We already talk about being addicted to our phones, or addicted to video games – and there’s some actual concern as to whether or not we’re legitimately addicted to our tech – so it makes sense that as things like Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift emerge, we’ll wonder about what kind of impact virtual reality will have on our lives and minds.
Filmmaker Federico Heller, along with the folks at 3dar Studios, created the short film, Uncanny Valley, which explores a future in which entire communities have become addicted to virtual reality. What changes, depending on your perspective, is whether the problems these addicts have – being solitary, not leaving their homes for years at a time, not knowing how to interact with others, lives of crime and poverty – are caused by the tech, or whether their addiction to the tech is caused by problems they already have.
It’s probably a cycle, the way it is with addiction in real life.
Here’s what Jorge Tereso, creative director at 3dar Studios, has to say about it, according to The Daily Dot:
[A]s with junkies, the problem doesn’t reside in the drug, it’s humans that end up using things in a bad and addictive way.
The potential for good is huge too. It can induce mental states, in a way like some movies already do, but 10 times more immersive and interactive. So it will go way deeper emotionally.
There are many scary unanswered questions about the technology… Will it be completely immersive? Will we ruin our eyes and brains by fooling them all the time? But when we see kids using technology in such a natural way, it looks like it will become more human with time and not the other way around.
So, there IS hope! We just have to get over the hump, it seems. This short film is amazing, and if it were ever made into a feature film, I’d totally be down. Check it out:
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