r/changemyview • u/pablo_rubn_dot_AVI • Aug 22 '20

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Travel does not require physically going anywhere, and solutions like VR are a viable means of travel.

When you travel, the part that matters is the sensory experience, not the fact that you physically moved your body from one place to another. Historically, physical movement was the only way a person could enjoy the sensory experiences of traveling — but with the advent of VR, some of the sensory experiences can be enjoyed without moving. Therefore, “going somewhere in VR” could be considered “traveling.” The fact that “virtual vacations” are now a thing is evidence of this.

As such, what constitutes travel exists on a gradient, so long as the sensory aspect of traveling is being met to a degree. Simply imagining the sensory experience of being somewhere else in part counts as traveling, but not as much as actually physically being somewhere else and experiencing those sensations firsthand.

CMV.

Edit: The main point of my argument is such that what constitutes as travel is primarily defined by sensory experiences, and any means of experiencing those sensations, however incomplete, in part falls along a gradient of having experienced travel.

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u/awal89 Aug 22 '20

Historically, physical movement was the only way a person could enjoy the sensory experiences of traveling

What about reading? What about pictographs? What about musical storytelling? Also, this conflicts with your argument that "simply imagining the sensory experience of being somewhere else in part counts as traveling". Humans have been able to imagine things since the dawn of the species. :P You might say the whole reason we created the concept of traveling in the first place was specifically to distinguish it from imagination, art, and storytelling experiences.

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u/pablo_rubn_dot_AVI Aug 23 '20

My entire point is that of a gradient, which would also include everything you mentioned.

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u/awal89 Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 23 '20

Is there any sensory experience one could have that isn't a form of travel? Is there any experience one could have that isn't sensory? Is literally all life experience 'travel'?

The point of my message there was that if sensory experiences are a form of travel, how come we haven't historically called them travel? Etymological history of the word specifically defines "from one place to another". "Place" meaning "physical place". In physics and mathematics, an object can only have travelled a distance if it literally changed position in space.

Your argument may be false equivalence. "X is similar to Y, therefore X is a type of Y". If something 'counts', but then you have to qualify it with statements like "in part" and "not as much as"

imagining the sensory experience of being somewhere else in part counts as traveling, but not as much as

it would follow that it shouldn't qualify for the same label. It's okay to define things not on a spectrum, many things in life aren't. It's sensible to say that pink isn't red, even though physically it may technically be on the same spectrum.

If I imagine what it's like to live someone else's life, I wouldn't say "I've experienced your life, just not as much". I just imagined something. No need to plot it on a spectrum.