The Sexy Future of Virtual Reality

After reading Neuromancer, by William Gibson, my interest in virtual reality was suddenly renewed and I found myself investigating the recent strides made in producing such a totally engrossing experience.  Virtual reality is no foreign concept to my generation.  I remember television shows, books and video games involving virtual realities, typically more interesting than reality itself.  Even though the predictions of the past have yet to be realized, a new virtual future seems in reach.

                A crowd funded head mounted display has been released that appears promising.  The Oculus Rift is worn on the head like a high tech pair of goggles and gives its user a 3D view of a virtual world.  Although its uses have been primarily limited to video games, one can easily imagine a future where all browsing on the web is done in virtual realities.  The benefits of virtual reality seem obvious, but it has potential for abuse similar to video games.  Video game addiction is a real problem and if virtual reality is as entertaining as hoped, one might find many people who decide their virtual world is much more rewarding than the real one. 

                It took me just a single Google search on “virtual reality” to find an article reporting on a Japanese “sex simulator”.  Using a combination of the oculus rift and some other creative robotics, a person can have sex with a video game character (in virtual reality) while being pleasured by a robotic arm.  The incentive to offer virtual solutions to life’s tough problems seems to be greater than ever.  It’s not surprising that a cheap fix might be preferred by some when the real life alternative seems so hard.  Technology will only get better and the idea that we might one day make virtual realities that feel and seem real is not so farfetched.  Dreaming is as close one can get to such a reality and although the technology used in the movie Inception might seem silly, the idea that one day a dreamlike reality could be induced seems more possible than ever.  If one can perceive an unreal reality every night and feel like it is real, then why not might the same be possible with the amazing advances of science?  A great new virtual world is waiting to be experienced, but also abused if the right incentives don’t exist for people to live as themselves and not just through their avatars.