We can?? be freed of the work of representation, the ambiguity of language. Why should we want to be? That is like imagining a freedom from life itself.

Freedom from life for a techno-Utopian or transhumanist is losing oneself within the objects of our own creation, immersed in virtual experience that resembles and replaces reality completely enough that to exist any other way is both redundant and undesirable because of all that, um, well, messiness, discomfort, and pain. If the human condition possesses a variety of negative attributes (which it does), removal to virtual life provides release from that suffering and its consequences — of a sort. When the interface becomes convincing enough, the product name should be Oblivion rather than Kinect or Wii.

On the other hand, I love turn-based strategy games like Civilization, because I have time to stop to think (and imagine) what I’m doing, even though that too just involves a series of keyboard presses. I guess I feel like I’m giving orders in a more abstract way; pressing control-b feels like giving a royal command, “build a city!” but pressing the A button doesn’t feel I’m telling my legs to jump.

By contrast, Wii games (I haven’t played with the Kinect) make it easier for me to lose myself and see my game-avatar as me. I know my swings in Wii tennis aren’t exactly like a real tennis swing, but working the controller is less intrusive. I don’t know if this is a geek vs. non-geek thing (I’m pretty much most kinds of geeks you can name) as a comfort level with a certain type of input control, or a certain ability to semi-automate one’s fingers.