Yesterday I posted a tongue-in-cheek answer to the question “When will everybody embrace VR?” For better or verse, I argued that it will happen when we can all share a drink together in VR worlds.
Well, maybe it’s sort of like that, but maybe not exactly. Perhaps the important thing to share will be a meal, or a cup of coffee.
What these experiences all have in common is that they transcend the virtual and involve a real commitment with our physical selves. When we imbibe food or drink, we are involving our biological self, and thereby committing to our sensed reality.
I am not sure exactly what will be the threshold for all of us agreeing to believe in a shared world which is actually a technologically enabled consensual hallucination. But I suspect it will involve some level of commitment which is not just of the mind, but also of the body.
It will be when we can share a taste of what is on our plate, or sip of our wine, or smell the perfume or pheromones of the people in the room. And, when I can touch you arm in affirmation. Until then, old friend, we are reduced to 2-dimensional representations of 3 dimensions and incomplete multiplexed aural representations of the music of life.