David, a member of our research team, is working on a beautiful and inviting VR room. Today we all tried it out.
Imagine that you are in the book Goodnight Moon, except that it is a real place, and you can actually go up to the window, and look outside to see the moon and the stars. It was like that.
Taking off the headset was a bit of a shock. Suddenly you’re back in the harsh realm of reality, without no lovely storybook fireplace, or cozy little bed or night table.
After emerging back into the real world I said, to nobody in particular, “I hated to leave that place.”
One of the students nodded her head and said, “Yes I know. I could have just stayed in there all day.”
I thought about that for a moment, and then I said to the students, “Maybe this is it, right here. The beginning of the end for humanity.”
They knew exactly what I meant.
Yikes.
And yet I desperately want to try it out.
…r
I know what you mean, in trying various AR/VR things, they are seductive.
But I have no desire to stay in the land of the “bowl full of mush.” I hated that book as a child – this is an aside of course – it seemed that the book was written to be so boring that it would actually put people to sleep.
Maybe what you are *really* after is a reduced and simpler environment. No piles of papers to read and grade. Remember those sensory depravation tanks? Maybe you’re after a “sensory reduction” tank.
It remembers me this Ray Bradbury’s novel, The Veldt :
“Don’t let them switch off the nursery and the house,” he was saying.
It’s funny how science-fiction is able to percieve sometimes very precisely the flaws of the human psyche and how we’re likely to respond to new technological context.
Oh well, I imagine we’ll have to check this by ourselves.
Richard: Yeah, I know what you mean.
Sally: Yes, I think that is exacty it.
George: Fortunately, our VR has not yet evolved far enough to eat people.