Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been heralded as the technology of the future for decades now. From Tron to Sword Art Online to Ready Player One, media has taken hype-filled, unlikely glances at what this future might be like. From goofy 1980s NES accessories (ever seen the Power Glove?) to the Virtual Boy (the Edsel of video game consoles) to the Oculus Rift, the video game industry has tried to crack into the mainstream and failed.

  I won’t say it’s all going nowhere — progress has certainly been made — but isn’t this narrative getting a little tired? It could happen someday, but we don’t seem to be getting there anytime soon. Sure, we’ve all fantasized about it, but if the technology isn’t there yet, it isn’t there yet. Beyond that, humanity has never been able to predict the future of technology well. It’s hilarious to pull up some dated media and see about all the fantastic devices we were supposed to have in the 2000s — how are those flying cars coming, Back to the Future? — all while using primitive technology we wouldn’t think of touching today. My favourite example would probably be director Makoto Shinkai’s debut work Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star). In it, a young couple is separated by fate, as the girl enlists in the space military and goes off to fight in a mecha off in some distant galaxy. They fall out of touch and slowly drift apart due to the communication technology, which takes as long as 7 years to send a message... over e-mail on flip phones. These days, it’s impossible to take the film’s dilemma seriously with this dichotomy in technology, and yet it’s only a 20 year-old movie. To put it simply, I think technology will continue to surprise us in the directions it takes. The ideas we’ve dreamed of might happen, but certainly not in the ways we expected. But hey, while we’re at it, do you think I could get one of those Star Trek replicators soon?