Any self-respecting Trekkie will tell you that space is the final frontier. But should you trust someone who thinks he has perfected the Vulcan death grip and constantly jokes about getting warp speed from his Ford Escort? Probably not. He’s wrong.
There is a new final frontier and it’s a virtual one.
Over recent years, virtual reality technology has become a perennial news item and has spawned numerous popular movies, computer games and plans for its future application. But for many, the term virtual reality remains a little confusing so here is one of the more accepted of countless current definitions: virtual reality /n./: the use of computer technology to create the effect of an interactive three-dimensional world in which the objects have a sense of spatial presence.
Most commonly by way of a Head Mounted Display (HMD), data gloves and complex software, the user is provided with sounds, stereoscopic images and other sensory inputs that represent a completely generated environment. The graphics are realistic, three-dimensional and responsive to the movements of the user via position tracking on the HMD helmet. In this way, the user is able to move through, and interact with, a simulated world restricted only by the constraints of the program being used.
At this time, the industry is in its infancy and current apparatus do not possess the capacity for anything more than the simplest virtual programs. If you want to walk through a virtual orchard of strange square trees and pick up bright green, pixilated apples this technology is for you! The capabilities of computer systems, however, continue to increase, allowing for more powerful networks with a greater memory capacity.
For virtual reality to work, it must provide the sensory centers of the brain with information of an adequate quality for the brain to be fooled into thinking it is real.
Scientists have shown that there are differences between what the eyes actually see and what the brain subsequently registers due to the interpretive centers of the brain. Some neurons accentuate straight lines and borders while others emphasize shapes and patterns. In understanding the way the brain works, scientists are continually able to improve existing programs and design new, more effective ones.
The potential applications are impossible to ignore. Pilots will learn to fly using virtual reality flight simulators that possess a spatial component that two-dimensional computerized programs simply cannot provide. Surgeons will develop a greater understanding of anatomy by taking a systemic tour of the body. First-time home buyers will be able to select a house, walk around the yard and rummage through the closet under the stairs without ever leaving the real estate agent’s office. So whether you want to reconstruct a murder or observe the dynamic behavior of molecules within the body, virtual reality is a tool that is infinitely powerful.
Few, however, have yet begun to address the possible negative effects that this technology might also bring.
In a 1994 interview, author J.G. Ballard said that, with the advent of virtual reality, “one will be able to play with one’s psychopathology without any moral stigma attached. Some of us will be required to assume the roles, emotions and hatreds of a concentration camp killer in order to allow the virtual reality drama of the Second World War to unfold.”
Journalist Will Self further elaborated when he wrote that, “the medium will be pushed ahead when people are given the opportunity to commit murders or immoral acts in a ‘virtual’ way.”
Undoubtedly, computer and entertainment corporations are thinking the same thing and they soon might have the meaning to bring such plans to fruition.
Before this technology is readily available, some of us should begin to ask how harmful it could be to the user and to the society that contains them. Allowing individuals to assume the “hatreds of a concentration camp killer” might prevent any repetition of the atrocities of World War II and allow us a greater understanding of the motivation behind them. But can this be done while avoiding psychological harm to the user? In an age in which violent images in films, computer games and popular music have been blamed for events such as the Columbine High School massacre, there is little need to add to the possible causes for such behavior.
Allowing individuals to use virtual systems to perform immoral acts for entertainment is likely only to increase the incidence of violence in our society. To put it another way, I’m not sure how I would feel if I found out that a co-worker had been killing me with a virtual ax and letting virtual rats feed on my virtual cooling body before he arrived at work every morning.
In 1991, the U.S. Department of Justice completed the Survey of State Prison Inmates in which almost 14,000 inmates in 45 states were questioned about their criminal and family history. More than half the inmates who had served time in the past for violent offenses were serving their current sentences for violence. There is evidence of repetitive violent behavior, particularly in individuals predisposed to violence by their social position or upbringing.
Most importantly, it is necessary to determine whether committing a violent crime in virtual reality would be so realistic that it would result in all of the physiological and psychological components of doing the same in actuality.
Professor Frederick P. Brooks Jr., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said, “All the indications are that such reactions will be produced.”
He has performed studies in which subjects wear a HMD and enter a virtual room with a computer-generated pit in the center and a 2-foot wide ledge around the outer edge. The subjects, although previously shown that the room had a solid floor and lacked a pit, were cautious and tried to edge around the virtual pit. Some refused to even enter the room.
Other studies involving virtual simulations of Vietnam combat situations have resulted in extreme physiological and psychological reactions in the user. Essentially, they think it is real.
Professor Sandra Calvert of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., agrees. She has studied virtual reality technology and psychoanalytic therapy, or catharsis, in which subjects are encouraged to provide an outlet for their aggression. This is achieved by hitting a punching bag, screaming or watching violent films. Virtual reality also was expected to be a useful cathartic tool but Calvert says that in her trials, “people had more aggressive thoughts after playing a violent virtual reality game.” She believes that virtual reality, “will create a more violent society because people will practice violent behaviors in simulations.”
Another very real possibility is that of addiction to virtual reality systems. Should I go to work today where I put in too many hours for too little pay with not enough breaks and no parking space or should I cavort on a secluded strip of white sand with a troupe of nubile young women? Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. Little has been done to address the addictive nature of current two-dimensional computer games and virtual reality technology is certain to surpass it.
Unquestionably, virtual reality technology has many important uses but stricter control is needed to ensure that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Professor Brooks said that, “children often grow up with only a remote contact with death. To propagate the lie that death is trivial is, therefore, possible. It is evil to do so.”He also reminded me that, “The Bible says that ‘Death is the last enemy’ of the human person … even as it offers the real promise of life after death,” and it seems that many researchers agree with this philosophy, using the technology responsibly. Unfortunately, Woody Allen once said that, “eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it,” and this is probably the view that many of the profit-motivated entertainment and computer technology corporations subscribe to.So, consider this a battle cry. Hopefully, some of you will join me. I’m certain that some of you won’t, but I have a message to all those who would rather retreat into a virtual world: Please be careful, be aware of the risks and, well, say hello to a few of those nubile young women for me, would you?
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 1999.
