Digital Opinion South Africa

The magic of Virtual Reality (VR) and how it's going to impact our lives real soon...

I was inspired by Elon Musk in his recent interview at the Code Conference, where he was saying that games in the next five years will be pretty much exactly like real life.

He added that that it could be possible that we all live in a virtual reality world that could have been created by humans in the future – mind blown!

The magic of Virtual Reality (VR) and how it's going to impact our lives real soon...
© Maryia Bahutskaya – 123RF.com

I personally think he’s from the future and has come back to our time to help us move into a brighter future – but that’s a whole other blog.

So I decided to look at 10 ways VR will be affecting us in the near future…

1. Fitness and gaming will join to become one

The Tesla suit and Virtuix treadmill will combine to activate every aspect of our bodies and minds.

2. Education

Field trips, remote classes and the gamification of learning are all part and parcel of how education will happen in the most immersive way from your bedroom in your pyjamas.

3. Warfare

There will be fewer people in the line of fire and with fewer deaths, we all win. But the real win will be when we move the madness that is war into a full digital gamification platform and with the world of abundance approaching in the next few decades I truly believe this can be a reality, or should I say, a virtual reality.

4. Specialised training

Astronauts, deep-sea divers and specialised drivers are some professions that require a large amount of devotion and funding – this already deters a lot of people. With VR, anyone can snap on a headset and start training. KFC has already started training staff with Google Glass, which has saved them time and money training on the job.

5. Travel

Most of us dream of travelling to exotic locations or just sitting on a tropical island for a few hours – or weeks  but the usual factors that stop us from living these dreams are time and funds. With VR we can whisk ourselves off to the pyramids, Seychelles or Mars in an afternoon.

6. E-sports

E-sports channels are already the highest watched channels on Youtube and is bigger than even the NBA and baseball category combined. With so much momentum gathering behind this digital sport, the most logical next step is VR, which will propel us into the next dimension, both literally and figuratively.

7. Medicine and therapy

VR has already been in this field for some time but has only really opened up for the public to start tinkering with recently. We can only imagine the brand new ways they we will discover to further soothe mental anguish, help patients overcome difficult hurdles and, if nothing else, help people pretend they’re not eating hospital food.

8. Mobile gaming

This platform is just growing and growing and ads for the latest games are almost inescapable – now morph this with the portable VR headsets like the Samsung unit and bada bing, you have a fully immersive game on your phone. This could really make it booooom it even louder!

9. Movies

High definition and 3D have made a notable change in the movie world but just imagine how this next phase will propel us from sitting in our lounges to sitting in space to sitting in Valhalla in a matter of seconds. Netflix already has an app for VR where you can change the size of your screen – from movie size to handheld size while you play another game. The possibilities are pretty staggering.

10. Gaming

A match made in heaven and what is actually fuelling the VR revolution. As Elon Musk said recently, games with VR will soon be so good you won’t be able to distinguish whether it’s real life or not.

This is all very exciting but the big question for me is, ‘is our ‘reality’ already a VR world?’

About John Sanei

Futures Strategist John Sanei makes sense of future trends and merges them so individuals and organisations can forge forward with confidence, elevating their leadership vision to exponential heights. At the intersection of human science, neuroscience, quantum technology, futurism and business strategy, John has a knack for sharing his knowledge and creating meaningful connections. He ignites platforms, connects with crowds and leaves an empowering perspective that lasts long after the lights have switched off.
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