The Curious Case of Virtual Reality

Few technologies have intrigued me the way that Virtual Reality (VR) has. Fewer still have kept my attention as long as VR has.

My first exposure to VR was the film "The Lawnmower Man." It was cheesy 90's science fiction, but it was thought provoking.

An ordinary person could explore a world of knowledge and improve oneself all through an experience of simulated reality. Keep in mind that this was more than a decade before Khan Academy, Udacity, and YouTube University.

Around this time, "VR Kiosks" appeared in malls, tourist attractions, and even dance clubs. For around $5 you could spend a few minutes in a virtual space. The graphics were primitive and the experience was not quite as immersive as Hollywood showed it, but it was intriguing.

No discussion of virtual reality in film would be complete without mentioning the Matrix, which in its cleverly written script introduced philosophical and theological themes into a groundbreaking science fiction film.

"A solution in search of a Problem"

Despite the Hollywood hype and increasing resolution of computer graphics, VR never really lived up to the hype. It was impressive, but it was hard to find a practical everyday use -- there was no "killer app."

Fast forward to the early 2000s, Adobe had released a 3D world generator called Atmosphere . For the first time, it was incredibly easy to create immersive 3D virtual worlds and share them widely. The platform even allowed for an easy integrated chat function without writing any code. Just upload your .AER file onto a webserver and voila! Your virtual world was accessible to the real world.

I adored Adobe Atmosphere and would tell anyone who would listen about how awesome it was. However, the same question kept coming up: "it's cool and all, but what is it good for?" and "that looks like a solution in search of a problem."

Both were fair criticisms, It was hard to justify this for enterprise applications. It was easy to find non-business uses for the technology. Here are two that I discovered in the early 2000s.

Therapy

Around a year after surviving the September 11th attack , I rebuilt the World Trade Center complex in Adobe Atmosphere.

It was decidedly therapeutic to be able to walk through the complex again and, in a way, process and mourn what had happened.

Community

It was also a good way to connect with other people.

The Atmosphere community was small and filled with dedicated creators who cherished the community aspect of the software. Folks would share tips and tricks and share bug reports. Adobe employees themselves would interact with us. You can identify the Adobe folks as they had customized avatars with special T-Shirts.

Speaking of avatars, users could customize their avatars. I still remember having a "conversation" with a hamburger and a Tie Fighter about the sad state of the NYC technology job market in light of the Dotcom crash and the 9/11 attacks. It was good to find a sympathetic ear, even if it was text only chat and surreal imagery.

Back to the Present

I bet right now you're thinking, "Frank, this is great and all, but now you're just being nostalgic for the early 2000s, the VR world has shifted significantly since then!"

True, however, when I first placed a HoloLens over my head, I was amazed, fascinated, and intrigued. Then, a familiar question popped into my head -- how to practically apply this technology in the "real world."

Same question, different decade

Between Adobe Atmosphere and the HoloLens, there were a handful of VR fits and starts that quickly fell by the wayside. If you opened this article looking for a shout out to SecondLife , here it is.

But it's different this time!

Despite the VR hype machine's common refrain of "it's different this time" and "VR is the next big thing?" we've all heard few times before, I think it may actually be different this time.

In 2022, there are a few pieces in play that were never around before.

• Wide deployment of broadband
• Consumer friendly VR gear
• Robust developer ecosystems
• Pandemic/Post-pandemic socializing

The Metaverse is Already Here, Just Ask Your Kids

If you have kids, then you need to look no further than them to see what the future of VR looks like. Over the last two years, children have had their normal childhood experiences dramatically altered, if not outright disrupted.

Play dates now happen virtually, Game platforms like Roblox are the new neighborhood playground. And now the "neighborhood" is much larger. Speaking with my kids, it is clear that these virtual spaces are just as "real" to them as their school is. Their sense of spatial awareness extends into the virtual. Kids growing up today do not hold such a distinction between the real and the virtual. For adults, there's real space and there's virtual space, whether that space is accessible by VR, app, or browser.

Today's kids are tomorrow's adults and how they will approach education, work, and commerce will be unlike anything we can imagine today.

The only question in my mind is will it be a future that empowers them or oppresses them?

Thanks for reading

What you think of the Metaverse, VR, and what a post-pandemic childhood experience will look like?