Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!hlab
From: aprile@ghost.unimi.it (Walter Aprile)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Danger of Immersive VR (Was Re: Any report on Bay area SIGGRAPH
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.142940.8619@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 91 14:05:23 GMT
References: <1991Jun1.225106.5270@milton.u.washington.edu> <1991Jun3.064400.
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab)
Organization: Computer Science Dep. - Milan University
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Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu



rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:

>... [I]t 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?

I think that VR is extremely corruptible because of the R in it. That's to say:
If you see something printed on paper, such as "President Cossiga flies paper
airplane during Italian parliament meeting!", you think it is a joke, or at
least you have some doubts.

If you see it on TV, it becomes more real, but nowadays everybody knows about
TV tricks.

But if you experience it on VR, hear the laughter, see the glint in the
amateur airplane engineer and later shake hands with him: man, that would be
truly convincing, wouldn't it ?

This might be particularly true for people that are not able to decode the
illusion; even now it is very difficult even for a trained user to spot a TV tri
ck (and almost impossible to spot a photo trick). Think what a good VR trick mig
ht do to unsuspecting audience !

One solution would be to hang big shiny "DO NOT BELIEVE" signs all over the
place ! :-)

More seriously, it dependes a lot on the way VR is perceived: I mean, TV is
for many people a source of truth (at least in my country). Newspapers are not,
what will VR be ? I think that depends on the marketing people :-)

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* Walter Aprile                              | I don't think what I say     *
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* aprile@ghost.unimi.it                                                     * 
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