Talk:Virtual Reality

Shouldn't there be some text about the possible juridical implications of this? After all, since Virtual Reality is so fascinating and wonderful, some nations could start limitating it, assuming it could case 'mental addiction'. People could spend all their time in virtual reality and never do anything in the 'real world'...I think this is a tought that we should develop.


 * Depends on the nation and it's economy. If it's labor intensive it might be a problem. If it's gearing towards service and media (like the US is moving towards) and giving up it's manufacturing jobs then VR would be allowed and even encouraged. My job is entirley service related and I hardly leave a computer except for breaks. Even though I enjoy being able to leave the office and going outside, I could still theoretically do my job if I never left a VR system. Also, I suspect high gas prices and Peak Oil will actually encourage telecommuniting and entertainment that doesn't invlove you traveling in a car or buying exspensive plane tickets. --James --208.253.80.123 00:11, 12 Aug 2005 (UTC)


 * I would further argue that the great majority of people will realize (slowly, unconsciously) that the material world has illusory value. People have been living in virtual worlds for ages, people will realize. My 4-year old daughter plays in augmented reality every day, with play wings, play wands, and play farm animals that she creates. People are more interested in ideas than in things; When people show interest in things, it's really the idea in the thing that they are interested in. I think, slowly, everyone will come to realize. People will realize that "the world" went into the computers. It's not that computers themselves are addicting; It's that the world is addicting, and it just so happens that the world went into the computers. As computer displays get larger, and as the old world of physical interfaces to ideas drops away piece by piece, it will be obvious. LionKimbro


 * As a quick aside: Are telephone calls not "real," just because they take place in a virtual reality? No, of course not; Nobody thinks that way. LionKimbro


 * It's very likely that there will be jurisdiction over virtual reality. It'll just happen to be the case that the jurisdiction will be over theft of in-game items, and such. It's entirely plausible that the proprieters of integrated frameworks will be the gods of their universes, and the people charged with maintaining it. Only once there's a large public network between standard virtual reality environments can there be laws imposed on the network as a whole. LionKimbro


 * We should write about the psychological transition path, I think. LionKimbro

Technology Path?
It's a great article.

I have some questions for public research:


 * what specific electronic-brain technologies do we need for the different stages of Virtual Reality?
 * what technologies do those technologies depend on? when do we estimate they will be completed, and why?
 * what kind of computing power is required, and when will it appear?
 * what number of pixels need to be simulated, and in what shape? for each technology

Jaron Lanier has written a lot about the sorts of technologies we need; If I recall right, he's particularly concerned about the frame rate.

When do we detach the brain?
The timeline is missing a likely step: Brain detachment and storage (Brain in a jar). After we can study the brain in isolation, then I think it's realistic that we would gain enough knowledge to safely siliconize it.

So, if we accept this, we have to work it into our technology timelines for Virtual Reality, Brain-Computer Interface, and Bio-cybernetics.

We might already be able to synthesize & send blood and oxygen. Can we do it safely for years on end, though? I don't know. We might be able to perform a brain swap. I believe I have read of a successful brain transplant in monkeys. Were the monkeys damaged? I don't know.

See also: |A Visual Prosthesis Based on Electrical Stimulation of the Optic Nerve.

LionKimbro

On the Subjest of VR's Use in the Medical Field
What about Virtual Reality's use in medicine? A person with a physical disability such as cerebral palsy could use VR as an escape from his or her daily monotony and pain. The article never mentions this, and I think it is an important aspect of VR's tremendous future - written by an anonymous person

More illustrations needed
I'd like to see more pictures here... Paranoid 10:58, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Model wiki-page but would it be worth discussing degrees of immersion? Shallow immersion all the way through to a  comprehensive replica of reality. The trek holodecks would be a classic example of this with energy and matter conversion. Virtual reality would also entail holographic artificial intelligence if the reality is to be complete. If such a world were to be created what would the ethical implications be? Would there be an upper limit on the level of self awareness allowed for virtual beings?