Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Technology has advanced to a point where you can be somewhere without your actual presence. This is achieved through virtual worlds. A perfect example of this is in the article titled "I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" published by the new york times and written by Dave Itzkoff. It talks about how you can place yourself somewhere virtually, basically living reality virtually. In the article it talks about how through VLES.com you can explore the lower east side from a virtual world. This is one of the ways that virtual worlds are used to explore and be part of a virtual reality, "the Virtual Lower East Side (vles.com), a three-dimensional, Internet-based social network fastidiously modeled on a small but influential swath of Manhattan real estate." (Itzkoff)
 Another way virtual worlds can be used is to train nurses to better equip them for emergencies. In an article titled "Avatar II: The Hospital" written by Stephanie Simon and published by the wall street journal it dives into this concept. The concept is of creating virtual worlds of hospitals and having emergency situation to train nurses. "This chaotic scene isn't real its part of an online simulation designed help nurses make quick, sure decisions in emergencies." (Simon) This is a major pro that a virtual world brings; it allows people to use virtual worlds to help better prepare for reality. The previous article that talked about VLES.com shows a con of virtual worlds. It makes us lose touch with reality when there’s no need to. In the article the person lives in the lower east side and knows that reality is right out the door but still choses to live through the virtual world. I feel this can cause some people to become dependent on virtual worlds, which can harm interpersonal skills.

 I believe virtual worlds allow us to experience new things and also through a different perspective. The future of virtual world is advancing; I just today tried the Samsung gear vr. You put on a headset and you are taken to a virtual world. The one I did was on a roller coaster, I wore the headset and sat on seat, put on my seat belt and began slowly rising to the top of the roller coaster. I rode a roller coaster in the meatpacking district in Chelsea through virtual reality. I believe this is a prime example of where virtual worlds are headed, allowing us to travel and experiences things without actually having to do them in reality. That may be good to some and bad to some, but one shall decide for themselves. 

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