我朋友培里剛到台灣的第一個星期還沒有手機，而我剛買了新iPhone，幾乎成了全時低頭族。我發現他常從背後偷瞄我的手機，於是我叫他別再偷看我的私人訊息，但他說他並不想看我的訊息，只是不自覺地想盯著一個螢幕看。我第一次到曼谷時，坐在計程車裡，卻發現自己並沒辦法好好地觀察街道、商店或人群，因為不管到哪兒，只要有螢幕，不論大小都會吸引我的目光。

曾讀過一種理論說我們之所以會受螢幕吸引，是因為我們是視覺動物。螢幕中醒目的動作、顏色、形狀類似蛇類閃亮的鱗片或快速躍動的獵物，經過演化，我們自然會特別注意這些事物。大概吧，誰知道？從生理觀點來說似乎有理。

但在現象學上，螢幕並不只代表通往另一世界、心靈、時空的窗口。它代表的是虛擬的一切，也就是現代數位文明。越接近文明的核心（如紐約市），你就會看見越多螢幕；而離核心越遠（比方說紐約貧民區或非洲大草原），螢幕越少。

這簡直就像「虛擬」不斷累積堆疊，越發緊密而真實，直到它全然擴張，我們便可完全進入這片虛擬現實。

但別忘了在非洲大草原（或螢幕上/螢幕外所見的任何地方）仍是有螢幕的－讓我們得以感知世界的心靈螢幕。換言之，心靈本身就是一個螢幕－你腦中的電影放映機，播放出你想像的、看見的一切－你的真實。

環顧四週，人人都渴望進入iPod、iPhone、電腦、電視、電影螢幕中。人們雙眼緊黏著螢幕不放，簡直像在排隊等待進入虛擬現實中。會有這種奇異現象是由於我們正處於歷史上一個奇特的時代，我們正身處真實與虛擬之間的某處，某種中途狀態。

等我們完全進入虛擬後，螢幕就會再度消失。我們將回到原點。新的未來原始世界，再也見不到實體螢幕，因為我們已不需要了。我們將回歸單一，只有唯一絕對的螢幕/心靈/真實。

My friend perry didn't have a phone for the first week he was in Taiwan. I had my new iPhone and was looking at it 24 7 and I find him constantly staring over my shoulder. I told him to stop peaking at my private convo. he said he wasn't, and that he just wanted to look at a screen. Even upon entering a new city like Bangkok (where this picture was taken)(need to add the photo) I find myself perceiving not the roads, the people, the shops, but I gravitates towards whatever screen I happen to come across while riding inside a taxi.

I read a theory about us being attracted to screens because we are visual animals - that the pronounced movements, colors, and shapes inside screens are analogous to glittering snake skins and sprinting prey, and that we are evolved to gravitate our intentionality towards these things. Maybe. Who knows.
Maybe it's true from a biological standpoint.

But phenomenologically, screens are not just the representation of the portal to another world, mind, time and space, but it is the representation of the virtual aka modern digital civilization. The closer you are to the heart of modernity (NYC for instance) the more screens you can bare witness. The further away (when you move towards the ghettos of NYC, African Safari) the less screens there are.

It's almost as if the 'virtuals' pile up on top of each other, becoming denser and more 'real' until eventually, with virtual reality becoming full blown, and we enter it completely.

But keep in mind that the African Safari, (or anywhere else that's perceived by anyone with or without an actual screen) nevertheless has a screen - the screen of the mind that gives rise to reality as perceived. In other words, the mind itself is a screen - the movie player inside your head that plays anything you imagine or sees is the most fundamental screen in your reality.

If you look around, people are all very eager to enter into their iPod, iPhone, computer, TV, movie screens. They are glued to their screens as if they are waiting in line to enter virtual reality. This is a strange phenomenon because we are now at a strange point in history where we are in the in-between state: halfway in between the real and the virtual.

Once we enter the virtual completely, there will again be no more screens. We will be back to square one - into a new primitive future world where no physical screens exists simply because we no longer need them. We would come full circle to a singularity of One Absolute Screen/Mind/Reality.