Experiential Re-Living in VR
This article examines the conjunction of photographic realism (Walton, 1984) and virtual realism (Chalmers, 2022) within the context of VR platforms like Google Earth VR and the Wander app, which employ photographic data to reconstruct geographic environments. I argue that the combination of photographic realism (photos and videos capture actual past events) and virtual realism (VR experiences are real) suggests that VR experiences based on veridical photographs or video recordings create a form of experiential re-living, whereby one interacts with past events in a manner that is not merely representational but rather a transparent re-experiencing of the past. Then, I consider some philosophical ramifications of the possibility of experiential re-living. Insofar as one thinks the concept of experiential re-living is absurd, the notion could serve as a reductio ad absurdum against simultaneously endorsing virtual and photographic realism.