently addressed
the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
on “Therapy in Virtual Worlds – Comparing Mental Health Applications Using
Individually Administered Virtual Reality and Second Life,” has been
experimenting with the use of virtual reality environments adapted from video
games to treat veterans of the Iraq war who are suffering from Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder. As The Guardian’s James Randerson explains:
A course of the experimental therapy
might begin with the patient standing next to a Humvee truck in the virtual
world – which is based on the computer game Full Spectrum Warrior. Once
they are comfortable the therapist might ask them to get in, start the engine
and drive away. “Over the course of the sessions we gradually have them do
things that are closer to their traumatic memory,” said Professor Rizzo. “We
start adding in guns, bombs, insurgents, debris on the road, being attacked and
so forth. We do this in a very measured and progressive fashion based on what
the client can handle.
A National Public Radio
report on an earlier stage of Professor Rizzo’s work includes video and audio
of what a soldier undergoing the therapy sees and hears during the treatment
and describes the mechanics:
The soldier being treated wears VR
goggles and headphones. Using a tablet-based interface, a therapist can
activate or remove the sounds of gunshots or the sight of smoke, depending on a
patient’s reaction. The idea is to re-introduce the patients to the experiences
that triggered the trauma, gradually, until the memory no longer incapacitates
them.
Randerson writes that Rizzo
told him that he has now been able to add vibrations and even smells to the
simulation to make it more evocative and emotional. Different smells are used,
including gunpowder, cordite, burning rubber, Iraqi spices, barbecued lamb and
body odor…. Researchers are looking into replicating the smells of blood and
burnt flesh. “I’m not sure we need to go to that level of intensity … but it is
something we are considering and exploring.” The NPR report on Professor Rizzo’s
project – which is a collaboration between the Institute for Creative Technologies at
the University of Southern California and the Office of Naval Research – concludes
with this observation: “Early results from trials suggest
virtual reality therapy is uniquely suited to a generation raised on video
games. The gaming aspect of the treatment also helps to lessen the stigma
associated with getting therapy”.
© Robert Mackey and New York Times
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