Reality Bytes?

 

What is reality? Is reality only what I look around and see – and touch? Or is reality only limited by my imagination? I mean, I’m certainly not tethered to reality. If there was an alternate reality, I’d entertain it.

No, I have not started this column on gummies. I want to contemplate reality because I was planning on entertaining an alternate reality. More specifically, it’s time to consider Virtual Reality.

A friend was kind enough to loan me the new Meta Quest Pro. It’s a headset and two hand controllers that originally debuted at $1500. Many years ago, that’s approximately what I spent on my first car. Today you can get the VR for $1000 bucks. Maybe that’s closer to money you’d spend on a moped so what I want to know is: where can this thing take you?

VR wants to be more than a gaming system, but is it? Is it really? Are we suddenly going to start going to meetings in VR? Are we really going to start working in VR? Are we going to start working out in VR? If you ask Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook who has sunk tens of billions of dollars into this technology, the answer is: Yes. If anyone asks me – and yes, I’m worth hundreds of billions of dollars less than Mark Zuckerberg – the answer is: Um, no.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, though some refer to it as the 800-pound gorilla, aka the headset. It’s over a pound; it’s clunky. It lets in too much light. Yes, you can get used to it the same way you can get used to a prosthetic limb. It’s no one’s first choice. My friend suggests thinking of the headset like the Model T Ford: It’s not the best; it’s just the first. Well, maybe Google Glass was the first. But I don’t see a lot of people wearing those today.

Truth is, the VR world is pretty cool. It’s 3D, it’s 360 degrees. It’s waterfalls and exotic animals and lush soundscapes. That clunky thing rattling around on your head means it doesn’t feel like the future, but it sure looks and sounds like the future.

But what is VR good for? Meta has many suggestions, so I tried them out. For starters, I connected the VR to my computer to type these words in VR. These words in VR are indeed bigger and fuzzier than the words on my computer screen but, sadly, not any better. Then I tried a VR workout. You know what’s better than jumping around and sweating with a clunky headset on your head? Jumping around and sweating without a big, clunky headset on your head. So, then I watched a short film in VR. The “movie screen” was almost 180°, like my own personal 3D IMAX where you could see tons of detail on either side of the action. It was a novelty that was more distracting than anything else. So, then I took a meeting in VR. You know what’s not any better in VR? Meetings. Meetings are certainly a little different in VR. Now I’m able to “co-create” something with someone as if I’m in the same room. BUT… it sure seems like we have this covered with Zoom and shared screens.

There is one thing VR was really, really good at: Games. I cannot list them all here but there are hundreds of games that are unlike any game I’ve ever played. I was a gorilla, a first-person shooter on a roller coaster; a fry-cook. I fought with the rebels to take down the Empire in a Star Wars game. With new equipment, you can race cars and fly jets. These games are mind-blowingly cooler than Pong and Pacman I was raised on. But I’m a grown up with a very limited amount of free time. I’m not going to spend it playing video games – even really, really cool ones.

In the end, I have to admit I’m a bit of a luddite. I like the old ways, things like books and papers and pens. And reality. Thus, I may not be the best judge of what’s going to hit or miss. But I do have my opinions. And, in the end, I am of the opinion that you know what’s better than Virtual Reality? Reality.