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Reality (Ril)

Ril, Rel, The Real

Reality
Image from Steve Bowers
The nature of things as they really are, behind the appearance of surface phenomena or ordinary baseline consciousness.

Also used to denote real, non-simulated existence outside of a virch, in which context reality is often referred to as Ril, Rel or The Real. The term Ril was originally coined before the Technocalypse and has since evolved into the more common definition of a personal experience of reality (as compared to another's personal experience). In the Current Era the vast majority of modosophonts exist in virtual form, and only a small fraction choose to migrate into The Real, and become Incarnates.

In practice there is a constant two-way exchange of data between virtual reality (VR) and the Ril; real-life sophonts often upload or copy themselves into virtual form, and virtual sophonts sometimes download themselves into temporary bodies that allow them to interact with reality on a physical level. Sometimes these temporary bodies reflect the exotic nature of their virtual templates, and are manifest as seeming monsters of various kinds, sometimes known as relmonsters.

Depending on one's philosophical or memetic inclination, Reality may refer to mundane physical existence, to a series or multiplicity of physical, metaphysical, or toposophic grades, or to a monistic concept of the Absolute Reality.
 
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Appears in Topics
Knowledge and InformationPhilosophyVirtual Reality
 
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Additional material by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 22 December 2001.

 
 
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