It seems that in our lifetimes, we will see the emergence of applied
"Virtual Reality".  What applications do you forsee for this budding
technology?  Video games are pretty obvious, as are space probes, body
probes, and construction equipment.  But there are other uses for virtual
reality that are not so obvious.  What are these obscure uses, and will
they be implemented?  I haven't seen Lawnmower man, but I'm sure that
Stephen King has a whopper of a fantasy there.  I'd like to be introduced
to a "virtual" ATE device that could "take me inside" my broken circuit
boards for a closer look at the problem.  Or a "virtual" musical instrument
would be nice - somethig that would float freely in space all around me
and accept commands from my every move.

76 responses total.

I think a lot of things that the Holodeck is used for in "Star Trek - The
Next Generation" will apply to VR - doctors can practice new surgical
techniques on virtual patients, people can sightsee anywhere that has
an image stored on the computer, they can play team sports (with people
from other sites, if they want, or against the computer), meet
historical figures, indulge in their most perverse sexual fantasies...
Anything they can imagine.

(As long as someone gets the software written.  >8)

here's a question...what makes virtual reality preferable to, say,
movement-sensitive controls applied to normal reality? in other words,
suppose i'm operating a crane on a construction site...why do i need
the "virtual" if i can have the same remarkable set of controls and 
interface them directly with reality?

Virtual reality would make a hell of a GUI.

I've been using the term "virtual reality" loosely to include that
sort of intimate interfacing with "real" machines.  
What about a video game that required progressively higher levels
of physical exertion to succeed - fewer chubby children?
You could take your rowing machine down any exotic (or otherwise)
river or around any lake in the world (or otherworlds).

Re: #3 - Yes, that was one of my first thoughts.  The Macintsoh
desktop?  No, you could have a virtual desktop, which would (literally)
contain folder and files and accessories and so on.  You could even
customize, so instead of throwing files into the trash can, you could
shred them or burn them or make them into paper airplanes and throw
them out the window.

sounds like a lot of work.

Lawnmower man was a worthwhile flick - and SO IS the triple-axis
machine that is now at a lot of carny events, and the Disney
complex. I was told that there are a couplee floating around
Michigan somewhere. It's usually $5 for 2 minutes - but oh are
those two minutes *FUN*! I think I'd prefer that overgrown
gyroscope to a stationary bike in a really big way. No, I *know*
I'd prefer it to any other excercise equpt. 

re #5:
I don't think that a virtual office should be constrained to conventional
media and media supporting devices such as paper, folders, binders, staplers,
transparencies, etc.  These are so old fashoned!   Three dimentional media
of the future is the stuff virtual offices are made of.

   I expect that medicine will be a large application of
'virtual reality': remote-controlled operation of surgical
equipment to reach places that fingers will not go easily.

that _would_ be useful.

At any rate...i believe that once virtual reality is perfected, computer
tech. will skyrocket and turn those millions of computer illiterates into
frequent and fluent users.  Let's face it, it will be much easier to 
act inside a computer than on a computer.  That is it would be much easier
to erase a file by simply snatching it up and tossing it in a can rather 
than having to learn the commands of an operating system first.

Someone's gonna don VR garb to manipulate some files?
I don't believe it.

How long do you spend looking amid the thousands of files on a VR system 
before you find the one to delete?  Or do you use find / -name ... -mtime ...
-print before you grab?

Well, if you know where the file is, you just have to climb the
tree to get to it.  ;-)

     No No.  That's what the daemons and emacs are for.
People interested in this should read Rick Cook's trilogy
about a Silicon Valley programmer who gets yanked in
to a fantasy world where he discovers that "magic" can
be accessed like a computer.  So he writes a magical
operating system.  His "system routines" are 
objectified, he has little guys to edit his
files, or find things etc.  In a way
it's a virtual reality that he creates.
     As for the question about why virtual reality would
be superior to standard reality with the same control
mechanisms, for one thing, VR would allow
you to change your viewpoint more easily.  For example,
if you were lifting a beam to join it to a structure, you
could zoom in on the potential join from any angle, rather
than being restricted to the viewpoint of the control cab.

An out-of-body/cab experience, said without sarcasm...

but, if there was virtual reality, then why give it the limitations of reality.
?  
Also, wouldn't it be neat to have a vr grex?  instead of fingering someone, ju
just come face to face with them to see what they're like!  talk face to face,
not via !talk or !party.  How about a real bulletin board for the bbs'.
Note to grex programmers--this is a fantasy, not a suggestion.  don't get too
scared.

vr grex: it's called REAL LIFE. Get one. :)

Good point.

 
        I'm still a bit touchy about VR, once it becomes a practical system
instead of the expensive exercise it is now.  I've often found my own
dreams and "it-could-be-better"-isms to be shortsighted and not really what
I would've wanted, in hindsight.  But they can be very tempting distractions.
VR offers to give those distractions and involutions a new and more realistic
face, and I find that troubling.

re#2--Pick up a copy of Cybergeneration by R. Talsorian.  Its just a game but
they present the idea of "virtuality", its much like what you describe.

I have some general concerns over VR.  If it is limitless, then all of our
desires could be achieved, even hot passionate Grex.  If this were to happen,
what would we dream about?  How could we have any real goals to achieve?
You want a family and 2.3 kids, *poof* its there???

(what makes virtual reality any different from reality? is it only because
it's not what YOU think it's supposed to be? does that really [couldn't
resist!] make it less real than anything else?)

no, it's less real because we create it.  actively.  conciously.

(so it would be more real if we created it subconsciously?)

(besides that, by using a phrase like "more real", you're suggesting that
reality is quantifiable. I wonder if you really believe this.)

not really.  :)

Something can be less real (ignoring the inaccuracy of those words) simply
because we create it?  If I create a book, is it any less real because I
created it and it wasn't there before?

(I don't think so. I don't think reality is quantifiable. we often use
words that make it seem as such, but those are the pitfalls of human
speech and language.)

i agree

 right... it depends on the definition of "real", anyhow. In all practical
respects, it doesn't matter if you  created the book or not, since the book
will always be of the same "reality" as everything else around you. But for
someone brought up with the unreasonable expectation that there should be 
a reality which is unaffected by your perception of it, then the book which
you have now discovered you created is upsettingly unreal.

I agree with what I think you are saying in that no reality could be 
*completely* unaffected by your perception of it.  Otherwise, you really
wouldn't exist.  But I think it is not unreasonable to expect (or at least
hope) that there are some things out there which just are, whether or not
we agree with it or not.

(I ask again: what makes "virtual reality" different from "reality"? Is
reality not [gasp!] virtuous or something?)

virtuous?  what does virtuious have to do with virtual?
My dictionary defines virtual as: 1.  being such practically or in effct,
although not in actal fact or name.  I talke this to mean that it is pretty
close to real, but *not* actually real.

(how does one approach reality, then?)

that's up to the one in question.  since you won't take my version, you'll
have to come up with one of you're own.

#33 rephrased: (how does one come close to reality?)

Well, you introduce yourself, maybe buy reality a drink, and if you're
nice and polite, maybe, a bit later on...

(knowing the sort of people participating in the conference, that 
doesn't sound far-fetched at all.)

<rotfl>

in continuance with the actual questionof #33, (to be boring), the whole
question is how do we know there's a "real" reality, and how would we be able
to determine it? (How come it seems all the newresponse items I've gone through
by now all seem to be on this subject...? ;>)

(I don't think anyone knows how to approach it, which shouldn't
be such a big deal. It's not as if anyone is being asked what
reality is, at least in this item.)

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss