description, conclusion
Producing natural presence
Natural presence has to be produced. Food, shelter, safety, education and social interaction are all necessary for survival and well-being. People's basic needs were formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and have been a matter of debate ever since. Basic needs also depend on financial realities. Natural presence has to be produced psychologically and socially, which requires energy and an environment that is receptive. It also requires resources, the difference between being rich and being poor defines how and what presences a person can use or enact. Being-connected is becoming increasingly important for the sustenance of natural presence in societies in which technology plays a crucial role. The digital divide between massively connected, less connected and unconnected people has become a political issue between rich and poor, between strong and weak, between healthy and ill, between North and South.
Sensitivity and intuition about certain power configurations that are facilitated by certain configurations of technologies are becoming more and more decisive because the technological configurations are less and less well-known. Power relationships determine what possibilities for well-being and survival our natural presence possesses. Even when they are unknown and not understood they influence our well-being and chances of survival. The abuse of power affects people's natural presence, physically and psychologically. The UDHR is challenged by the developing information and communication technologies because the use and abuse of power has become less transparent. For such sensitivity and intuition to develop, an awareness of the relationship between power, technology and natural presence is crucial.
Natural presence determines what other presences will be accepted. Without natural presence, no mediated presence or witnessed presence can be received or generated. In accepting mediated presences in social interaction a variety of factors are to be distinguished: the physical and psychological state a person is in, the context and history of a certain interaction as perceived processes of attribution, synchronization and adaptation, and the media schemata that are developed for a certain medium for a certain time, place, culture and generation.
In natural presence all levels of consciousness can be triggered. Mediated presence is accepted within the comprehended framework of a person's natural presence. When all layers of consciousness (proto, core and extended) are involved in the presence experience, the presence experience is maximized. In a state of maximized natural presence, other mediated presences are more easily accepted, provided basic energy is available, provided that they have a ready interface, and that the feedback matches expectations when probing.