IDEAS

VIRTUAL REALITY IS NOT THE SCOURGE OF THE FUTURE

Virtual Reality will save us

By Triet Dang

Danger, Virtual Reality is here

Throughout our history, immersive experiences create the illusion that we are present somewhere we are not. People seek out fantasies as a way of satisfying unrealized desires. Many science fiction novels and movies take Virtual Reality as their main topic, what we might call in Hollywood, the hook to the story. However, VR is often depicted as terrifying and horrible, but in actual reality, the advantages of VR are almost always positive.

The invention of Virtual Reality took a long time. In 1929, Edward Link created the “Link trainer.” It was used to train and improve the skills of over 500,000 pilots during World War II. In 1960 Morton Heilig invented the Telesphere Mask, which was the first example of a head-mounted display (HMD). It was later redeveloped and improved by two Philcon Corporation engineers, Comeau and Bryan and was an advance on the HMD. What’s interesting is that these techniques were not actually developed for virtual reality application, but to use for immersive remote viewing of dangerous situations by the military. In fact, almost all early virtual reality advances were connected to the military.

Why has virtual reality become so scary? We should look at the history of popular science fiction for that. The Wachowski siblings’— formally brothers — 1998 hit, The Matrix is an obvious example. The British, anthology television series, The Black Mirror is second. And Stephen Spielberg’s 2018 mainstream opus, Ready Player One, is third. They all treat virtual reality as if it were a nightmare and the end of civilization.

Why is this image a nightmare?

These science fiction movies focus on the topic of how virtual reality is a kind of prison. In these films, virtual reality has become a tool that manipulates the human brain and supposedly makes people forgot about reality. At some point, these dystopian narratives need a hero who escapes and gets back to reality to save humankind. The problem with these naive stories is that they shape the way people think about an important and potentially life saving tool. Somehow they’ve managed to turn virtual reality into an all-purpose villain. Let’s take a look at the ways we conceive of VR and what we can actually do. We’ll find that virtual reality does what these filmmakers think, but in positive ways that they never have bothered to imagine.

Let’s take trauma. With the same idea of escaping reality, the medical field is starting to use VR as a way to diminish pain and heal. VR allows traumatized patients to explore digital worlds and immerse themselves in games without the fear of being hurt again. But it doesn’t stop there. In a medical environment, VR can actually diminish the need for pain medication, which I think is a good thing.

This is actually good for the mind and the body

For example, according to a study at Stanford University, “while a 9-year-old boy recovered last year from a go-karting accident, the bandages on his wounds needed changing multiple times a day. It was a painful, anxiety-inducing ritual — until the boy was handed a virtual reality headset. His mother remembers she ‘went from hearing pain-stricken screams to hearing ‘Wow, I’m under the sea looking at sea snakes! This is so cool, you have to see this!’” VR helps the boy trick his mind to temporarily forget about the pain by providing him with a set of more interesting experiences. Or would you rather just dope him up?

In The Matrix, Morpheus says: “What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” In this case, VR tricks the boy’s brain into temporarily thinking of something other than his pain.

However, different from The Matrix, VR isn’t controlling the boy so much as allowing him to cope with a difficult physical situation that he needs to overcome in order to heal.Many hospitals are starting to use this technique. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area uses VR technology to make everyday procedures more pleasant and less painful. So does the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and University of Michigan’s C.S Mott’s Children’s Hospital. At Stanford Medicine, they use VR therapy in every patient unit.

VR does blur the line between reality and the virtual world, but only as a means to not blurring or hurting the patient’s mind with mood altering drugs. In some ways, VR keeps patients closer to reality. Research at the University of Washington finds that burn victims feel 50% less pain when exploring virtual worlds. VR also has been used in relatively minor surgical procedures where patient remains awake during the operation. Again, the point is not to become a dupe of the government, but just to make it through a physically difficult experience and keep your mind and body safe from more sustained and dangerous drugs.

This should be an image of empathy

Besides being used in the medical field, psychologists have begun to experiment with VR. In another study at Stanford, researchers use virtual reality to help make people feel more empathetic and compassionate. This project is called “Becoming Homeless,” where users experience homelessness in immersive worlds. The purpose is to let people know what it feels like to lose their jobs and homes and by doing so feel greater compassion for the homeless.

According to Stanford News, “participants who underwent ‘Becoming Homeless’ were more likely to have enduring positive attitudes towards the homeless than people who did other tasks, such as reading a narrative or interacting with a two-dimensional version of scenario on a desktop computer. The same people were also more likely to sign a petition in support of affordable housing.” This project shows us the power of VR in bringing people together, instead of isolating them from the world, as The Matrix would have us believe.

VR has become popular and about 10 million headsets have been sold in the U.S. over the past few years. However, not many people know about how much VR can affect feelings and behavior. Hollywood is wrong. At the end of the day, VR is still a creation of a human being. We have full control of its use and you can see how it’s being used for good and not ill. Forget about The Matrix, Black Mirror, and Ready Player One, we all need to immerse ourselves in VR before we destroy the actual world around us.

©Triet Dang and the CCA Arts Review