What if there was another world that could be easily bent by the human will? What if everything in life could be made easier? What would it be like if you didn't need to travel to speak face-to-face with a friend, or if you could simply teleport yourself to your favorite shopping center, regardless of the location? If humans could make such a world exist, how would it effect them? What if I told you that we were close to finding out?
People usually think of video games when they hear the words "virtual reality." The image that comes to mind is one of a game that one could temporarily immerse themselves in to escape their real lives for a short period of time, or could use to be with friends, albeit in a limited sense, when it would otherwise be impossible. The other image that comes to mind, is one of an obsessed gamer who uses virtual reality in order to semi-permanently remove him or herself from the natural world. These images bring up several questions regarding the concept of virtual reality, but one rises far above the others; what will it do to us?
Many people worry that virtual reality will make people more anti-social, but some evidence suggests that this view is wrong. As of late, evidence has turned up revealing that people prefer playing video games together, that having a common goal in a game gives people more to talk about together, and that co-operative gameplay builds stronger bonds in the real world- but these arguments all assume that virtual reality will merely take shape as a video game. Recent developments suggest that this technology is not nearly that limited.
One of the largest shocks to the gaming community in the last year was the purchase of the Oculus Rift, a project geared towards developing cheap but powerful virtual reality headsets, by Facebook. On the surface, it would appear that Facebook would have no reason for purchasing such a company outside of investing for future profits, but, once again, that assumes this technology was to be made for gaming. What if it could be used for more socially oriented purposes?
The idea would be astoundingly simple: make a world much like our own in cyberspace and use it to bring people together. People could communicate with each other in this virtual world as if they were face-to-face. Companies could make virtual storefronts that people could explore from the comfort of their homes. Life could be lived from the comfort of your desk chair, and one could simply get lost in their artificial world- which, I believe, is what we are afraid of.
Ultimately, it is possible; virtual reality could be a gateway towards a future seeped in a fake world, but I don't think such a future would be inherently bad. The "virtual world" itself could be used to facilitate human interaction and simplify life, as opposed to encouraging people to shut themselves away. At the end of the day, people will be forced to return to their natural world- making it impossible to lose themselves completely to the dream they built, and life in both world will continue on. As long as a balance can be made between the real and virtual worlds, it is completely possible that one could live in both of them.
References:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/video-games-good-kids_b_1974015.html
http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/how-does-it-affect-us.html
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/07/14/former-valve-vr-contractor-says-virtual-reality-technology-is-bad-news
http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/virtual-worlds/psychology.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-08-14/business/9508140011_1_cybersickness-psychologist-with-essex-corp-virtual-reality/2
No comments:
Post a Comment