Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
People tend to think of technology's biggest benefit being the exponential increase of convenience in our daily lives. However, technology has allowed for the creation of virtual worlds where humans can go through experiences that they haven't done in real life or don't want to experience in real life. Virtual reality or virtual worlds have already been used in the gaming industry and military training. Diane Mehta's article in Forbes "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" mentions, "But Minecraft is a virtual world. It’s digital LEGOs if you will, but it’s a space for kids to exercise their imagination and to connect with others to also want to build and create things. And it’s the biggest phenomenon today." This technology has also been used to test self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles.
However, the biggest problem with the virtual world is that it is expensive, challenging and time consuming to create. Also, it is important to note that however complex a virtual world is, it can not exactly match the intricacies present in the real world.
Because actions in the virtual world don't lead to consequences in an individual's real life, people experiment as much as possible and aren't fearful of shying away from the norm. The attractiveness of virtual worlds can be seen in the following quote in Dave Itzkoff's article in the New York Times: "Despite knowing that its real-life inspiration exists right outside my door, I have spent the last few months making such visits to the Virtual Lower East Side (vles.com), a three-dimensional, Internet-based social network fastidiously modeled on a small but influential swath of Manhattan real estate."
As with other technological innovations, the true potential of virtual worlds is tough to estimate, but I can see the technology being used to replicate real-life situations much more in the near future. For example, a VR headset might allow a shy person to approach members of the other sex in a virtual world and practice their communication skills. VR headsets might be used in educational institutions to replicate a classroom environment even though the students and professors might be at their personal residences.
However, the biggest problem with the virtual world is that it is expensive, challenging and time consuming to create. Also, it is important to note that however complex a virtual world is, it can not exactly match the intricacies present in the real world.
Because actions in the virtual world don't lead to consequences in an individual's real life, people experiment as much as possible and aren't fearful of shying away from the norm. The attractiveness of virtual worlds can be seen in the following quote in Dave Itzkoff's article in the New York Times: "Despite knowing that its real-life inspiration exists right outside my door, I have spent the last few months making such visits to the Virtual Lower East Side (vles.com), a three-dimensional, Internet-based social network fastidiously modeled on a small but influential swath of Manhattan real estate."
As with other technological innovations, the true potential of virtual worlds is tough to estimate, but I can see the technology being used to replicate real-life situations much more in the near future. For example, a VR headset might allow a shy person to approach members of the other sex in a virtual world and practice their communication skills. VR headsets might be used in educational institutions to replicate a classroom environment even though the students and professors might be at their personal residences.
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