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Lately, there is a lot of talk about virtual reality
through video games and the Internet, etcetera,
but mankind has always lived in virtual reality:
imagination and dreams have always formed part of our lives.
We have always lived inside our minds where,
with the help of perception, we are constantly imagining things.
And to some degree, this imagination contradicts what our senses tell us,
reaching beyond these, refuting them and perpetuating that which is gone.
Imagination is what allows us to see things once they've disappeared.
So, imagination is our true domain. Man's domain is that of imagination:
the ability to fantasize or to invent stories
or to realize that, in the end, everything in life is surprising.
For me, the word "happiness" is a bit pretentious
because it calls for a kind of invulnerability
so that we can say we are happy and that we'll always be happy
and that no one can take that from us, but no mortal can really say that.
Everyone's current state is threatened by so many factors.
By contrast, the word "joy" is more modest.
We can say we feel joy
even though we know that at some point we may stop feeling it,
but that doesn't take away the joy we feel at that moment.
Joy is more of a situation than a permanent state of being.
So, that's why I prefer the word "joy" over "happiness",
which seems hard to reconcile with our mortality.
Logic is fine, at the right place and time.
To some degree, we all must reason and act reasonably
in order to survive.
But in addition to the tools we have for survival,
we also need to have reasons for living,
and that's what imagination gives us.
Logic provides us with the means for preserving life,
but imagination gives us the reasons which make life worth living.