**3. Human fantasy and the blurring between the virtual and the real creating universal objects**

Within the new social context brought about by ICT, fantasy is a core concept to understand how the "blurring between the virtual and the real" is happening. The key observation here, made by Laurel, is related to causality as a way to understand reality and interact with it in a mindful way:

*The fact that people seek to understand causality in representational worlds provides the basis for Aristotle's definition of universality. In the colloquial view, an action is universal if everybody can understand it, regardless of cultural and other differences among individuals. This would seem to limit the set of universal actions to things that everyone on the planet does: eat, sleep, love, etc. Aristotle posits that any action can be "universalized" simply by revealing its cause; that* 

*is, understanding the cause is sufficient for understanding the action, even if it is something alien to one's culture, background, or personal "reality." [4] (p. 94)*

It is important to understand that the "blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality" in the hyper-connected era [1] (p. 7) is related to the transformation of real world objects into universal ones, following the above Aristotelian definition as described by Laurel. A real world object or process that has been enriched with new capabilities for interaction with humans via computer hardware and software integrated into it is more understandable in terms of causal relationships, more predictable in terms of its behaviors, less chaotic in its reactions to human actions. Consider any kind of cyber-physical system such as autonomous automobile systems, medical monitoring systems, robots, or autopilots. All these systems are essentially enhancing real world objects or processes with "computer intelligence" that makes them more human friendly: easier to understand and interact with them. Due to the embedded digital technologies the capabilities of such objects or processes seem more "natural" as they provide affordances that are more intuitive for humans interacting with them. In this respect, the meaning of the word virtual is not to be used as a synonym for artificial as in terms like virtual reality or virtual world. It is rather reframed to denote potentiality as being equally real to actuality, but in a different manner. This is exactly what Deleuze describes in his treatise of Bergsonism [12] (pp. 96–98). This potentiality that is the essence of Deleuze's virtuality is the key concept that enables the exploration of how human Logos (reason), through causality, is transforming disconnected reality into hyperconnected stages where meaningful action and interaction is possible.

At this point, it is important to add Laurel's [4] (p. 94) additional comment on how fantasy works, in relation to causality, offering the basis for make-believe environments:

*We need only look to works of fantasy to find obvious examples of how universalization via causality works. Actions that are patently impossible in the real world (such as a person flying) can be made believable and understandable in their dramatic context if probability is established. This fact led Aristotle to observe that in dramatic action, an impossible probability is preferable to an improbable possibility. We can believe that Peter Pan flies because of the way the potential of his world is revealed, through the way his character is established in the action, and through dramatic situations that provide him with causes to use his ability to fly. [4] (p. 94)*

One can see here that causality is considered far more important than real possibility. In other words, reality is better understood and given meaning if it obeys causal relationships. This is indeed very much facilitated with the use of ICT, if systems are properly designed. Consequently, one can find here an important imperative for the designers of digital technologies: To effectively support the construction of causal mental models that can then be followed in order to enhance the interactions between humans and computer agents.

It is interesting to note here that although Laurel succeeds in capturing the most intrinsic characteristics of digital technologies, the characteristics that explain their success in enabling meaningful interpretations of reality through its "virtualization", she maintains a rather conservative view on the applicability of her ideas. The engagement that digital systems can offer to their users is considered from an entertainment point of view only:

*Engagement, as I use the concept in this book, is similar in many ways to the theatrical notion of the "willing suspension of disbelief," a concept introduced by*  *Onlife Drama: Towards a Reference Framework for Hyper-Connected Activity DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100238*

*early 19th-century critic and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is the state of mind that one must attain in order to enjoy a representation of an action. [4] (p. 139)*

This phenomenon of "willing suspension of disbelief " can be clearly seen in both drama and computer games where the audience and the players respectively feel for and with the characters in essentially the same way: Someone might cry when watching a film or share other feelings with the characters within a virtual setting. However, as Laurel puts it, "spreadsheets aren't pretend!" She argues that the activity within a virtual setting should be separated from its artifacts: The representation of a text, spreadsheet, database or any other artifact residing at computers, as it is being manipulated on the screen is in fact pretend, as compared to physical artifacts like printed text or files in computer storage. The artifacts are real much like actors, lighting instruments, and scenery in a theatrical play, but the working rules related to the representations of dramatic actions or interactions are distinct from the artifacts. Consequently, it is important to understand the fact that the notion of representation is the key to understand what one can do, the affordances attributed to the artifacts. Furthermore, their special status as representations affects human emotions about them, enabling experiences that are much more pleasurable than those we regularly feel in real life, as Laurel argues. The distinguishing characteristic of the emotions triggered in a representational context is that there is no threat of pain or harm in the real world, she adds. Finally, Laurel emphasizes the playful attitude of humans when interacting with such representations and warns against the dangers this attitude may have in certain situations:

*Further, engagement entails a kind of playfulness: the ability to fool around, to spin out "what if" scenarios. Such "playful" behavior is easy to see in the way that people use photo editing suites and document creation software. The key quality that a system must possess in order to foster this kind of engagement is reversibility; that is, the ability to take something back. In the age of the Internet, taking something back once it is published is nearly impossible. We and our children need to understand that; fooling around is playful, but publishing is forever. [4] (p. 140)*

In a footnote, Laurel further analyses this distinction between the uses of computers for entertainment from the uses in other contexts:

*This principle suggests that activities like running a nuclear reactor or launching a spacecraft—things with real potential in the real world—should be taken off the table when we talk about dramatic interaction. For example, the control system on a nuclear reactor involves many, many representations of the state and operations of various system components, but in the context of real-world consequence, these representational affordances are much more about human factors and tele-operations than they are about the pleasure of interaction. [4] (p. 140)*

Form another point of view, however, dramatic interaction (or meaningful performance) is not related to entertainment alone. It is also present in other kind of human activities, much more serious, as in politics and social interactions in workplaces, education, economic transactions etc. In domains where the decisions taken and the actions initiated have very important real consequences that may not be reversible as in entertainment-oriented contexts while, at the same time, exhibit clear dramatic character. In this respect, the work of important scholars from the humanities and social sciences that are linked with the so called performative turn is relevant. This is the topic of the next section.
