Year 2015 is marked as the year of virtual reality. Consumer version of Oculus is going to be released and the of year, as well as final movie. I realy belive that this technology is going to change the world and it's the beginning of true singularity.
Gendo's vizor look like a VR device - so my conclusion is that changes in the plot are actualy made for for that purpose - that final impact, merging of all consciousnesses will be part VR collective experience, allowing to see Gendo's singularity through his "eyes"

What do you guys think?

I think this belongs in the Chit Chat Section. Also, I'm eagerly awaiting Gendou Rift Merchandise.

Not necessarily. If Gendo's vizor is truly connecter to VR, this could also be a hint to his master plan. Merging and moving into new virtual universe inside big earth-core?

It could simply be that the visor is some sort of interface so Gendo could control all the automated system on which neo-NERV's facilities entirely run and/or maybe he simply received some damages in the eyes during the time skip and had to have that visor installed to be able to see.

Now on a symbolic level the visors have a clear purpose: the eyes are the "windows of the soul", the most expressive part of our faces, Gendo's shaded glasses in Jo and Ha already made it difficult to see his expression (and thus what he thinks) and symbolized how his heart was mostly closed to everything and everyone around him.
The visor in Q make this symbolism of how Gendo closed his heart go even further, where we can't even see his eyes anymore and aren't even sure if they are still here beneath the visor. It make him look even less human, which is fitting for a guy living in a floating almost empty ruin and surrounded by machines (and Fuyutsuki)

All these factors don't exclude eachother. When you get into VR you will see what this technology realy means. It's not just 'movies' and games. It's a paradigm shift.
Controlling devices with VR - already happening.. .That's my point. Singularity is a point to witch everything flows into - technology, biology and our consciousness. It's our gate to next level of reality.

Ukago wrote:Controlling devices with VR - already happening.. .That's my point.

That's what I'm saying too: that Gendo's visor is an interface so her can control his automated installations, NS and whatever crazy science thing he has at his disposal.

PS: I've tried the Occulus Rift once in a convention, with the game Narcosis, and damn when it'll be generalized that'll be the bomb, planes or especially spaceship games with that technology will be a dream come true, Elite Dangerous is already compatible!

:) also if reality has a fractal construction, it is realy possible that reality created in VR affects the "outer" reality. All these loop theories, tesseract and ect. suggest that it might be the Finals message: You are the creator, as in EoE but with much wider connection to the real world. :)

So if Gendo wants to replace God...

You should have choosed Project Morpheus and not Occulus for the title......

Dima wrote:You should have choosed Project Morpheus and not Occulus for the title......

PM is way behing Oculus, for now ... but this is off-topic.
I guess "Virtual Reality" in general will be better.

According to the wiki for the original proposal, Gendo wanted to digitize himself as part of instrumentality.

http://wiki.evageeks.org/Resources:Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_Proposal_%28Translation%29

I never understood the obsession in the 90s on collective mind and Lotus Eater Machines as upper stage of the human species: the Borg Collective, the Taelon Commonality, the Matrix, the Instrumentality, etc. Personally I think these forms of disgusting and fascist Transhumanism: I remember the practices attributed to the cult of hashashin (the cult of the Assassins) who (allegedly) used hashhash (meaning opium), prostitutes and beautiful gardens to create the "secret garden of paradise" and "motivate" its members to a suicidal fanaticism because they thought they would live in the "Paradise of the 77 Virgins" when they died. It would be like considering addicted to Crack and Opium the higher stages of the human species. I think we would become entheogen cultists.

Humankind has progressed because we are different as oil and water, each with its function. If it were possible to force the merger probably would not have a potable fuel, we would have a liquid that is not for drinking and that does not burn and it would be useless and polluting. Collective minds should not work because every train will at the speed of its slowest vehicle and I do not even want to imagine that obscenities and madness lurk in the minds of Gendo, Kihl and alike.

The alternative would be to create individual havens for every human being, where every human live alone forever with his fantasies and dreams fulfilled. This seems to me the kind of paradise that Gendo and Anno would like. In recent years many "villains" in anime has advocated this idea: Madara in Naruto, Osaburo Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. All show how wrong this idea, and in Evangelion, I always thought that Anno was an ardent supporter of it and the whole story criticizing otaku by fleeing reality is pure hypocrisy and covardice to accept his true beliefs.

Someone who finds the right to control my mind, body, soul and destiny by knowing what is "best for everyone" is my enemy and should be treated as such and without mercy. Neither gods were so assholes like that.

one-eyed wrote:I never understood the obsession in the 90s on collective mind and Lotus Eater Machines as upper stage of the human species

It's not just the '90s -- 65 years earlier, there was this. And the examples you cite are still better than bad ends like rogue constructors turning the universe into orgasmium to maximize the total positive qualia.

^ I love Last and First Men. And what's more, at the end they're sending out seeds of human life - just like the FAR!

one-eyed wrote:I never understood the obsession in the 90s on collective mind and Lotus Eater Machines as upper stage of the human species: the Borg Collective, the Taelon Commonality, the Matrix, the Instrumentality, etc. Personally I think these forms of disgusting and fascist Transhumanism...

Maybe you are still trapped in thinking about yourself as a seprate entity. Young minds don't realise that they are already part of larger organism. You wouldn't be able alone to create conditions that support continuity of your existence. Your mind is formed in process of copying others. In the end probably we are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.

Your body also has milions of individual perspectives of cells, but needs a higher consciousness to function - to decide what is better and possible - for the whole to move forrward and create something more - a deeper level. When a cell thinks as seprate - becomes cancer.

So is it better for us to merge into one and see higher perspective or to feed our limited little egos? :)