# How long before multi-level/highly efficient virtual personal simulation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 4, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623 "2005-08-04T21:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/1 "2005-08-04T21:31:42Z")
Ok I’m talking full on virtual reality in home systems. Not the goofy looking hats that cover your ears and eyes, but a system built so that when you plug in - however you plug in - you are launched into a world where you can walk, talk and interact with everything and everyone. The game or program evolves with whatever you do in the game. If you want to go on a safari you can fly to Tanzania and walk amongst the Sahara plains…maybe not feel the wind in your face but certainly look around, and see all it has to offer. Or build a SIM City and interact with the charactors realtime as if you are looking at them in the eye. I’m envisoning somesort of suit you would have to put on, some sort of sensory deprivation/enhancing suit that would make your experience so real you never want to unplug. So how long would you say this would take? Do you think it will ever happen? What type of _Game_ would you like to see? What types of applications would you envision? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/2 "2005-08-04T21:49:32Z")
That type of artificial intelligence has been the Holy Grail forever and has never lived up to its promises. That is a huge weak point in your wish. It could be 50 years or more before the product you describe is fully there. I will bet money though that some type of virtual sex is one of the first commercially viable inventions of this type. It may not even have to be full blown virtual reality sex but something like a virtual lap dance, strip show, or somewhat interactive 3-D porn movie. ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/3 "2005-08-04T22:00:11Z")
Isn’t that what they used to say about the internet? That there would soon be nothing but porn? Look how wrong they were. Oh, not wait. They were right. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/4 "2005-08-04T22:10:40Z")
> [@Jpeg Jones](#): > > Isn’t that what they used to say about the internet? That there would soon be nothing but porn? > > Look how wrong they were. Porn really was a huge driving force for the early web. Porn attracted tons of initial users. Pay porn sites of various flavors were some of the most successful early businesses on the web and proved that businesses could make money there. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/5 "2005-08-04T22:26:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Porn really was a huge driving force for the early web. Porn attracted tons of initial users. Pay porn sites of various flavors were some of the most successful early businesses on the web and proved that businesses could make money there. Good collegue of mine paid his way through college in Connecticut in the eary 90’s with a Pay porn site. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/6 "2005-08-04T23:48:59Z")
For there to be ‘realistic’ virtual reality, we need some breakthroughs or new engineering developments. If you’re not going to wear a VR helmet or glasses, then you need to either plug straight into your brain, or you need to create some form of large screen technology that you can wrap around you. Plugging into the brain is in its early, early infancy. We can plug people in and get them to recognize simple shapes, and that’s about it. Being able to replicate real worlds is decades or more away, if it’s even possible. On the other hand, it’s not too far-fetched to suggest that the next trend in home theaters could be full-wall displays on three or four walls and the ceiling, projecting you into a virtual world. Some people have already done something like this with three projectors and a tri-head Matrox card. Racing games and flight simulations are pretty cool when you also have scenes in your peripheral vision. Perhaps OLED technology or some other form of cheap, full-wall display will come down the road and we’ll all be watching wrap-around movies in ten years. As for sensory input (touch, smell), we just don’t know how to do that in a general way. Perhaps some form of force-feedback glove will allow us to pick up and ‘feel’ virtual objects, but we don’t have anything like that now. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/7 "2005-08-05T15:26:10Z")
I hate to say it, but most advances in this field will probably come from breakthroughs in Teledildonics (just google it). ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/8 "2005-08-05T15:28:24Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > I hate to say it, but most advances in this field will probably come from breakthroughs in Teledildonics (just google it). Is it just me or would _ **Teledildonic** _ be a great username. ---
**Author:** ![EnderWay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d26b3c/32.png) [@EnderWay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnderWay)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/9 "2005-08-06T02:29:46Z")
You’re talking about a Holodeck right! Uummm, I give it fifty years! ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-before-multi-level-highly-efficient-virtual-personal-simulation/315623/10 "2005-08-06T02:54:50Z")
Doubtful that there will ever be any such animal. In order for a system to faithfully reproduce \*everything \* and _anything_ you desire - and have those things be manipulatable anyway you desire and affect your nervous system at each input correctly would require it to _instantaneously_ process nearly infinite possibilities.