By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
The whole world is being led into a "virtual reality". When we speak of "virtual reality", "we mean the simulation of a real or imaginary environment by a computer". As we read, "current VR technology often uses virtual reality headsets or multi-view environments, sometimes in combination with physical environments or scenery, to create images, sounds, and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual or imagined environment" (Wikipedia).
In an exhibition created for the anniversary of the Greek Revolution of 1821, I was given the opportunity, using "virtual reality", to be inside the Church of the Holy Lavra, when Bishop Germanos of Old Patras raised the banner of the Revolution, and even to be a spectator of a battle between Greeks and Turks.
This issue has its positives, but also its negatives, that is why we need the correct use of modern technology, because man must avoid the path to loneliness, isolation and self-talk, he must avoid the temptation of self-deification.
I recently read that the first computer that uses "virtual reality" was presented. This was posted in the comments:
"Apple introduced Vision Pro, the first computer that uses virtual reality. Wearing the special 'glasses', the user will be in an environment where he will operate the applications with his hands and voice. That is, you do not simply see a photo or a film, but you are inside it. The machine is very expensive, it costs 3,500 dollars. But, logically, by the end of the decade, it will be accessible to more people. Also, there will soon be an answer from the manufacturers of Android devices. Logically, in the future the device will become so small that it will not differ, in terms of size, from a pair of ordinary glasses. And even further, it is possible that the entire system could fit in contact lenses and a microphone that would be implanted, like a chip, near the mouth. Because, you see, the destiny of our species is at some point to unite with the machine or to become a machine itself. I can't wait" (Kostas Giannakidis, Ta NEA, 6/7/2023).
I have the impression that man is not simply tending towards becoming a machine and to unite with the machine, but is returning to the temptation of self-deification, he wants to become God with his own powers, and even worse with the powers of nature.
I have recently been concerned about why the Apple Company, since its foundation in 1976, has had the bitten apple as its logo. I read that this logo can be attributed to various causes. One of these causes comes from Original Sin. Eve ate from the tree to become God, at the advice of the devil. Thus, the eating of the tree evoked the desire for deification contrary to the way that God set.
Thus, according to this opinion, the Apple Company with the symbol of the bitten apple wanted to satisfy man's desire for knowledge. I can add not for human knowledge, but for divine knowledge, which will come through self-deification, self-realization.
This means that all creation was given by God to man as a gift, but at the same time this gift also becomes a deception of the devil.
Therefore, the evolving modern "virtual reality" ends up not only uniting us with the machine, but reaching self-deification, which is the great temptation of the fall, which caused so much suffering to man.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
