The Dark Sides of VR
date
Apr 6, 2016
type
Post
year
slug
dark-sides-of-vr
status
Published
tags
Virtual Reality
summary
Virtual Reality is the future, let’s look at the dark sides that will come with it…
Virtual Reality is the future — I am convinced of that. Books, movies, games — they can all give you a look into a different world, but it’s never you in there. It’s always someone else’s story and you’re just looking in from the outside. But in VR it is you in there. And that makes all the difference.
VR will allow all of us to experience things that previously only a select few could. We’ll stand on a stage and be cheered at by 10.000 people, we’ll be there to see how Caesar gets stabbed and we’ll finally be able to experience what it’s like to be a pet. Okay, it’s still different from reality, but it’s a big step closer than anything you’ve ever seen on a screen or imagined in your head.
In the not so distant future we’ll spend our evenings experiencing the architectural wonders of the world, studying the intricacies of our galaxy or playing the lead role in the newest hit movie.
But you know — this is an idealistic view of what’s to come. There will be a dark side too. Be prepared.
Violence
I was never too worried about people playing violent video-games on a screen. If you play GTA, you shoot a lot of people with all sorts of guns, steal cars and use those cars to run over random people. It might soften you up to violence and bad behavior, but if you don’t do this all day, every day — then I’m not worried about you. Shooting someone on the screen using a controller is not the same experience as actually shooting someone. When you’re done with GTA, you might be able to name a whole bunch of guns and you might have gotten really good at aiming with a controller, but you still wouldn’t know how to fire a real gun.
In VR it’s different. With the Vive it’s different. You still hold a controller, but what you see is a gun right there in your hand. The controller’s trigger is right where the gun’s trigger would be. To hit your target you have to aim just like you would aim with a real gun. You stretch out your arm, line up your sights and when you shoot someone in the face, they are your size and they are right there. They’re still not real and you might be well aware of that fact, but the entire experience is now closer to actually shooting someone in the face than it’s ever been. And once you’ve done this a hundred times, a thousand times, you’ve not only trained a skill that you could apply in the real world with a real gun, you’ve lowered a barrier, you’ve reduced your natural resistance against shooting someone in the face.
Are we approaching a point where video game violence is suddenly no longer that much different from real violence? When do we cross the line from playing tag to training killers?
Sexuality
When I was 10 and started to wonder about girls, the craziest thing I could come up with was to browse the girl’s underwear section in mail order catalogs. Today 1/3 of 10 year olds have watched porn online, and by age 14 about 80% of boys say they regularly watch online porn. At that point they have learnt more about fetishes as well as abusive and subjecting practices than I ever want to know. This is definitely not a good thing, but if VR porn catches on — and it will — then they won’t just be watching these things on a screen, they’ll be experiencing them first-hand in full-scale high- quality VR.
I’m sure it won’t be all ugly and weird stuff and maybe it’s even a good thing that people who haven’t found their soulmate will be able to experience semi-realistic intimacy in VR. But at the same time there is a risk that VR porn will keep generations of young men from leading normal relationships because they’ve all gotten used to doing weird shit with virtual porn queens before they were even old enough to work up the courage to talk to a real girl.
Is it a good thing that the poor and unfortunate will be able to live out their hopes and dreams in virtual worlds? Or will they become so disconnected from real life that they won’t even care about the repercussions of anything they do in the real world anymore? If life sucks, will you try and make it through your work-hours as fast as possible just so you can flee back into your virtual happy lie? I’m sure there will be more than enough people lining up to take your money in exchange for a few hours of virtual entertainment. Ever wanted to be a famous rock-star, play a big show and take some groupies backstage afterwards? Here, let me take those $60 of yours. Enjoy the ride…
This was originally posted on my old blog, then moved to medium and now I moved it here and back-dated it to the original date.