The Possibly Horrifying Future of Virtual Reality

I've done my fair share of thinking on this subject as well. I made a topic a while back concerning this; the continuous merger of 'real life' with virtual 'reality.' I enjoy watching anime. Some of the ones I enjoy the most revolve around this particular subject. Sword Art Online: A story of a boy trapped in a neurally networked game where death means frying your brain in the real world. That particular game covers several interesting aspects of virtual reality.

One such aspect is spending years in a game...a lifetime in fact. Though the Sword Art world is matched with real world time (technically comatose in the real world), it is entirely possible that future virtual realities may hook the brain up into a dreamlike state, where real time is slower than game time. A year in the game may only be an hour in reality. Such a concept is difficult to grasp, but it's not impossible to see happening. This leads to another concept; the training of muscle memory. What if you spend a year in the game practicing with shooting a bow, or firing a gun? Wouldn't that experience then carry over to the real world? Assuming your virtual body is a perfect copy of your physical copy at the time you begin your training, much of it would in fact be applicable to your practice. Growing muscles is different than training muscles though.

To live an entire life in a few short hours... where would that leave you, mentally?

There's also another one called Log Horizon which kind of switches up some of the 'trapped in virtual reality' story. Instead of being trapped in the world mentally, the denizens of Log Horizon are instead completely transferred consciously and physically to the game world. The kicker there is the decision of whether they wish to go back or not. Kill a few monsters, get a few coins, and live as long as you want. Sounds pretty good (for a while at least).

As has been mentioned before, the matrix scenario is disturbing. To think that we are in fact trapped in such a world right now is not impossible... the question then arises of what do you do if you knew? Would anything change? Would you try to 'hack' the game? Sounds a lot like certain global power groups right now to me.

I wouldnt mind plugging in to a VR that is like this reality + some more. I wouldnt notice any real difference now would I? I could even imagine to spend the rest of my life in one of those "soon to come" VR. Hook me up to an automatic feeder like those vegetble patients have. For all I know, I could very well be hooked up to a VR right know....right?

the virtual gaming chairs would obviously have a feeding tube and a toilet. And if you enter you enter into a breeding program. Over a set ammount of time of being a user they take reproductive samples and send it to a fully automated plant that grows them in a vessel that generates a human to be plugged in from birth. That way we are doubling our capacity. I imagine they would syphone energy from us as well to help fuel the grid so that we would solve the energy crisis. By using humans as a battery well allowing them to be connected to a virtual world they think it is real. It is a legal trade, for the time you spend you have to donate money to be on.

but to prevent people from using solar to power their virtual experiences for free, we will blot the skies in thick black clouds as to prevent solar powered machinery from working.
As to keep everyone hooked on the grid. So that the Japanese can finish building their robots, Then the robots will see what humans have done and so they hijack the grids of humans and mantain it well the mechs destroy every city. The world becomes ruins, As the machines syphone from the virtual game units. They are repopulating humans at a rapid rate.

But there is a legend, a legend of the one, The one who would break free from the system and re-enter it again only to become the ONE.

a reply to: AnuTyr

Thank you for the " Matrix" plot synopsis

As to the thread. The future of our technology is truly wonderful and horrifying

In the movie I mentioned in my OP, they made a point about "cloud" computing being the bext big thing in gaming. Id imagine millions of minds plugged into a system at once would provide an insane amount of non-traditional computing power (or the most traditional in the sense weve always had our minds). Hook up this massive computer to any problem and im sure it could be solved. Taking the possible slowing down of experienced time versus actual time, millions and millions of years of computing research could be theoretically completed in hours. Imagine also what the spyware and malware of the future will be like.

Edit- Thank you all, this is my third thread and my first that has shown up on the front page. (Atleast for me it does) thank you all. As someone who has lurked for years I always hoped I would have a front page topic.

This technology could be exactly what we need to get people off the couch and working on their fitness.

Imagine being immersed in a life-like NFL game where you have to actually run and maneuver on a treadmill... or a first-person-shooter that requires walking/running.

Or a BMX game using a stationary bike.

The biggest problem with current motion-gaming devices like XBox Kinect or Playstation Move is the silliness of running in place while staring at a screen in front of you. It doesn't immerse the player and doesn't feel real so it's easier to sit on the couch and play with a controller.

a reply to: Answer

I agree that this could be effective in both physical and mental training/ rehabilitation, I think the push will be for a fully immersive do as little as possibly physically type setup. Gamers can be over-weight and lazy, speaking as a lazy over-weight gamer.

I have to say though that id be much more likely to go running if I feel like im running for my life in my favorite game. And that wouldnt be a bad thing!

originally posted by: tranquilone666
a reply to: NoRulesAllowed

Yes, we have virtual everything I have mentioned, but they operate within a specific set of rules in our universe, in a fabricated one who will make the rules? Who will enforce the penalties? I used to play wow when the level cap was 60, I remember back then how that game could suck you into it for hours. In any game I have ever played there have been hackers and cheats. No system of ethics and procedures can be built where there is not a way around it. What happens when there is the first digital "fight"? The first digital "rape"? The first digital "murder"? I use quotes because you know that many will view the experience as not a "real" experience. Would there be punishments only in a "V-space" or in the real world too?

>>
Who will make the rules? Who will enforce the penalties?
>>

Who made the rules in THIS reality? Who is enforcing the penalties?

Why can't I just go outside, naked, with a feather up my butt and be happy? : ) Why do I need to pay rent...who made the rules that we need to work to life, eat, breathe etc.?
Why can't I just tell what I think or want...but instead am confined to social rules where we wish everyone "a good day" or say "Welcome. How are you?" even if it doesn't interest us a bit. Etc.

Saying: The problem with "rules" and whoever made them and how I agree with the rules exists in VR but obviously it also exists HERE : ) With the advantage..if we have VR realities I can choose between numerous ones.

I could, for example, choose a VR reality where it is "ok" to be a pirate and to steal and plunder...who knows, because "deep inside" maybe I am actually "in reality" a pirate and THIS reality is just not suited for my "true self" to live my real pirate self out?

(Asked differently: Say, right now you're living an average life where you get up at 6am each day, go to work in a factory, come home at 4pm. Is this your "true self"? Really? : )

As for "digital rape" and "digital murder". As said, you have (basically) the same choices in a VR world as you have here. Obviously I *could* choose to go out and rape and murder. But I don't do it. I am NOT DOING IT BECAUSE THERE IS PUNISHMENT or it's "not allowed" . I am not raping and murdering since I don't have a desire to do it. (Or because I have a moral, ethics etc.) But in a VR world you can also have a moral. (WoW example: I did NOT always "kill" others, for example if I as a lvl 80 come across some lvl 1 noob I wouldn't kill them because of my sense of ethics, because I am not an ahole).

As for the digital rape/murder issue again....also this is not a problem of the TECHNOLOGY which would make digital rape and murder possible. (Because, as said, *in theory* I could do that also in real life). It's a problem of a mind-set, if someone is inclined to rape and murder...and has not so much to do with the technology. Or differently, if someone would be inclined to murder and rape, they would have those ideas in their mind whether they're in a VR reality or not, you cannot blame the VR company or software that someone "enjoys" murder or rape.

The (legit) question here of course would be...whether such tech which allows realistic rape and murder "changes" people...in other words, whether it makes me a rapist just because I COULD rape in a VR world?

But I don't think so. In the same way as when we got literature and then later movies and TV with crime shows, did it make people murderers just because they had access to crime stories or crime/murder movies?

Also...if we speculate about a theoretic, future VR world where someone could freely rape and murder....then there could ALSO be virtual worlds where I can do exactly the opposite...where I could live a "virtual life", say as a priest or a knight of honor etc. I would of course choose that avatar/life which suits me best, a rapist/murderer just wouldn't be my choice : )

a reply to: tranquilone666

The ability to create any enviornment at any time could in my opinion destroy our society. The reason any of us do anything productive is to provide a better reality for ourselves, if we can subjectivly do this by simply thinking it why would anyone put in any actual physical effort. We would all spend every waking moment in a virtual world until we slowly died one by one without reproducing or eating.

Who says this isn't what we are doing right now?

Why live one life if you can live an infinite amount via VR

originally posted by: HillbillyHippie1
If we had such virtual reality, everyone would want it and they'd never want to leave it - it would be addicting.

No, that's not true. You can't speak for everyone when it comes to something like this. I don't mind being the party pooper when it comes to topics like this. This whole virtual reality thing doesn't appear to me at all. I've never been the kind of person to play videos and find them a waste of time. No offense to those who play them but they bore me.

I do understand the appeal virtual reality would have to some people. Every time this topic comes up, I think about the movie Surrogates and the female character who had a scare on her face. Her surrogate was perfect and when I think about virtual reality I think about how there will be people who would want to live a life free of defects that affect them on a daily bases.

I've entertain the idea that this reality could be an illusion. However, if it is I'm still able to feel the sensations I get when I use my senses. That's something I wouldn't trade, not for a million dollars. I'm a person who likes to be able to hug, kiss etc. I wouldn't want a virtual hug from anyone, not even from the smoking hot Orlando Bloom.

The rest of you can have your virtual reality, but I chose to stay in this reality until my body gives out and my soul moves on.

a reply to: Rocketgirl

I'm with you rocketgirl.

My hubby can spend literally all day playing games when he has the time.
They bore me silly.
I can't stand playing online games.

Immersive reality?
I don't know, probably depends on how real and if the world can be free totally free of what I consider evil and crappy people. Yes, sunshine and puppies, rag on me if you wish.

But even that would get boring
and I certainly don't want to be chased or have to fight
or have a fake lover (yuck, just masturbation on a grander scale).

I've felt that way all my life,
can't even watch TV for too long by itself.
I have to be doing something else with my mind and glance at TV when my hubby does his marathon watching.
Especially the droning endless and repetitive cop/detective/crime shows.
Love the comedy's, but only when they stay away from politics and politically correct indoctrination, and endless bed hopping.

(Do love BBT, ModFam, Middle,Last Man, Christela is new and great - also Once Upon - Extant -Survivor - and of course the elderly favorite Dancing WTS)

But I could not watch more than one episode at a time (except for Extant, wow that was fantastic).
If forced to watch more than one in an evening,
I have to have something else to stimulate my mind and just glance at it.

That's why I love ATS, I can mind hop (oops is that a form of VR? hmmmm)

a reply to: tranquilone666

A better way to illustrate your point is through this video:



The guy is creating a very detailed environment of Deckard's apartment which you can use through the Oculus Rift. Now imagine in ten years, where do you think we'll be? Perhaps even sooner, we'll be in games indistinguishable from reality.

This is something that has both fascinated me, and scared the living lights out of me.

the problem that could come from vr games is some one blurring the line between the game and reality. after playing 30 hours of gta 5 over a weekend when the game first came out, i had to remind myself i wasn't playing the game when i went out in public.

a reply to: tranquilone666


In a few years, people will be able to live in the virtual world of their choosing, to in effect become a "god" in their own virtual universe. I have always suspected that when humans are given a virtual palette with no limits, no laws and no morality imposed on them, that the potential exists for the darkest inner natures that are repressed in some people, might just start to come out in that world. One could murder, rape, kill, lie, do almost anything one wanted in this virtual world if you had total command over it and it was your private reality. We already see it in violent video games, how many murders occur daily in that virtual world now? And the end result of this IS nothing less than terrifying. If those very same people begin to lose the distinction between reality and virtual reality because the distinction could become almost non existent. We already have augmented reality in our everyday lives in the form of countless smartphone apps that give people a virtual sixth sense. You instantly know directions to any location, where a good pizza restaurant is, the answer to almost any question you might ask via google. Eventually aspects of the virtual worlds we create might be incorporated into the real world through a similar augmented reality. A virtual companion might sit in your car with you, or other characters you create in the virtual world. And the results have the potential to be disastrous. A good analogy is the 1950s film, forbidden planet, which is the story of a race of beings who build a machine that can give them literally unlimited power (like our future internet based virtual worlds?)




And if there is any doubt that we are aproaching photo realism....

a reply to: nukedog

Star for you in bringing Tad Williams' books up! Longest dang series, but awesome.

I'm months away from turning the Big 50, and my hubby and I have played online RPG's off and on for years. We started off with EverQuest, and recently quit World of Warcraft. I am utterly amazed after each upgrade how realistic the graphics keep getting. They are unbelievably addicting, and I can totally see the appeal of leaving the real world behind. Those "worlds" could be beautiful! And hard to come out of. I could log off and do other things, but my husband could spend every free moment online. He didn't get the whole "moderation is key" bit. For him it was quit cold turkey.

I do have to say this, though - my dad died of end-stage Parkinson's. If I were to have it as well, I'd want to be immersed in a computer-generated world where I could run, jump, do cool karate moves, and be ...well, a Princess Warrior". I think my family would understand. Just stick an IV and a catheter in, and let Grandma go play for a while.

Photo-Realistic CGI

This is footage from a video game being developed. The up-coming graphical productions are for sure nothing short of mind-blowing.

a reply to: tranquilone666
Who needs virtual reality when reality is just as horrifying. Do we need more...

originally posted by: tranquilone666


One day in the not so distant future someone somewhere will develop a functional brain-computer interface. We will become plugged in to the matrix so to speak.


Brings up a point about the change in social dynamics that are occuring due to current technology, I wonder what the future holds for a society that will very soon have access to technology that will change a persons "reality" to a point that they dont want to come back.

:

Sounds great. Sign me up to plug in. I don't even need my body. Just upload my consciousness into something digital and throw this meat away.

And lol. I've been playing games all my life and I haven't wanted to come back from what we already have. I spent 18 hours straight on a game yesterday and nearly as much today.

Give me the games.

Reality is for the Wealthy and the Good Looking.

How the crap would you be able to murder and rape in essentially a very realistic video game? The thing is the makers of the game, the infrastructure, whatever, have control. As a player/participator, you have control. What point would there really be in having physical pain in a, lets just call it, video game?

Whats the difference if someone gets back home and does whatever activity vs. doing what's being discussed? X amount of hours either way.