Virtual Reality: Pro et Contra

The article is devoted to the study of the dual nature of virtuality as a sociocultural phenomenon, which enables the outlining of recommendations for ensuring the integrity of a holistic personality and its stability in a world subject to transformation. The study is based on the methodology of systemic and structural research; comparative induction method; principle of complementarity; method of participant observation. The effectiveness of the study is determined by the following conclusions: The dual nature of virtuality correlates with the dual nature of a human, who is both an actual biological organism functioning at the level of the information system and a potential social organism functioning at the level of the conceptual system; if the information system forms an orientation to the priority of the individual over the collective (egoism), then the conceptual system forms an orientation to the priority of the collective over the individual (altruism); in contrast to the information system, which restricts the entire diversity of the individual’s life to a reaction to the natural reflex, the conceptual system frees the individual from the dictate of the biological program through reflection; interaction with virtual reality can either fix the status of a passive consumer to an individual, whose consciousness as a correlate of an information system represents an ideal object for all kinds of manipulations, or initiate the birth of a creative person with a spiritual identity, which is acquired in the unity of information and conceptual systems; virtual reality as an integral component of the Global Internet, the actualization of which is determined solely by external actions from the side of the user (pressing a processor button, paying for the Internet, maintaining the equipment in working condition, etc.) acts as the simulacrum of an individual conceptual system, the updating of which is possible only through the inside of the conducted organization of the information system; the universal “simulator” providing the desired unity of information and conceptual systems is the art, which is due to the isomorphism of a human and the text of culture; if the true unity of the information and conceptual systems is the guarantor of the positive deviation of the individual, then the simulation of the desired unity through the external interaction of the individual and virtual reality generated by the Global Network inevitably becomes a source of negative deviation due to the fact that such virtual reality does not change anything in the biological substrate, saturating information system with additional information.