A New Reality

The Promise

Virtual reality. Something that was a recently mere fantasy. That may not be so true anymore. Let's start at the definition of virtual reality; the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors. While this sums up the technical definition of VR I think it can be so much more. Remember those days sitting in your room playing game like Mario on an MES or Call of Duty on your computer thinking how this is the height of video games. That it can't get any better. But you're wrong. Within the last five years video games have taken the most innovative turn it's taken since moving game sour of an arcade and into your house. Heck that doesn't even compare to the potential of this new turn in video games. Virtual Reality is no longer something you saw in cheesy yet entertaining nineties a movies. We are in the cheesy yet entertains nineties movie. Well we will be soon that is. With innovators like the Oculus Rift or Microsofts HoloLens we can bring video games to life.but that technology is limited for now. All that can do is track your heads motion with you looking around while still using a controller is keyboard. But that's just at home. With upcoming pioneers like The Void or VRCade we could experience something similar to going to an arcade again. But this time instead instead of mashing buttons while getting beat at Street Fighter by a much older kid you are the fighter. You can fight dragon, experience fighting and shooting other planes while you hear and feel the turbulence of your plane in dog fights, or you could shoot some aliens and save the galaxy with your friends. The possibilities are endless. But that could fail. Will these pioneers deliver as promised? More than likely. But that's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about how people will treat VR. Thoughts like "Will people get addicted to VR?" or "How will people who play to much be able to tell which world is the real one?" is probably running through any of your heads right now. It has run through many other peoples heads to. There have been debates about the pros and cons of VR becoming mainstream. But ultimately I think this lies with the individual. While this might not be the beast example lets think of virtual worlds like alcohol. Drinking in moderations is fine but drink to much and you can do damage to your body and your life. It's just like VR in that way. Of course it's nice to use alcohol or VR to escape and have fun but you have to come back to the real world and deal with those problems. Here's where it lies with the individual. Most people know you can't run from your life but you can always hide from it for a little while. People might start using VR as the means to use hide from your life like many people do with normal video games right now. Some people use these things to block life out for a along as they can and some use it as a way to relax for a few hours and just set life to the side. This is my answer to the first question. Now on to the second. How will people tell the difference between a VR world and the real one? While I don't think or I don't hope most teens or adults would have trouble with this the problem lies with children, children have easily impressionable minds. A study was ran where a tema put a young child in front of a virtual child and had the fake child play with the real one. Once done the real child thought that the fake one was as real as anything can be. I think the responsibility of keeping VR to a responsible amount until the child can tell real from fake lies with the parents. My real concern is with the adults and teens who think the fake world is real. Or rather believing it is. This would go much farther than addiction. Be who are addicted would know that the game is fake. The people who I'll call believers are people who will have completely turned their back on life and started treating a virtual world as
real one. Someone who believes that all the relationships, interactions, and actions are as real as the screen you're staring at now. Since they believe that life turned it's back on them, they turn their back on life to go to a much simpler world. Luckily we don't have to worry about those things for now. VR is still a fetus. And here lies my second worry about VR. Like a fetus VR needs proper care and nourishment. Instead of that VR needs interest and funding. Without that the fetus that is VR will die out. There is a significant hurdle I think society will have to jump for VR to get the care and nourishment it needs. It will have to go mainstream. Facebook has plans for this but that is still agile away. Even when it does come society as a whole will have to accept VR as something real and not a fantasy geeky people who supposedly have no life believe in. We need to understand that VR is not a fantasy. While virtual realities future is still shrouded in a mist I believe it holds promise. A promise that could let someone attend a friend wedding in India. A promise that can send someone to Paris. A promise that could revolutionize how we socialize in this world. Let me ask you a question before we end this. Do you have a computer in your hose or your place of residence? Of course most of you said yes since you are reading this. But think back to the eighties. Where people thought things like a Commodore personal computer was just a fad. People thought those things would never last. But look at us now. Most families have at least one computer in their house. I along with many other people think that VR can be just like that. I believe that within the next twenty years almost every house will have some way to use VR to socialize or have fun. We are starting to live in a new reality. A Virtual Reality.