Bruce Hood, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, in his excellent new book, The Self Illusion, seeks to understand how the singularity of the self emerges from the cacophony of mind and the mess of social life.
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Scoop.it!
When a virtual human is controlled by an actual human’s behaviours in real time, it is an avatar, by definition. If it is controlled by a computer, it is an agent. However, the notions of doppelgängers challenge these definitions, by begging the question, ‘If it looks just like me in every way but is controlled by a computer algorithm, is it really just an agent?’ Strictly speaking, the answer to this questions is ‘yes’. However, the notion of self is fluid in virtual reality. The same holds for people in the physical world, but to a lesser extent. ‘I wasn’t myself when I said that!’ is an excuse people often give for some transgression. The possibilities for self-representations are many in virtual reality, and scholars are just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding the implications of these new technologies for who we are and how we act as humans. There are many unknowns about these doppelgängers – for example, how long the effect lasts, how it interacts among people who vary across cultures and personality type, and what is the exact psychological mechanisms behind the process. As the technologies to build avatars move from the laboratory into the living room the need to answer these pressing questions will be more pronounced. 
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