An Alternate Virtual Reality

Gosh, I feel so old now. I still remember the time I when the top-notch computer game of the day was something along the lines of maybe the original Rollar Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, The Sims, or perhaps Sim City 3000. I remember entertaining myself for hours just to, say, trap those pixilated guests in the middle of a virtual zoo, where loose lions were ramped. I also remember the time, maybe five years ago from the date of writing, when I played the later “hot” computer games that were considered top-notch at that time as, predominately The Sims 2. They were often heralded as being many times more advanced than their predecessors, like the original Sims game. I remember the “much better” graphics and such at that time. But a bit on the ironic side with the marketing of those semi-old games, I find it a bit funny how the newest games are now bashing on the graphics capabilities of the ones newly-proclaimed as predecessors. It’s almost as if there’s always a later game that supersedes others in advancement that were made not long before. But it’s not really just overly-ambitious programmers that are causing this chaotic acceleration in the advancement of computer-generated worlds.

Rather, the relatively recent trend has come predominately from the continuous exponential boosts in computing power for the past few decades. Think about it. When’s the last time you heard about a laptop having a gigabyte of RAM in, say, the early 2000’s? Or how about some of the more recent things? Even just four years ago, I remember when it was insanely expensive to get even one terabyte of memory. Now you can buy storage for multiple terabytes of information – at a lesser cost! From this, it can be deduced that computing power will become many times more powerful in the future. One can only imagine what sort of new applications these future performance scales might bring. I can think of one right off the bat that would be quite applicable in the seeable future. And with the newest breakthroughs in other areas of technology, I can fathom it as a feasible development.

The future establishment that I am most eloquently putting forth is virtual reality – and not the type that is confined to, say, the reins of an IMAX theatre and 3D glasses. No. I am talking about the kind that could interface directly with your mind, so you could literally live in some sort of alternate computer universe for the rest of your life. I know it sounds like a bit of an overly-ambitious project, but let me back up the concept with reasonable support.

For those of you, who do not believe in what I’m saying, let me give you just a few examples of recent technological advancements that potentially have a profound, positive impact on the development of “nearly true” virtual worlds. Let’s start out with the possibility of being able to see a virtual world from outside the mind first. Scientists have already developed “televisions” that can shoot true holographic images without the aid of clunky 3D glasses - believe me, I’ve seen videos of it on YouTube, and I know that they’re not fake. Though they are currently crude in development, it is predicted that that sort of technology will improve vastly. The hologram technology will also improve vastly due to the coordination with the likewise ever-improving graphics capabilities of computers. It is possible that sometime in the near future computer-generated graphics may be so detailed, and hologram projection so perfected, that a virtual object may be unable to be discerned from its real-world equivalent by sight alone. But a bit on the funny side, a different form of virtual worlds that is also emerging from technological and scientific breakthroughs may not reside in the outside world at all. It may, in fact, reside predominately inside your head, more or less.

Although it may sound a bit crazy by current standards, it really isn’t that far down the line. You see, scientist and engineers have recently collaborated to design machines that literally perform tasks by just the power of the user’s thought alone. And I’m not just talking about telling the mouse curser to move by sheer thought alone. I am talking about more general thought process interpretations, like what you think when you want to search for something on the web. They have even managed to show images onscreen that are stored in the brain itself! It’s so mind-blowing, in my opinion. Anyways, who’s to say that this technology cannot be reversed, with a computer uploading information to, rather than downloading information from, certain portions of the brain, so that a computer-generated world could be perceived as a dream or even “real” life? Who’s to say we can’t do this? Well, there are a few concerns in this matter.

There is a whole range of things that arises from development of an ultra-realistic virtual world, particularly ones that may exist predominantly in the mind. Cities, counties, and even whole “countries” could be developed there. Who’s to say that they shouldn’t be considered as whole new sets of civilizations? There’s also the problem of potential addiction that should be considered. You see, we already know that some people, even today, get addicted to video games. Who’s to say that they wouldn’t get practically “lost” in this virtual universe by a similar addiction? That too brings up yet another point: fitness. We already know that, even today, people are becoming less fit due to the availability of videogames. Many find it all too enjoyable to sit in a dark room watching a television set rather than spend even half the time outdoors, say, playing tag. Do we really want to become practically sleeping amoebas with the introduction of mind-based virtual reality? How about regulating some exercise practices and healthy eating practices as well?