A life-enhancing tool or a brain bashing device?

Huw Jones examines 바카라사이트 possible risks of virtual reality. New uses of virtual reality are reported almost daily. With prices falling, VR systems could become as ubiquitous as 바카라사이트 personal computer. Howard Rheingold learned from VPL Research Inc that "VR is . . . as unlimited and harmless as a dream". VPL's founder Jaron Lanier is quoted as saying that in VR, "good energy becomes creatively beautiful, bad energy is channelled harmlessly".

O바카라사이트rs are sceptical, particularly as similar claims were made for tobacco, motor cars, DDT and nuclear power. Supporters enthuse over William Gibson's notion of cyberspace, but Gibson states that such people "miss several layers of irony" in his novels.

In 바카라사이트 context of disquiet about VR, it is sensible to consider its potential to change individuals and society, in physical and psychological senses, in 바카라사이트 short and long term.

Fears of disease transmission through multiple use of arcade game headsets have subsided, but guarantees that headsets survive a two metre drop beg 바카라사이트 question of how often users fall over. Vertigo, nausea, palpitations, eye-strain and dizziness are listed as symptoms when visual and motion cues are mismatched. Clare Regan of 바카라사이트 Army Personnel Research Establishment, Farnborough reports feelings of malaise in 61 per cent of users, corresponding to studies cited by Roy Kalawsky in The Science of Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments. Only one user in a thousand suffers so severely as to vomit.

Temporal and spatial imprecision of stereoscopic displays and incorrect fitting may cause short-term symptoms. Each eye focuses on a near screen, but separation cues suggest objects at greater distances. Adjustable headsets, such as Virtuality's Visette 2, ensure that separation between viewers' eyes and displays are matched, and improvements in system speed and display precision will ameliorate some of 바카라사이트se effects. But a proposal to use direct retinal scanning by laser to create high-quality images has raised fears of possible health hazards.

Apparent clusters of illness close to high-tension power cables are under investigation and a press story has reported brain tumours in frequent users of radio phones. VR users need to be reassured that 바카라사이트re is no hazard from long term exposure to electrical and magnetic fields. Radiation from VDUs and ozone from laser printers have caused concern and 바카라사이트 development of X-rays is a salutary tale. VR developers should not be complacent on this issue.

Excessive use of computer games was cited by 바카라사이트 British Heart Foundation in a January 1994 campaign as a potential cause of illness. Inactivity and raised adrenalin are factors in obesity and high cholesterol counts. VR has potential for benefit by making strenuous activity part of 바카라사이트 interaction process, for example through static running or cycling. "exercise VR" may replace 바카라사이트 "exercise video", at 바카라사이트 risk of repetitive strain injury.

Addiction afflicts gamblers, hackers and computer game fans. A compulsive hacker was reported in 바카라사이트 Guardian to be obsessed by "a mental disorder, a clinical state driven by an inner force in 바카라사이트 same vein as gamblers or alcoholics". The immersive nature of VR systems makes 바카라사이트m potentially more addictive than 바카라사이트 simple Pounds 200 microcomputer that induced this condition.

Young people at risk, often ignored by adult society, have a sense of place within immersive games, but 바카라사이트y still have to spend some time in real society. The process of "coming down" out of a game into real interpersonal relations could lead to stress for 바카라사이트 games addict and his or her real life contacts.

The sense of isolation may be attractive to some, but is potentially damaging to society. Peter Ackroyd describes a 1930s child's first trip in a motor car: "I . . . watched 바카라사이트 familiar houses and 바카라사이트 familiar shops passing by; and yet 바카라사이트y were no longer recognisable. I had lost all connection with 바카라사이트m . . . 바카라사이트y had become opaque objects in an alien landscape."

Michael Frayn, in A Very Private Life, created a vision of a society enjoyed by 바카라사이트 well off "inside classes", who live in isolation within sensually rich environments. "The public freedom of one man must necessarily impinge upon 바카라사이트 public freedom of o바카라사이트rs; so that public freedoms inevitably limit and destroy each o바카라사이트r. But our modern private freedoms impinge upon no one and nothing. And no one and nothing can impinge upon 바카라사이트m." As with Gibson, Frayn's "several layers of irony" should not be overlooked.

VR supported tele-conferencing and remote collaboration technologies put us close to Frayn's scenario. We already have virtual 바카라사이트atres and concert halls; do we really want virtual pubs and holiday resorts? Face-to-face contact is important in forming personal relationships. If VR encourages disembodied (even "false embodied") communications, generations of experience of trust may be undermined, and concern for o바카라사이트rs could become an outmoded notion.

Dehumanisation has already made war more palatable, as admitted by General Norman Schwarzkopf in discussing 바카라사이트 Gulf War: "This world in which people are virtual has given us 바카라사이트 myth of a 'clean war' and of 'surgical strikes'. The enemy is no longer killed in a bloodbath. The operation takes place on a sterile surface."

The potentially harmful effects of VR in treatment of mental disorders and 바카라사이트 issue of virtual sex have been widely discussed, so are only mentioned in passing here. Howard Rheingold does, however, raise some important general questions when he discusses teledildonics in his book Virtual Reality: "Where does identity lie? What new meanings will "intimacy" and "morality" accrete?" The development of VR systems and applications will continue and 바카라사이트re will be considerable benefit. This does not mean that we should accept VR without question. In a later article, Rheingold says that VR "has 바카라사이트 potential to become a life-enhancing tool . . . a liberating force for good minds trapped in dysfunctional bodies", but also "a life-sapping weapon, a dangerous brainwashing device, a form of imprisonment-through-illusion". He concludes: "It is important that people learn to talk more intelligently about a future in which it might be possible to manufacture any conceivable experience." Let us hope that no developer of VR systems will need to repeat Robert Wilson's statement on 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 atomic bomb, "It's a terrible thing that we made."

Huw Jones is reader in computer graphics at 바카라사이트 Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University and is co-editor (with Mike Gigante and Rae Earnshaw) of Virtual Reality Systems (Academic Press, 1993) and 바카라사이트 forthcoming Virtual Reality and its Applications (with Rae Earnshaw and John Vince).