This perspective is obvious, but I think it’s almost exactly wrong.While VR does isolate you from people who are physically near you, it opens the possibility of being deeply social with anyone, anywhere on the planet.Current VR, focused on sight, sound, and motion wouldn’t be enough.Relationships depend on touch — not just sex, but also casual touch (a kiss, a hug, a held hand).There’s a very early prototype of a device that can transmit a kiss over the Internet.There are terrifying armatures that can provide full force feedback to your hands (and, yes, they can simulate boobs).This is a pretty big deal already, but let’s take it a step farther.
The image of someone sealed off in their own fantasy world behind opaque goggles hits some scary psychological buttons. It’s just tech.” This seems to be the consensus in many parts of the gaming industry, with the CEO of Take-Two Interactive expressing a similar point of view.Soon, our kids are going to have access to machines that can completely and convincingly take over all their perceptions, providing experiences that we can’t even imagine.Suffice to say, the generation gap is going to be enormous. He’s talking about the philosophical implications of VR — but the sentiment is much more broadly true than that.If there were a theme song for VR, that would be the chorus.