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Post Virtual Reality Sadness

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Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#21

Post by GuiA »

davesque wrote: post #4

Here's a fun thought that is really more of a science-fiction writing prompt: The author talks about his instinct to interact with the real world in the same way he interacted with the VR world. What if, as humans develop more and more realistic and immersive VR systems, it gives their bodies a real evolutionary incentive to develop telekinetic abilities?

Organisms don't have evolutionary incentives to develop abilities.

Environments exert evolutionary pressures, which select for/against existing traits (inherited or mutated) in organisms.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#22

Post by m1sta_ »

Kurimo wrote: post #19
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I don't know that this is VR-specific. I remember feeling like this after: - Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8. - Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10. - Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen. - Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.

Agreed. This whole phenomenon was reported on widely after "Avatar" came out. News anchors gleefully reporting that people left the theater feeling depressed their world wasn't as fantastic as Avatar. More of "the kids aren't alright!" reporting they love to do to scare parents and elderly folks. My solution: Move out of the big cities. I live in a small town in the countryside and my world is that fantastic.

Moving to the country is as difficult as moving to the city.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#23

Post by Afforess »

I wonder if the author has ever experienced the joy of reading a good book, or the first showing an amazing movie. Finishing an amazing story, you feel a let down afterwords; the characters were not real and you can never interact with them. The realm of fictional worlds are often more engaging, and seem superior to the world you live your day-to-day life in. The actions and experiences in those stories were more fulfilling, the characters had more agency; their lives or stories were more "real" than ours. After experiencing the greatness of our imaginations, how can our bleak reality measure up? I often find that I start reading my next book immediately after finishing the previous one in attempt to recapture this high, to re-experience the betterness one more time.

I don't think this effect is specific to a medium. That it can happen with VR is a sign that the technology has matured.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#24

Post by munificent »

api wrote: post #5
davesque wrote: post #4

Here's a fun thought that is really more of a science-fiction writing prompt: The author talks about his instinct to interact with the real world in the same way he interacted with the VR world. What if, as humans develop more and more realistic and immersive VR systems, it gives their bodies a real evolutionary incentive to develop telekinetic abilities?

There's a Stephen King novel called The Lawnmower Man that's basically this premise exactly. The film version is decent too and kind of fun in a 90s cyberpunk throwback sense too. Stay away from the sequels since as usual they are terrible.

> There's a Stephen King novel called The Lawnmower Man that's basically this premise exactly.

The Lawnmower Man I remember is just a short story and has nothing to do with VR or cyberspace at all. The movie doesn't have anything to do with the story. Like "I, Robot", it's a case where an existing unrelated screenplay had the name of a famous written work slapped on it to try to increase viewership.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#25

Post by guitarbill »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #12

Day 1 Vive owner here. This sounds pretty uncharacteristic of the experience and I guess this person has some psychological issues or is overplaying the VR experience for ad impressions. I read /r/vive religiously and no one seems to have this issue. Yes there's sometimes a "I wish I was playing now" but I've had that all my life and frankly it was 100x worse when I was playing MMOs or competitive shooters. This feel…

> This sounds pretty uncharacteristic of the experience and I guess this person has some psychological issues or is overplaying the VR experience for ad impressions.

> If you're finding yourself addicted then you've got a personal addiction issue. Its not the medium, its you.

The author gets many things right, such as the change in perception of distances. I get this from VR, but I also get it from changing from glasses to contact lenses (and vice versa). Doesn't sound like complete click-bait to me.

I do think it's an interesting point that the escapism VR offers is possibly equivalent to some dissociatives, and that it hasn't really being considered. Some people struggle with addiction to (plain) video games. Blaming the person isn't fair or helpful at all.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#26

Post by tetraodonpuffer »

nugget wrote: post #18

People talk a lot about futuristic sex robots but what about VR experiences that are not only physical but deeply emotional - wherein you experience seduction and actually fall in love? Think about riding in a weeks long 18 hour a day RPG crusade with a Milla Jovovich lookalike Joan of Arc who, in between battles, is irreparably infatuated with you. The tech needed to achieve this level of total immersion may yet be…

isn't this the same kind of territory currently being explored by Westworld? In Westworld instead of being VR it is actual reality (with robots) but the dilemmas are quite similar

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#27

Post by frankhorrigan »

Afforess wrote: post #23

I wonder if the author has ever experienced the joy of reading a good book, or the first showing an amazing movie. Finishing an amazing story, you feel a let down afterwords; the characters were not real and you can never interact with them. The realm of fictional worlds are often more engaging, and seem superior to the world you live your day-to-day life in. The actions and experiences in those stories were more ful…

Yeah, I tend to agree. I think you can probably toss this on the list of lessons that human beings seem completely incapable of learning (myself included).

That escapism doesn't really work.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#28

Post by crooked-v »

api wrote: post #6

I've always been a bit concerned about VR being highly addictive, especially for people who want something to 'escape'. This seems to bolster this concern. Of course people can and will get addicted to almost anything. VR may be healthier than heavy drinking, heroin, meth, etc.

Most of the more interesting VR control interfaces require enough movement to at least be healthier than, say, sitting at a desk and playing WoW all day.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#29

Post by eof »

I have been using and developing inside my Vive for about a month. It's only part time, so I am spending ~10 hours a week in VR.

I certainly get some of what the author is talking about in terms of that coming-out-of-the-matrix feeling: the tetris affect of my chaperone cage is strong, and objects feel weird to interact with, using the phone UI is kinda ridiculous.. however, I certainly don't think I am experiencing any type of postpartum sadness.

Roomscale VR is /ridiculously/ immersive. Every.single.person. I have put in omg and wtfs; even if they don't particularly care for video games.

Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness

#30

Post by bertiewhykovich »

6d6b73 wrote: post #8

VR will probably be THE solution to overpopulation. Slow, but painless.

This is obviously a repugnant tactic that should be rejected with no hesitation and fought at every turn -- but it does kind of seem like the goal. Infinite VR pornography, sifted by neural nets to match every possible desire, a lifetime supply of Soylent, legal weed -- bam presto, you've solved the problem of all those people unemployed by the automation of the means of production.
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