Over the past few years, video games have become an obsession for more and more people. As gaming systems become more advanced, what will the ultimate system turn out to be? Obviously, it would have to seem as realistic as possible but what if you even believed it was real?

Along with video games, medical science has also made huge advancements, right down to a molecular level. Many complex organs can now be transplanted and amputees can control basic functions in prosthetics through there own nerves. It no longer seems impossible that one day even a brain transplant could be done. As our understanding of how signals transmit through the nervous system also advances, it’s reasonable one day they could be duplicated by a computer. Now imagine combining the two. Our brain could be connected and interacting with a computer that would send all the sensations we would feel in reality. If perfected you would not be able to tell this new virtual reality from reality.

How popular would video games be then, if there was no difference in what you feel between virtual reality and reality? At first, all the video games we play now would be extremely popular at this new enhanced level. Racing cars and fighting aliens. The people we interact with could be real players also in VR or computer created.

After a while though, gamers would realize as good as this was there is still something else missing. The game would be even better if they thought it was real and didn’t know they were in a virtual reality world. If this became possible it would also draw the attention of not just gammers but those who also wanted to be educated beyond what a book can do. Imagine being able to experience life at any point of time in history without knowing it was virtual reality, being able to understand not only how people felt at that time but why. Picking wealthy or famous people with lavish lifestyles and perfect bodies would eventually get boring, just like gamers, you would eventually want to try harder, more difficult roles. Facing the challenges of higher levels while gaining the rewards of a further understanding of life.

Could the year now actually be 2220 and you are playing the ultimate virtual reality game. If so, it would be ironic if you wasted too much of it playing a primitive X-box.

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com