The man who invented virtual reality.

Genes Books
4 min readDec 17, 2023

Have you ever wondered who invented virtual reality? As we set out to explore this tech wizard’s legacy, cast your gaze into the digital beyond. Throughout the long history of technological advancement, one man is remembered as a key player in the development of virtual reality. He is none other than Mr. Ivan Sutherland, the renowned visionary.

“The individual who is in virtual reality sees the world as if he were inside a three-dimensional computer graphics world.” -Ivan Sutherland

Ivan Sutherland gave life to virtual reality by translating the concept into useful technology, even though the idea of virtual environments had been explored in fiction for decades. His groundbreaking work in the mid-20th century brought this idea to reality. However, precisely who is Ivan Sutherland? Now let’s get started:

Ivan Sutherland, born on May 16, 1938, is a renowned American computer scientist and Internet pioneer. His prime interest was to blend human visual perception with computer graphics, and in doing so, Sutherland became the foundation stone for what we now call ‘Virtual Reality’.

His exceptional work in the field began with his Master’s Thesis, which brought about the revolutionary ‘Sketchpad’ — recognized as the first graphical user interface. However, it was the creation of “The Sword of Damocles” that…

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