Virtual Reality: Empowerment or Imprisonment?
2016 is to be the year of Virtual Reality. But will easily accessible and totally immersive digital worlds build barriers around us all. Or could they help set us free?
The technological world is beside itself at the upcoming release of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) into the public domain. Full immersive VR headsets will not just bring to us a whole new level of gaming but will have a huge range of practical uses. VR will allow us to experience and learn from situations previously inaccessible; AR units such as Google Glass will allow a speed of information access literally never seen before and with virtual beaming an expert such as a surgeon could be ‘hands on’ in a distant location within seconds. And this is just the start.
In one sense it is not such a radical leap. Throughout history we have augmented our physical reality with images from our imagination. We use art, photography, film, even music and words, to create alternate worlds to surround us. Is computer generated virtual reality not just the next step?
The difference I suppose is that for once these worlds are totally immersive. And so the question I find myself asking is this: in a physical world will a virtual reality bring us closer together or push us further apart? Will this technology make us more divided, with less need to become a part of the reality of others, or bring us together, allowing those who would not otherwise venture out into the wider world to come out to play?
VR has been accused of stealing us away from the ‘real world’. I have experienced the separation when sitting beside a boyfriend as we watched a movie together. I watched on a TV screen, he with a VR headset on. We watched the same movie but while I was on the couch, in his virtual reality, he was on the moon. If he looked left to where I was sitting he saw merely stars. Alienating perhaps, but then again if he had been alone and I thousands of miles away, with my own headset I could have joined him on the moon to watch the movie side by side.
Why do we feel that immersion in a digital visual world is removal from reality anyway? Vision is simply the best attempt our brain can make at interpreting the world around us with any given input. Most of what we see is based on conjecture and expectation, not hard data. For the brain to interpret VR as actual reality is not hard at all and part of what makes it a brilliant training tool. In terms of an interpreted reality, does it matter which one we hang out in?
Furthermore, Multiverse theory and the failure of physicists to find a unified theory of physical forces has led to the proposal that we are already living within a virtual matrix, a simulation. If that is the case, perhaps it matters even less.
And do we actually leave one reality to enter the immersion of another? If we see VR, instead of a platform of escape, as a communication tool, I think that rather than ‘stealing us away’ it genuinely brings us closer together. With VR we can, more than ever before overcome the limitations of physical space. Surely this fact alone is huely empowering to the human race. Individuals who were physically divided have over the last 100 years been brought together first vocally with the telephone, then visually through programs such as Skype and now they can come together in full immersive digital form. Of course at the moment there are problems in so far as a physical body can not be functional in a virtual world, but that is something scientists are working on overcoming.
So where does that leave us? 2016 will bring VR into our homes. The advantages it will bring to how we live our complex lives are endless. But the most important I believe is the power of communication it will give us. We have always been able to isolate ourselves, if we so desire, but never have we been able to unify ourselves in such an immersive way and over such distances. With VR and AR technology we have taken the first step to truly overcome the limitations of physical space and push at the walls of reality.
‘Reality: Empowerment or Imprisonment?’ was the topic of discussion at a recent Dialogue event held by Jugular Productions in London. Full reports of this evening here. Next Dialogue on Nov 4th will be ‘Sustainability: What does it mean to you?’ — more info on speakers and future events here.
Katherine Templar Lewis is a freelance Science Journalist, Educator and Presenter. www.katherinetemplarlewis.com
