Can virtual reality change our way of living for good?

As we live, human beings are limited physically by their body and senses but not by their capacity of dreaming. Our brain allows us to recreate unexpected situations, and thanks to it we can experience unlimited moments by using our imagination. 

However, in the real world mankind and its technologies have their limits. In order to break those limitations, we have been exchanging ideas and emotions, improving the way we deliver messages and experiences to other people. 

In the past, humans drew themselves hunting in the caves; the use of books in order to safeguard and express knowledge; we had the invention of phones, radios, TVs and internet – vastly improving the way information can be obtained by the majority of the people these days. And today, without having thought so much about it, VR is finally a reality. And it promises great achievements in the future for a lot of reasons.

We believed VR was just a technology we would not be able use (not but in decades). Many science fiction movies introduced us to the possibilities of it, like the brand new world that TRON (1982) could create thanks to VR, or even the dangers of having VR as a tool that could manipulate people, as it is shown in The Matrix (1999). However VR came, and although there are different perceptions about how VR can help our society or not, we truly believe that if used properly, this tool is going to give us many benefits for the times to come. 

VR was an extremely expensive technology for the majority of people. However, due to the development of Oculus Rift (the VR used for gaming in PS4), many of those devices had been distributed to the customers in more affordable prices. Today, VR is starting to shine in videogames, as it is going to be the future for the years to come – considering that the videogame industry is always working in order to give more realistic experiences to its users. 

But not all about VR is aimed for gamers. There are other specific areas in which it can be used in impressive ways. One of them is definitely for military purposes. By using this technology, soldiers can train themselves without wasting many resources in a training camp and at the same time, they can experience dangerous situations without threaten their lives unnecessarily. 

VR has been used to treat veterans with PTSD too. By making those soldiers revive their worst fears in the battlefield through VR, therapists can accurately detect the events that traumatized the patients. By doing this, they can run better diagnosis and treatments for those suffering due to PTSD, helping them to improve their lives in the process.

In educational contexts, VR could be very useful. Instead of showing pictures, presentations, videos, books and/ magazines, teachers could make students reimagine museums in 3D, and make them experience important pictures and monuments without needing to go to the place. They could even see historical places of the past that are recreated with VR.  Indeed, VR is an expensive technology, but if you think about it, by using it this way it could be an easy and practical way in which they could learn about diverse areas of knowledge.

In architecture we already have 3D models that emulat buildings that architects would design, but with VR this would be in a complete new level. People could visit their houses even before than their construction, and the architect could even detect possible problems in the structures by creating artificial earthquakes or storms in the simulation. 

Extreme sports could be experienced through VR without risk your life. And you could even practice some other games by using this technology. Just like the TRON movie, new sports could be created by mastering the VR simulations. It would open new possibilities, as nowadays many videogames are considered sports. VR sports could be a reality too. 

In medicine and specifically surgeries, VR could be amazingly helpful. Before engaging into a very difficult surgery, doctors could first try to use VR in order to study better other methods in their operations. Because in real life, there are chances in which surgeons cannot make any mistake. With VR, they could have a second chance thanks to the simulation of these situations.

And one of the most hyped uses of VR is definitely its ability to record events. You can produce holograms of past events and then reproduce them some time later. We can record videos of the experiences we had, but VR is in another level. It would be like time travelling, as you are experiencing events of the past with your own eyes in 3D. People could send messages to other people through this technology, and there is no doubt that it would be amazingly realistic. 

Definitely, VR is a technology that is going to represent the future of mankind.  It’s not only going to be used for videogames. Its many possibilities are going to help us to redefine the way we experience our lives, and although VR could still be very expensive for now, it is going to be inevitable that given the time this is going to be an affordable technology for the rest of the people of the world.