Tuesday, April 7, 2020

VR and QS

As much as I think VR is cool, I think the Ted Talk just exaggerates the awesome power of it. The truth is that as it might be cool to put yourself into someone else's shoes, to be shown something that you might never see, but you still end up right back where you came from. Human beings will only ever use entertainment and VR as an escape or a way to be something else so that the life they have becomes meaningless for mere seconds. I am a firm believer that VR can't really contain the amount of emotion or wisdom someone might have if they actually experienced that other reality. If I want to understand someone's life, I would rather look them in the eye as they explain it. For many cases, maybe people would jump into the VR and come out happy that they don't have the same problems or happy that it wasn't their reality. VR doesn't make people human. What makes people human is seeing the tangible body of someone else and hearing their story from themselves. I think humans are slowly drifting away from valuing their own senses and their own observations of life. It would be really sad to think people might be content with being in a VR of a place they know they have never been and then they don't feel like they need to go there. It could cut down the adventure, the interest and inquisitiveness of people to need to be there. I guess it is all in our heads though. I mean if you think you've been there, or you think you went through someone's life, then you did right? Or are people afraid to just admit they can't know/understand everything in the world? Empathy is more human when it comes naturally and unplanned.

As for QS, I watched a video about it and I thought it was sort of creepy: The voices, the fact that the two people just stare at each other while driving and being able to touch a bunch of stuff in the backseat. I think I'd rather watch a movie about a love story, than be in it. Or I'd rather play a game about a love story than be in the game.

There's also a Black Mirror about the freakiness of VR and how it can mess with your mind/reality. 

1 comment:

  1. That is a really good (and messed up) episode of Black Mirror! I think you touch on a lot of good points about being human here, technology certainly make us more empathetic, but is only a tool to help us communicate. Any good storytelling should allow us to feel empathy. There is a section of Queerskins that shows Sebastian and his partner's love story, but it also provides these other perspectives. Maybe you should write a love story? a love story game? :)

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