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From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Danger of Immersive VR (Was Re: Any report on Bay area SIGGRAPH
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.030757.993@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 3 Jun 91 18:25:55 GMT
References: <1991Jun1.225106.5270@milton.u.washington.edu> <1991Jun3.064400.
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Thanks to Genny Engel (GENOL%UCCMVSA.BITNET@uccvma.ucop.edu) for the
meeting notes.  One particular part of Lanier's ideas caught my attention:

> Lanier said he views VR as less corruptible than other media
> such as TV because the producer of the medium cannot impose a
> view upon the user.  In other words, if you force someone to see
> something they weren't pointing their head at in the virtual
> world, you make them nauseous and it just doesn't work when you
> make your media consumers throw up.

This seems too idealistic.  What's to keep the VR author from creating a
reality in which the user (poor word choice!) *can't* get away from a
particular thing to be seen/felt/experienced.  That is, just because you
can turn away, turn your back on something, doesn't mean you won't see the
same thing (with a different veneer of presentation) the next place you
turn.

In fact, it seems to me that the total immersion created by VR makes it
incredibly corruptible...all it takes is a little experience in how to
control the participants and lead them to what you want them to "want to
experience".  The illusion of control in VR could be dangerous because
it's an illusion--if you're led to a particular viewpoint or experience,
doesn't the illusion of having gotten there under your own control (rather
than passively, as with TV) make it all that much more persuasive?  Yeah,
I know, that's a pretty dark view...but what am I missing that argues
against it?

TV is already incredibly good at grabbing and holding people's attention.
I never cease to be amazed at the complete trash that will completely
captivate creative, intelligent people.  There are specific programming
tricks that allow TV to do this.  Won't the same tricks evolve for VR?
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Simpler is better.