Virtual reality is on the event horizon of a whole new way of attending, participating, performing and experiencing that will change the way we consume entertainment, education and interaction. Most people think of VR as a gaming 'thing' but it can be so much more. The question is will it?
Let's look at some of the ways in which VR (virtual reality) is already being used and where it might go.
Health Care
The medical industry has been using VR since the 1990s but with today's technology it's much quicker, more detailed and so, more useful. A particularly complicated procedure like separating conjoined twins is difficult and involves a massive amount of detailed planning. On Feb 17th 2017 at the Masonic Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, newly born conjoined twins were separated in an operation where surgeons were able to 'walk through' the procedure first.
What makes this so amazing is that the procedure was planned while the twins were still in the womb, they were born on Feb 10th 2017 and the operation was carried out a week later. The simulation enabled surgeons to work out exactly what they needed to do and how they could do it.
Health care providers are finding other uses too, from helping patients with PTSD. Others are helping rehabilitate stroke patients. It seems the limits of VR in medicine are constrained only by the imaginations of the people using it.
Education
Schools and colleges are already using VR to allow students to experience places they're never likely to see in real life. Swimming underwater, visiting the top of Mount Everest. Experiences that are immersive yet safe, like swimming with sharks. They can experience many things, visit many places and because the experience is totally immersive with no tiring travel involved, it seems to spark interest and enjoyment. When learning becomes fun it ceases to be something we 'must' do and becomes something we 'want' to do.
One of the other benefits of this type of education is in re-training. We are constantly bombarded with doomsayers telling us that all jobs will go to automation and A.I. Or that mid-level white collar and all blue collar jobs will go, even if some others remain. It can be depressing to be told that a job you've done all your life, which has given you a good standard of living is about to be abolished by a robot or A.I.
Re-training is the answer, but who wants to go back to school and learn new technologies, and often, new vocabularies. People need to be more flexible but going out of your comfort zone can be, well, uncomfortable. VR could enable people to try things without committing to them. Re-training only when they've found something that appeals to them. This saves time, effort, resources and in many cases, money.
Entertainment
The music industry is, as I write, being disrupted and in many ways, re-invented by VR companies like Ceek VR who already show concerts from mega stars like Elton John, Lady Gaga and U2. That's not what's disruptive though, it's the fact that they're moving to a blockchain based entity from a standard database entity. Why is this disruptive? Along with live streaming of events (something that is already happening) meaning that unlimited numbers of 'virtual' tickets can be sold and, they can all be 'the best seats in the house'.
Artists can interact with fans, asking them to vote on the songs to be played, new songs can be voted for to see which make the cut to the new album. All in real time. That's not all, how about an original, signed, digital album cover, of which, there will only ever be ten? By recording it on the blockchain, you have not only proof of ownership, you also have provenance which enhances the value and, if anyone copies the album and displays it or tries to sell it. The record in the blockchain is your proof of ownership, no fakes can pretend to be real now.
Because you have an incontrovertible proof of ownership and provenance, along with video of the signing, you now have something of value. You can sell it, display it, keep it hidden and even leave it to your heirs.
Crime and Punishment
Is there a place for VR 'jails'? Given a haptic feedback suit, motion capture and the fact that scientists can changes feeling and memories (in mice anyway) wouldn't we be able to craft a more fitting punishment? How do you think people would feel if they had to undergo whatever their victims did?
A person who incites racial crimes can now be forced to experience the everyday lives of the people they target. Experiencing for the first time perhaps, what it's like to be persecuted because of an accident of birth. Because that's what it's all about, no one actually chooses to be white, black, brown, yellow or red. They don't choose the womb and sperm from which they're created.
Same with religion, a child is born into a religion, although some choose a different or no religion as adults, as children they have no choice. Yet they suffer for it regardless.
VR is not and never will be the panacea for all ills, but it's potential is amazing. Will you be part of the future?