Has it ever crossed your mind that the way we’re doing things in this world may not be the most optimal?
What if we had another world? A world where people owned property, went to school, and contributed to that world’s economy by buying and selling goods within it; a world where we could test things before deploying them in reality (or binning them entirely depending on the result).
I’m not talking about colonising Mars, I’m talking about a new world on the brink of existence; one that has not yet fully formed but which we are already starting to inhabit – the virtual world.
The virtual world
In its current infant state, virtual reality is a playground for the pioneers of a new age of human interaction. In VR, it is possible to look around, walk in, and interact with these new worlds. The user experience has yet to be optimised – high end gear results in cables strewn everywhere and bits of apparatus that need to be set up if you want to walk and interact – but this is only the beginning of the journey.
Companies like Ford are already using VR to showcase car prototypes to large groups, saving millions through reduced travel time, reduced venue costs, and reduced wastage from the production of physical prototypes that would never make it to the showroom.
The idea is simple: We test something in the virtual world and then, if successful, implement it in the real one. But is manufacturing the only area we could apply this concept to?
Government and economic policies
With a large enough population invested in their existence in the virtual world, the potential to test new forms of government and economic policies arise. Could we explore a system of rule where every citizen can directly vote on any matter relevant to them? Suddenly, issues relating to public transportation strikes, doctors’ pay, and MP expenses are placed directly in the hands of the people. This could well be disastrous, but it would be confined to the safe environment of the virtual world, and would enhance our knowledge for the future.
Commercial VR
On the commercial side, retail store layouts could be tested before being modified; residential buildings could be explored and issues identified before committing to the vast expense; and smartphone manufacturers could more easily and accurately assess user preferences for upcoming phones.
In the world of academia, with instant access to vast populations of volunteers, research into fields such as psychology, economics, and ethnography could be enhanced.
Avatars
On a personal level, presentations could be practiced and honed in front of a ‘real’ audience of hundreds of people represented by virtual, human-like avatars.
We can’t easily test things out in the real world because reality is a simultaneously fragile and arduous thing: We are either too embedded in current systems and cannot risk a sweeping change, restricted by the limitations of the physical world, or have various levels of discomfort in dealing with people in real-life – 1s and 0s are far easier to manipulate and any discomfort can be cured by taking off your headset.
The fate of VR
Virtual reality’s fate lies in the hands of the current and coming generations. They will make the decision on whether it lives or dies. For now, the statistics favour its existence: 80% of the youth of today are “very excited” about the things they might be able to do with VR. Interestingly, the most popular game genre these kids want to play in VR is not a first person shooter, fighting, sports or action game – it’s a life simulation one1.
Whether virtual reality succeeds as a platform for real-life experimentation will depend on how closely it matches reality.
The three key issues here are:
Physiology: How closely will VR mimic human functions? The ability to look around (without feeling sick), make eye contact with other people, feel blades of grass on your fingertips, and walk, run and jump through cities will matter.
Psychology: How invested will we be in the virtual world? How much would we care if we lost our virtual house, if our possessions were stolen, if our neighbourhood was vandalised?
Popularity: We will need to have a critical mass of people large enough and diverse enough to represent real life populations
VR may never emulate reality exactly, but as long as it continues to edge closer and closer, we will find value in running experiments in the virtual world to influence what we know and do in the real one.
References
- Touchstone Research. 2015. The New Reality of Virtual Reality and the Potential with Youth. URL: http://touchstoneresearch.com/infographic-the-new-reality-of-virtual-reality-and-the-potential-with-youth/. Accessed in March 2016.