Foreword
"Five years" is not too long or too short, but for the fast-growing Web 3.0 world, it should have entered the next honeymoon period containing new technologies. Also, the world is no longer peaceful, another World War is coming to accelerating technological development. Who knows whether VR will cause real damage when the next war comes?
VR's Two Sides
Replicating the feeling
2022 May, A new ultrasound-based setup in Carnegie Mellon University's Future Interfaces Group, by a team including PhD student Vivian Shen, post-doctoral fellow Craig Schultz and Assoc. Prof. Chris Harrison, lets users feel the virtual world on with VR headset and in their mouths – without making physical contact. Finally, the ultrasound can take the form of focused pulses, swipes across the mouth, or persistent vibrations. The resulting vibrations are experienced as tactile sensations, replicating the feel of activities such as drinking from a water fountain, or even kissing. (News)
Obviously, this technology will not stop here. People's greed and thirst for unseen things will make this technology continue to be developed. Therefore, I believe that this technology may be developed to perfectly present the itch, pain, collision and other sensations that touch the whole body, and even allow users to obtain the pleasure of sex and the real feeling of physical disability etc. This technology will perfectly present the feelings which mentioned in fantasy, adventure, and science fiction, or situation that are difficult for people to experience, such as some physical pain.
In fact, virtual reality (VR) is a double-edged sword, could make something like mirages and hallucinations, could make people happy and addicted. Mirages and hallucinations point out that in certain situation, or in certain states of the brain, people will have a desire that always uncontrolled, make "fake" event, picture, things as "real". The illusory things is manifested on the body touch, eventually confuses memory and let people think that the "things" are really happened.
VR will be used in warfare
According to the above mentioned, it can be inferred that VR will be used for war purposes first. In fact, there have been many news reports that AR (Augmented Reality) technology is changing the way soldiers are trained in 2019, such as the use of AR for military training, remote assisted treatment on the battlefield, etc. (News)
So when VR is also booming, how will VR change the warfare? The Japanese animation "Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale" showed the form in which the combination of AR and VR may affect real life. Although based on the theme of the anime and the audience, the final story ends with heroism, but it is not difficult to find from the details of the story that, the AR will add VR for people feel the virtual feelings, such as pain.
Two predictable uses of VR
If VR is widely used for friendly purposes, it will enable more people to experience more feeling, such as:
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Let people feel the pain of being attacked by magic in fantasy works;
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Let men feel pregnancy;
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Let women feel the power of having a strong masculine physique;
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Let couples who have to be separated can meet and hug each other in the "real" at any time;
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Let patients who must take long-term medication to have a healthy life experience;
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Let AIDS patients regain their sexual experience;
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Let people who have lost their mobility due to traffic accidents can regain the joy of running...
These friendly uses are sure to make more people understand each other's distress and change their lives.
But it's not hard to see how VR could be used for nefarious purposes. On November 26, 2021, after trying out the metaverse game "Horizon Worlds", launched by Meta, a female player expressed her dissatisfaction on social platforms because she was "touched" by other users. (News)
Although there is no replicating feeling technology in the current metaverse games, people are easy to feel related sensations when they see certain things, just like when people see someone get hurt, they will also feel a little pain, the visual experience is enough to make people feel people feel sick. Therefore, if the metaverse games at the time had developed replicating feeling technology, the situation what happened on the female player would not just "touching".
At the same time, with the development of VR becoming more vigorous and mature, more possibilities will be found when combined with 3D technology. For example, the " virtual lover" will have a great chance to appear, and some people will indulge. It's like people indulged in Facebook, Twitter, IG etc. more than enjoyed their lives with families in Web 2.0.
Since the development of science and technology has already brought about so many changes in daily life, there must be even bigger problems when it is used in warfare. Taking an extreme example, if someone enters the metaverse world with VR and his consciousness is locked in the world, what should we do?
An unstoppable dream
Although it can be expected that VR combined with replicating feeling technology may bring many unknown dangers to people, we shouldn't ignore the benefits until people can fully judge that the harm outweighed the benefit. I still believes that VR is the most anticipated part of the Web 3.0.
Fantasy world, magic, mysterious country, or high-tech experience, etc., all make people want to experience more than watching movies, reading novels, playing games, etc. "Harry Potter" became famous, "Iron Man" sold well, "The Lord of the Rings" became an epic classic, the reason is people have a fantasy about fantasy.
Maybe fantasy dream can be come true in Web 3.0.
Current situation
Looking back at the development of Web 3.0 today, it may be difficult to imagine that the world will really become as I said, and the replicating feeling technology has matured in five years. But in fact, many projects are now preparing. For example, the development of 3D technology represents that the future VR world will be more like reality, which will accelerate people's familiarisation speed after entering the Web 3.0 world, and strengthen " real experience".
The 3D special effects that often appear in Hollywood movies, are definitely a technology what will appear in the VR world: The special effects made by technicians and creators, such as the pain and visual experience of being shot, the feeling of people are burned, will be the key to whether people can get real feelings from it.
Then, is the time to talk about NFT. If a virtual object can make people have some real feeling, is it still a virtual object? When the earth's resources are getting more scarce, maybe more things will be presented "virtually" in the future. For example, the phones and computers will become virtual objects, but people can still feel the touch of the keyboard and screen; Even the dolls on the bed become virtual objects, but people can feel the warmth when hugging them. If all this become true, then virtual objects may no longer be limited to "virtual", and this also means that NFTs will not be just a JPG.
Perhaps the reason why people feel "sick" is because brain sends signals to make people feel "sick". So when people's feelings can be replicated by technology, is it the same as warmth that can be imitated? If a feeling and experience can really be replicated by technology, then the NFT must also become a part of the real product, and it is only a matter of time whether it will come true.
It seems possible that a fantasy Web 3.0 will be realized in five years, if the current speed of Web 3.0 development won't change. At that time, the psychological problems will be another topic, but I still wants to experience the feeling of living in a fantasy world and the joy of being "virtual" brought to reality.
本文章中文將會刊載於 方格子、Matters、Potato Media 及 Penana 刊載。
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