quotations about virtual reality
Communication in the age of virtual reality is in some ways about transportation. Tele-presence replaces tele-vision. The body's sensorimotor channels are conveyed to distant real and virtual worlds. Experience is transmitted. Transmission and transportation share more than a common root word. In the 19th century, telegraph wires and train tracks raced side-by-side across the fields and forests of America's western frontier. These two transmission channels, the train and the telegraph, competed to "transport" information. Trains, planes, and trucks still transport information carried on physical media like paper and ink: mail, newspapers, and magazines--consider, for example, the postal system. Although the telegraph had far less information-carrying capacity than the train, it easily outraced the physical transportation channel. The telegraph's thin flow of information was more valuable than the train's car loads of slow information. The flow of communication is now sent across space and time through various transmission channels: copper wires, fiber optic cables, the electro-magnetic spectrum, and so forth. Millions of miles of wires criss-cross the planet and wrap it like a giant ball of string. Surrounding this giant ball, the electromagnetic spectrum thrums with the chant of millions of messages. The transmission of information surrounds us.
FRANK BIOCCA & MARK R. LEVY
"Virtual Reality as a Communication System"
Even at home, where one can fully appreciate VR's capacity for immersion while in the comfort and safety of your living room, it's still equally isolating -- a far cry from family movie night or a games night with friends.
RAMONA PRINGLE
"Virtual reality is still too isolating to be the next big thing in tech", CBC News, February 14, 2017
To some extent, virtual reality may be viewed as an extension of existing technology, the telephone, television, and the video game. That is, virtual reality will replace the telephone, the television, and will fulfill those social roles. Yet, virtual reality is more than just the next-generation telephone, television, and video game; it is a world unto its own. And within this world, we will see the development of a virtual economy, new business models, new social groups, and new interaction styles. Welcome to the "Virtual World."
MYCHILO CLINE
Virtual Reality: A Catalyst for Social and Economic Change
Virtual reality could add a lot of culture to our lives. The technology could instantly transport users to the Louvre in Paris, the Acropolis in Athens and the Guggenheim in New York City, all in one day. In fact, a number of museums have already collaborated with developers to create virtual spaces where people can experience the museums' physical collections.
KNVUL SHEIKH
"Beyond Gaming: 10 Other Fascinating Uses for Virtual-Reality Tech", livescience
Right now, we have largely games. As you get more diverse content, things like education, business, telepresence, being able to collaboratively work in the same space from the other side of the world ... people in nursing homes who are frail and unable to travel will be able to go to the places they want to go. Those are the things that are going to make everyone actually want to use VR and keep coming back to it every single day.
PALMER LUCKEY
interview, re/code, June 19, 2015