journal review 6

Will Virtual Reality Change Your Life?
D. Kushner, Rolling Stone Magazine, 2016

March 28th, 2016 23 year old Jordan Luckey unveiled his invention, the Oculus Rift. What started as a project funded with $36,000 from repairing iPhones at 16, turned into $2 billion thanks to Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. With virtual reality becoming more accessible, it has the potential to completely redefine a film, education, architecture and design, plus everyday experiences such as visiting a doctor via headset. This exciting and revolutionising industry is expected to be a $80 billion industry by 2025.

The Oculus Rift was developed with photogrammetry technology which scans real surfaces into a virtual world, giving you the capability to experience a completely transformed space via headset. Yet this is just the beginning, while virtual reality is experiencing computer generated objects, other multi-reality tools such as augmented reality allows you to view computer generated, transparent displays of information, ala The Terminator. This step towards the future however raises uncertainty about the future of human behaviour and environment. Is it possible to crave VR and neglect our current reality?

Luckey and the Oculus first big break was thanks to Doom co-creator John Carmack, who was impressed by his invention and showed it off at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the biggest gaming tradeshow in North America. Within a month of the event Luckey raised 2 million on Kickstarter to pursue his virtual vision with 3 friends. Already these developments have reached out of the gaming sector and crossed into education and health. VR has been used by medical surgeons to experience a point of view from a surgeon during an operation to better understand the procedure. Likewise used by soldiers who experience PTSD and use virtual reality to travel to scenes of Afghanistan and Iraq with a therapist.

Though VR is significantly advanced, it’s not 100% perfect. It can cause nausea or ‘cybersickness’ caused by the fact your inner ears don’t feel the motion your eyes are perceiving. Luckey says this will take some time to completely fix. Developers are also still working on perfecting the lag between movements in the headset and what you’re seeing, this will also help reduce the sick feelings. The industry’s main goal is to achieve ‘real telepresence’ which engages your whole body in a virtual experience. This has the potential to revolutionise facets of the internet such as pornography, or even the potential to have virtual sex with someone else. The way this would be achieved is to completely manipulate the mind and eventually body into completely absorbing the virtual environment to the point the space is nearly indistinguishable from the real world. This though is far down the line, as of right now CEO of Facebook and now the new pockets behind Oculus Rift Mark Zuckerberg, believes the next strategic move for VR is to be “the new platform for communication”, while Jordan maintains the creative vision of changing the way we experience the world.


Kushner, D. (Aug 2016). Will Virtual Reality Change Your Life?. Rolling Stone, volume 777, 42-44.