Augmented Reality

I’m always fascinated by the latest consumer technology. So, I’ve been watching what’s being developed. Recently, along with the virtual reality fad, has come something short of that, called augmented reality. Augmented reality (or AR) is being used to sell quasi-experiences, to people looking for cars, vacations, or real estate. As is my bent, I want to use this missive to suggest that there is something totally organic, and very much a part of regular human-life, that augments reality naturally.

For a longtime I’ve had the prejudice that we should be devoting our human energy to internal development, rather than to things that only reinforce our over reliance on externalities. In other words, I have reason to believe that there is a whole lot more investment in techno-toys, which ostensibly increase our skills and connectivity, than there is investment in bringing out our inner capabilities. We could connect so much more deeply and efficiently if we would just invest in our own selves.

Luckily, Life has already done much of this for us. People often don’t know this, so every now and then, I feel aroused to remind us of what Life has already endowed us with. There is a kind of augmented awareness available to all of us.  It isn’t a very easy one, nor do we have complete control over it, but it is elegantly folded into our existence.

I’m talking about an aspect of human life that opens us up and changes reality. Organically, no drugs, or other products, involved. There is an awesome aspect of living that makes everything more vivid and precious.  I’m talking about what happens to us when we feel that our lives are sufficiently threatened. When Life gets adequately rough, and we experience existential vulnerability, the awareness of how fragile we are. Then Life also opens up — and becomes incredible.

This state, which I call existential vulnerability, augments reality, and brings out the meaning inherent in existing.  This kind of vulnerability coaxes out of us the most human qualities. This is the kind of vulnerability that verifies the words of Hafiz, “death is a favor to us.”

Being excruciatingly aware of how momentary and transient our lives are — is extremely clarifying — it reveals just how precious and fragile this life is. Life takes on a glow that goes way beyond understanding.

It appears to me, that the vulnerability that arises in response to existential threat, heightens awareness, and infuses all things with a kind of benign and mysterious aura. To me, this is the true augmented reality — it has a kind of mystic familiarity that calms and reassures.

In some twist of fate, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become much more aware of how the worst of times, the eras where I’ve experienced the kind of fragility and existential vulnerability of being on the edge, are also some of the best, most formative, times in my life.

Aging has lead to a reversal in my thinking, The worst times in my life have been the best. Hardship brought out of me qualities I would never have volunteered to acquire, and I learned a lot more about being human than I thought possible. Life augmented my sense of reality.

There is another thing aging has done for me. Again, organically, aging by bringing me closer to death, has increased my vulnerability and awareness. I am going down, but strangely, I am also going up. Life is breaking me down, teaching me what vulnerability is, putting me rudely in touch with my own fragility, and simultaneously, augmenting reality.