In the future, instead of watching movies or reading novels, people will make use of virtual reality that produces experience indistinguishable from the experience reality would produce. Do you expect that you will make use of this, the principal art form of the 21st century? Perhaps there will be a "deluxe" version of virtual reality (DVR): when you use it, you forget that you are experiencing a merely virtual reality. Would you use DVR?
7 comments:
First, this really creeps me out.
I think that curiosity would probably get the best of me and I would have to check out VR but I'm not sure about the 'DVR'. I can't help but think that there would be some adverse sideeffects to such a development as DVR.
Why wouldn't you use DVR? People are already on track-- film has become a very popular art form in today's society. People flock to movie theaters to find thrill, to lose a sense of self, to live vicariously through the characters on the screen, and to forget about their busy lives. Why not take it a step further?
I kind of agree with candifer. There is already DvR stuff out there. I think you can get stuff in the store, disks, that are DVR. But I don't know about vr. Consiously you might think it is reality but wouldn't there still be a part of you, subconcious or otherwise, that knew it wasn't really real? I know that virtual reality is already talked about, like on scifi shows and stuff, like Star Trek, where they go to the "holo deck" and everything is almost real. They can touch things and everything but what they experience is just a computer program. I know holographic projectors already exist but is virtual reality a step further to the point where it is almost "Star Trekky?"
Of course I would make use of this. If I was unable to go hiking in the mountains and there was a VR program that allowed me to do it of course I would take advantage of it. For the deluxe version of VR if something can be produced that really made people think they were in a false world then I think there is going to be some problems along with the advances of this technology such as strain on the brain and addicts of the DVR having trouble knowing the real world from the false.
Have you ever been in a flight simulator type ride, or one of those places in the mall where you get into a fake nascar and then drive in a race. I have... and sometimes they make me feel sick, and almost always I leave disappointed, because I can so easily tell they are NOT the real thing! If 'DVR' would work to simulate reality, I have a feeling my curiousity would get the best of me, and I'd want to try it! But I agree Ryan, as technologies become more and more advanced, it may bring confusion between real and false. Do you think people had similar uneasiness with the development of cameras/pictures, films, video games...etc? Does that even fall in the same category? Is this where the progress started or did it start with something else?
In a heartbeat. Not as a replacement for real life experiences, but for the thrill - sure.
As the Roots say, "false media, we don't need it do we."
we need fewer people escaping reality, and more people dealing with it. i believe the only way i might try it would be if it did not cost money, and if i would know the entire time that the vr is only vr and not confuse it with reality.
The most important thing to consider here is the fascination and drive toward higher forms of delusion, distraction, entertainment. What is so bad or boring about reality? What does it say about us if we pursue fake experiences over doing the real thing? Matrix anyone? The further development of technology like this promotes Complacent, thoughtless engagements and is another way rich people will waste their time and money.
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