[ExI] more on Zindell and sims

[Damien Broderick]

<http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intdz.htm>
Storms of Numbers, Chalices of Light


an interview with David Zindell
by Nick Gevers

<NG: Would it be accurate to say that a good deal of the thematic 
burden of the Neverness novels, especially The Wild and War in 
Heaven, is the necessity that we prefer our actual, physical 
environment over virtual realities, no matter how beguiling?

DZ: I would say that is exactly true. And more, I would say that the 
so-called virtual realities are misnamed: they should be called 
something like "simulated experiences." Because they aren't real, and 
can never be so, any more than a map can be the territory. And more, 
for the same reason that a map is necessarily less detailed than the 
territory that it describes, a virtual reality can only ever be a 
pale shadow of the real thing. Such constructs might prove amusing, 
or even useful and illuminating, but how could they ever take the 
place of the essential reality that they represent? >

Ho hum.