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Wide Range of Opinions on Living in VR
Posted: Aug 11, 2010
The attitudes of IEET readers toward spending time in a future idealized version of virtual reality cover a broad spectrum, from very little interest to a readiness for 100% immersion.
Although the largest percentage of respondents to our recently concluded poll picked a moderate answer “” “I think I’d split my time inside and outside about evenly” “” that was the choice of less than 28%. Almost 21% said they’d be inside their personal virtual world “most of the time,” and another 14% said “ALL the time.”
On the other hand, nearly 20% said they’d only spend “a little time” inside their VR, while almost 9% said “no time at all.”
It’s unusual when we do a poll to have such a wide range of answers. If and when this kind of virtual reality arrives, it will be interesting to see how many people decide to change their minds!
If it was near-ideal, how much time would you spend inside virtual reality?
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COMMENTS
Interesting idd! I wonder how the general public would vote. I think most would vote against. First because most will probably think of videogames and thus see this virtual world as an imperfect representation of reality. Many will not believe that a virtual world can be just as real as the real world and second, I am guessing the matrix will influence people into voting against.
I know that the message of the movie is that this virtual world can be as real as the real world. Morpheus his famous speech contains a line that really sticks, “If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” So one would think this would actually encourage people to think about this virtual world in a positive sense. However in the case of the matrix I can’t help to shake the feeling that in the end they want to make you feel that the matrix isn’t as good as the real world. Throughout the movie it is implied that you have to take the red pill. The only guy in the movie that likes the matrix more than the real world is the bad guy, cyrus (“why oh why didn’t i take the blue pill?” he wonders). You have to remember that in the matrix, the real world is a friggin desert without any sunlight ruled by robots that want to kill you! Makes you wonder how all those people come to the conclusion that the real world is better :p
Might sound weird dragging the matrix into this but it’s probably the closest connection people have to the concept of a virtual world and the influence of popular movies on our culture should not be underestimated. I would love to see a website like msn or yahoo run this poll but I am afraid the outcome will be the exact opposite of this poll and that the general view of a virtual world will be negative.
I may be more paranoid than most, but I think I would be afraid to be continually immersed in VR because my life in both VR and the real real might be forfeit if something bad happened to my real body or brain, while if something bad happened to my VR self, I could retreat to the real reality and re-enter VR when it was safe to do so. If I could somehow transfer my self into VR so that I became independent of my real-world body or brain, then I would be much more interested in staying in VR. However, I doubt this would be possible in the foreseeable future.
I totally agree with Herbert Gerjuoy. It’s very similar to what I wrote in my comment on the IEET’s Facebook page, but no one seemed to take notice.
jim • davis, ca • Aug 22, 2010
You forget about augmented reality which is a combination of sensory reality and virtual reality. AR is not a part of the choice in the poll.
It is much more likely that when human brains are cyberized, augmented reality will be used to enhance richness of perception. And the cityscape itself might be engineered to accommodate a rich screenscape—where virtual reality is always on display, always ready to connect with the cyberneural ports—all at the same time, being grounded in a real, physical infrastructure.
Thank you, jim, for reminding me about augmented reality. Your comment and mine are compatible. When experiencing augmented reality we would still be dependent on the biological underpinnings of our experiences. However, your mention of augmented reality expands (I think, desirably) the subject under discussion. To take this expansion further, consider, for example, the research touched on by Richard A. Lovett & Mark Niemann-Ross in their science fact article, “Phantom Science,” in the November 2010 issue of “Analog Science Fiction and Fact.” The constraint I referred to in my earlier comment may be, conceivably, overcome by downloading the self into some other substrate, such as a computer. However, there is another, I think less obvious but more feasible alternative, and that would be to incorporate the individual human as a node in a larger network, such as the Internet. My poem, “Internet,” below addresses that possibility. Of course, the ultimate constraint is channel capacity. Our massively parallel brains process so much so rapidly that speech can express only a tiny fraction of what goes on inside our brains. If we try to describe our experiences in real time, we immediately realize that we can’t keep up. Moreover, the part of us that processes using words (the verbal ego) is itself only a small fraction of who we are. I assert the following inequalities: self >> verbal ego >> what we can speak in real time >> what we can transmit by today’s digital electronics from brain to brain. However, I am aware of Moore’s Law, which, combined with the lily-pad principle (If lily-pad coverage of the lake doubles daily, then, the day before the lake is completely covered, it is only half covered) suggests that my “ultimate constraint” has less shelf-life than one might think.
Internet
Not one of our brain cells knows what we will do next, or why.
Our brain cells are knots in a great
Knitted, tangled skein –
Self’s shimmering tapestry.
We, not our cells,
Create our tapestries’ designs.
Every day, thousands of our brain cells die.
We do not even notice.
To save the overall design,
Would you not rip out a knot in your tapestry?
Not one of us knows what we collectively –
Nation, culture. species –
Will do next, or why.
We are knots in a great
Knitted, tangled skein. . . .
How can we call this world real and the other virtual?
If you ask to someone that live all their live in a VR, if they want to live in a real world (in this case the new approach or reality), they probably said “not thanks”.
This kind of answer (of this poll), is based in not reflexive thinking about what we are and how we must live our lives.
I am really worried about people are so confusing to understand where they want to live and how.
Finally the person isn’t not different to a computer program.
Bye
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