VR — The New Reality?

As virtual reality becomes more prevalent and more immersive the question of what is a world changes from and abstract question to one that has very real, or maybe virtual, application. I want to cover three possible applications that I think expose the true power of virtual reality. The first is the ability to bring a real environment into the everyday home, the second is the power to be in a completely fictional place and the last is the ability to be anyone and do anything.

There are billions of people that will never have the opportunity to travel and see the truly spectacular wonders that exist on our planet and most humans will never see anything beyond our planet. This is the first application that makes VR so amazing. Experiences like Google Earth VR

allow you to travel the familiar like your own home and the exotic like the Amazon Rainforest. Other experiences take you deep into the ocean like PSVR’s The Deep

and even into the final frontier like Oculus Rift’s Deep Space VR where you pilot a ship through space.

All of these applications allow us to explore places we would never be able to go, capturing the imagination and spurring wonder, curiosity and connecting us to parts of our universe that we never thought possible. This has meaning outside of pure wonder as well. Using VR models archeologists can go back in time and study dinosaurs, doctors can go inside of a human body to see the problem, and cancer patients can be taken to a tropical beach to help deal with a session of chemo therapy. As these experiences become more immersive and the technology becomes cheaper nobody will be confined to their home.

Now let’s go somewhere else. Somewhere nobody has ever been because it does not really exist and has never existed except in our imaginations. Imagine fighting alongside Aragorn and Legolas in Middle Earth , or dueling Draco Malfoy at Hogwarts. Starting with cave drawings and evolving all the way to video, media has always let us bring our imaginations into the real world. Now, with VR, we can bring our imaginations to life in a completely new way actually putting us in the world. So what does this mean for us as a society? Will we start creating such fantastic and immersive environments that we don’t to leave? What happens when we add a social component? Will VR become the new reality? Obviously I don’t know the answers to these questions but as our worlds become more fantastic and more immersive they are question that VR world builders and creators will need to take into account.

Now on to my favorite application of VR, the ability to be anyone or do anything. What person has not fantasized about being a super model, or having super powers? There are already a few VR experiences that allow one to fly.

How about being an adventurer that can wield weaposn and magic? Skyrim VR

allows you to do just that. Travel around Skyrim and defeat foes, conquer mountains and defeat the evil dragon. Maybe you want to be someone or do something more realistic, like be a doctor. No problem with surgery simulators you can be a surgeon and experience what it might be like to operate on another person.

From fighter pilot to Kajit adventurer, VR allows you to be anyone and do anything. There are of course inherent dangers to this. Just like What happens when someone begins to identify more as their VR avatar over their real world identity? As VR becomes better this question and others like it will have to be answered.