Virtual Reality

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly” Henri Bergson (a renowned French philosopher of the 20th century), once said. This quote keeps up with today’s times and certainly is the truth. Henry Word Beecher on the other hand, says: “The art of happiness lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.” Now I’ll admit that when I first saw these names, I had no idea who they were. But then, I found that their quotes were the base of my whole topic! Now I have a mission; to tell you all that right now all your surroundings are fake. You heard me right. Fake. Unbelievable right? What if I told you that what I said was lie? Well, it’s unbelievable because that simply isn’t true. It was a lie, and hopefully you knew that.

This is proof that the earth has an order, a charter of its own. It gives us the factual knowledge which our lives depend on. But what if these facts could be questioned? What if a realm was created where the rules didn’t apply? Where extinction was an extinct concept, where means of transport were limited only to our imaginations, where the globe around us could look like anything we wanted it to look like! Sounds amazing right? Guess what? This milieu has been created already, under the name ‘Virtual Reality, VR.’ But what if I told you that everything you saw within this “realm” was actually a sham?

The development of technology has certainly been fast and wide; faster as we progress through time. This has always profited humankind, knowing that the bane of human existence is invention. Virtual reality, being one of the many amazingly beneficial contraptions has become the imagery of popularity. Having purposes of entertainment, educational training (in the medical, military, sports, and academic fields), therapeutic qualities, product demonstrations, prototyping, what not? The list goes on as long as Rapunzel’s hair would have been!

But there comes the question of: have we taken it too far this time? One of the latest inventions is the updated version of VR. Make the world, your world; add anything you want to the domain you live in. This invention is a VR headset that one can wear on a frequent basis. It has cameras for the user to see the actual environment, then uses virtual tech to add on elements. The user could be walking in the mall and find a dinosaur shopping with them! Now what I’m saying may seem like an advertisement for the product; and in a way it might as well be. But my main goal here is to understand, is it really a necessity for daily life?

8 companies, 10 factories, 1 million headsets in market volume, 67,884,879 customers. A mouthful, isn’t it? These many people believe that their current universe simply isn’t enough. Today, videos can be found on social media claiming and exposing people wearing these headsets and living their daily lives - Working and typing in the air, saying ‘hello’ to a figment of fantasy, invisible to our reality, roaming in a park assuming it’s a jungle; they’ve become part of an online–zombie apocalypse, only it’s a real one this time and they’re the zombies.

You don’t see people from the 1800s loitering about the streets, wearing headgear that created a bogus stimulation! Their suffering of reality was what created the need for modern technology. Bullet wounds from the 1st World War are what brought the need for an x-ray. That suffering was for us, to live happily in this world. Not to destroy it, only to deny it’s ruin in the blissful assumption that everything is fine!

My argument isn’t about VR as a whole, but where it’s uses are headed. The marvellous application of VR to help the greater understanding of something is a manoeuvre to admire. But the use of it to create these imaginary worlds is simply a waste, in my opinion. The effect these factories have is adding on the already mortifying annihilation of this home of ours. If populations getting addicted to pixels wasn’t enough, they’ve started to practically live in them! It used to be up to the child’s creativity on what they would use, in reality, to invent their imaginary world. Where does this memory of childhood vanish to when there is no necessity for crafting?

“A small stone in the water can make huge ripples.” They say. This may seem like a simple addition to our tech-booming lives, but it could lead to the next enslaving compulsion.

Now I ask, is this Virtual Reality really a reality? Or is it just a fake utopia?