escapism and virtual reality essays

escapism and virtual reality essays `Virtual Reality', a new method of interacting with any computer, is presented and its advantages and disadvantages are considered. The human aspect of computing and computers as a form of escapism are developed, with especial reference to possible futu technological developments. The consequences of a weakening of the sense of reality based upon the physical world are also considered. Virtual Reality, or VR, is a concept that was first formally proposed in the early Seventies by Ted Nelson ComputerDreams. The basic idea is that human beings should design machines that can be operated in a manner that is as natural as possible, for th For instance, the standard QWERTY keyboard is a moderately good instrument for entering exactly the letters which have been chosen to make up a word and hence to construct sentences. Human communication, however, is often most fluent in speech, and so a computer that could understand spoken words (preferably of all languages) and splay them in a standard format such as printed characters, would be far easier to use, especially since the skills of speech exist from an early age, but typing has to be learnt, often painfully. All other human senses have similar analogies when considering their use with tools. Pictures are easier than words for us to digest quickly. A full range of sounds provides more useful information than beeps and bells do. It is easier to point at an it that we can see than to specify it by name. All of these ideas had to wait until the technology had advanced sufficiently to permit their implementation in an efficient manner, that is, both fast enough not to irritate the user and cheap enough for mas One long-standing area of interest in VR has been the simulation of military conflicts in the most realistic form possible. The flight simulator trainers of the 1970's had basic visual dis ...