Computability of Reality as an Unfulfilled Dream

Abstract

1. Semantic web and cyber-ontology: Constructing a semantic web requires a profoundly contemplated ontology, but not in the traditional sense. In accordance with such ontology, everything in the world could be rewritten by a machine-readable language and reconstructed into various data-bases. But could everything be captured by that language? Very unlikely. Cyber-ontology presupposes objectification of anything capable of being manipulated and thus only manipulable objects are addressed. This would only be possible if we could thoroughly convert our everyday activities of "knowing how" into "knowing that", which is almost unthinkable. Thus data-bases would never overwhelm reality. Cyber-ontologists lose the point. 2. Crisis of disembodiment in VR: The crisis of disembodiment of our real existential being looms large when we are unconsciously deprived of our natural sense of spacio-temporal distance within tele-interactions (online). While being immersed in virtual reality, one could possibly forget knowing how to cope with real things and to concern oneself with the equipmental nexus of everyday life. Every datum is already converted into "knowing that", i.e. objectified as flat knowledge that may only fill such a virtual world. I will back up these claims with some points from Heidegger's criticism of technology, employing his idea of "equipmental whole" and "Ge-stell". I will also mention the recent trend of ontology-engineering in order to delineate the dark periphery of brilliant cyber-evolution.