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Future Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is a computer simulated realm that can be experienced in simulator machines that give you a full bodied experience or just a simpler program on your personal computer. Virtual reality is becoming a staple in modern education, training and entertainment as a more efficient and affordable tool.

So, first let’s discuss what is happening now in the field of virtual reality and later we’ll discuss the future of virtual reality.

Current Virtual Reality

Virtual reality’s roots arguably began back in 1965 by means of the “ultimate display” that was created by Ivan Sutherland. Then the data glove was introduced in 1977 that allowed a human body to interact in the digital world.

Next, “Tron” was the first computer generated movie in 1982. All the way up to holodecks from Star Trek and the “Matrix.” There are three types of technology that allows us to experience virtual reality in the 21st century.

Virtual Reality Today

They are, desktop VR, Video Mapping, and Immersive VR. Desktop is the most basic, like peering into another dimension and using the mouse and keyboard to interact through the screen. Whereas Immersive virtual reality is a full immersion experience where the user wears a helmet or goggles that project the video, audio is pumped into the room, the computer tracks the movements of the head, arms, legs, etc. This immersive mode allows you to use your entire body to experience the realities of another digital dimension.

Virtual Reality has its Pros and Cons. The positives lie with training, for example, pilot training for commercial pilots and fighter pilots. These examples save hundreds of thousands of dollars and provide the pilots with the added time needed to become fully certified.

Virtual reality can also be used for long distance communication, education, and even medical training. However, there are cons based on social distancing, false sense of reality and more which can be managed through proper education and use of the technology, but must be noted and accounted for.

Virtual Reality in Science Lab

There are many examples of virtual reality rides from Disneyland attractions to online video games. A realistic virtual reality realm exists online with no monthly subscription, it is called Second Life where you can design your own human, start a business, own property and socially interact with hundreds of thousands of other people.

If you are interested in fantasy realms you can always check World of Warcraft, EverQuest, or Star Wars: The Old Republic which is set for release in the fall of 2012. These realms offer you an out of body experience in a fantasy where flying, magic, and aliens rule so that you may take your entertainment to a whole new level.

Future Virtual Reality

Currently there are many hurdles to having a memorable virtual reality experience. Computer processing power, bandwidth and image resolution are just three hurdles that will need breakthrough technology in order to overcome these limitations.

But fear not as the power of future computers will come to the rescue providing thousands of times more processing speed than is currently available. The computers of tomorrow will make the computers of today look like mainframes.

Future Virtual Reality

Some of the uses of future virtual reality will be education, training, psychotherapy, medical, sports and interpersonal communication. In regard to future virtual reality and education, imagine taking a virtual trip to Rome to study Italian with native speakers rather than depending upon Rosetta Stone software or in-classroom or online studies.

In regard to training, the possibilities are endless. As previously mentioned pilot training would be one option. Other options would include military training such as parachuting, enemy combat, weapons training and hand-to-hand combat. Suppose however, you’re an astronaut going to Mars. You may want virtual experience in flying a spacecraft, experiencing zero gravity and training for tasks upon arrival at your destination.

Now with the combination of psychotherapy and virtual reality there are a couple of possibilities that jump to mind. One is distance learning and interaction with your psychotherapist which is more effective than a phone consultation or even a web cam. Another possibility is your psychotherapist helping you with a phobia or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

Holodeck

The treatment for each of these would be enhanced by future virtual reality since the goal of each is desensitization. For phobias, snakes, spiders or other objects of anxiety can be introduced slowly and safely as an interim step towards real life confrontation.

Future virtual reality may also help those with PTSD to re-enact the past trauma in a safe environment in a made up world where a person can also be desensitized to what had happened. This will be helpful to war veterans, victim or childhood or adult sexual or physical abuse or a whole host of other situations where one could be traumatized.

Medical uses of future virtual reality will be for the treatment of people with disabilities. Those who have problems with social interactions could do so safely virtually. Those undergoing physical therapy could also do so with the aid of future virtual reality to help train the mind about limbs moving in the way desired.

Virtual Reality in Medicine

Different studies of athletes have shown that imagining moves on the field are 80 to 85-percent as actual physical training. This means that closing one’s eyes, dreaming, meditating, doing hypnosis or simple daydreaming is almost as effective as physically doing the exercise and much more effective than those who don’t engage in these activities. So add to it the virtual reality aspect of moving and immersing oneself in realistic situations and future virtual reality will be helpful for both those engaging in physical therapy or athletes wanting to improve their game skills.

One of the last advantages of future virtual reality that I will talk about is the aid to interpersonal communication. Many people are aware of the shortcomings of talking on the phone, Facebooking, Tweeting, texting, or even webcam chats.

With future virtual reality, it will be possible for two or more people to meet in a virtual space and have a conversation. Experts have long said that 80 to 90-percent of all communication is non-verbal. Future virtual reality will help bridge this gap in that if you were to meet someone in a virtual space you could observe body language, facial expressions, hand gestures and put it all together with the content and tone of the other person’s speech.

Virtual Meeting

Communication will be greatly enhanced and misunderstandings will be greatly reduced with future virtual reality. Besides friends talking with friends, heads of nations, heads of corporations and other powerful people could meet virtually.

I’ve thought of one more industry that will be helped by future virtual reality and that is the entertainment industry. Can’t get tickets to a concert or sporting event, then join the virtual crowd and enjoy yourself. There is a book-signing by your favorite author halfway around the world. Join it virtually.

Want to meet a celebrity, join a cocktail party (or your favorite bar), go to the opening of a new art gallery, see a Broadway play? In the future, virtual reality will aid in all of these desires.

It will just take a little more time and technology to see this come to fruition. Patience is a virtue – or is it virtual? 🙂

Future Cyberwarfare

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Cyberwarfare is already here and has been scaling up among countries or organizations over the past decade. Future cyberwarfare will continue to scale up attacks against governments, corporations, special interest groups and even civilians in the next 10 years where it will be on par with traditional military attacks such as ground and air attacks and in the coming 15 years will surpass these tactics.

As the world becomes more wired and global by the nanosecond, Russia, China, the U. S., Israel, North Korea, Iran and a few other countries not only to prepare against cyber attacks but are launching operations through cyberspace as we speak, so to speak.

Cyber War

And future cyberwarfare will not just be targeted against military agencies or other government agencies such as the NSA, CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Computer viruses, denial of service attacks and other Internet based hacking, espionage and attacking will take place against Wall Street and Main Street as well.

Just as the case of 9/11 in the U. S. where a financial center was targeted, so too will future cyber attacks be focused. Bringing down the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ would be a prime target for some other countries or groups. Just like the War on Terror is a global war so is cyberwarfare.

Moonlight Maze, Titan Rain and Ghostnet attacks over the past decade have shown that cyber attacks are real and happening now. In fact, many U. S. officials consider specific kinds of cyber attacks a call for war, as in air and ground war.

Future cyberwarfare will be conducted against the electrical power grid, affecting Main Street, Wall Street and the U. S. military simultaneously. Nuclear power plants may also be targeted in hopes of the destructive impact of a major meltdown.

Sabotaging servers, satellites, modes of transportation and communications from halfway around the globe with a high degree of deniability is an attractive way to confront one’s enemies. Many large corporations in the U. S. have to defend against 1,000’s of cyber attacks a day keeping hackers and those wanting to do corporate espionage at bay. Also corporate competitors have a vested interest in seeing their rivals business is disrupted so it is likely corporate to corporate attacks are also occurring.

Cyber Attack

It is estimated the corporate cyber attacks go way underreported since big business does not typically want to seem weak or vulnerable to customers or shareholders.

In the future, the military itself will also merge with other agencies adept at computer warfare. Jamming radar, disabling infrared detection, silencing lasers and other future weapons may be accomplished with cyberwarfare.

Planting viruses on foreign computers that both relay intelligence, then act as a virus to destroy data will continue to grow in popularity. Rogue, lone hackers, who were once on the fringe of society, will be mainstreamed into U. S. military defensive and offensive positions.

In the future the Pentagon’s U.S. Cyber Command department will expand as the need for military personnel on the ground decreases. The Department of Homeland Security will also expand its powers with programmers and security experts.

China and Russia who used to be two of the largest threats from nuclear proliferation have now turned to cyber attack proliferation and in the future this will expand exponentially. With nuclear war there is a low degree of deniability as to where the bombs originated. With cyberwarfare there is a much higher degree of deniability which makes this a more attractive type of attack.

Future cyberwarfare will in some ways even the playing field for some smaller countries. With the use of cheap computers and enough brain power a country doesn’t have to have a large standing military presence.

Future Cyberwarfare

Quantum technology including artificial intelligence and computational neural networks used by future computers will not only reign in a new era of power and communications, but will also open the door for cybercrimes, attacks and warfare. Will you be ready?

External Links

Moonlight Maze http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cyberwar/warnings/

Titan Rain http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1098961,00.html

Ghostnet http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html

CIA Hacked http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/cia-web-site-hacked/2011/06/15/AGGNphWH_story.html

Future Teller Says Fortune Not Doomsday Ahead

Future Predictions 2 Responses »

Jun 012011

First of all, let me say, i am immigrant. I come from country with not freedom. When I come to America i see fortune all around. Oprah, Beverly Hills, Donald Trump and i like cheeseburgers, too. But, let me get to point.

I have knack for closing eyes, getting visions, talking about these visions and they come true. I am especially accurate when it come to future technology. You could say i am future teller. I tell future of great things happening. No Rapture, No 2012 catastrophe. What is dis?

Dis is where they wash the hogs or hogswash i hear someone say. No, when I close eyes, i see the past that i have predicted so accurately. Russian cosmonauts in space. I predicted this years before reality. The Internet was my idea, not Al Gore’s and not DARPA. Please.

Solar Concept

Yes, global warming real. Ice shelves melting. Dis future teller says there will be some worldwide calamities like tsunami which just happened in Japan that will be wakeup call for rest of us. Carbon and fossil fuel will be replaced by cheap renewable energy. Cheap solar right around corner.

When i close eyes and dis future teller looks into crystal ball powered by next generation Pentium chip i see individuals with more power than ever before. Energy will be created at home. There will be home fueling stations. Food will quickly and easily be grown both inside and outside homes.

Government decentralized. Big companies, decentralized. Much more power, wealth and technology will be at local level. Think globally, act locally will get off bumper stickers and into our neighborhoods.

Yes, there will be future wars. Mankind is so immature. Science and technology go faster than our spiritual or emotional maturity. Flying cars, of course. In my country, pigs will fly too, ha ha ha!

No, me be serious for second. There are many prophets and fortune tellers who say India, Pakistan and China will rise to world power and dominate U. S. But this no true. With Internet and services like Facebook and Twitter, this will help organize and democratize world.

China and North Korea will fall under the global weight of people talking and revolting. In regard to technology dis future teller predicts not only trips within low earth orbit for tourists within next 3 years but trips to moon within 15 years. Trips to Mars are only 30 year away, so this is what I see and tell.

DARPA Robot

There will be future wars, but no with nuclear bombs. Future wars will be more localized and precise using laser weapons, advanced intelligence gathering using spy satellites and planes and more robotic, clone and cyborg soldiers. But doomsday will never come. It never has.

When I jump off boat, I was part of 4G network. In my country we still use tin cans and string to talk. But, in 2 years, 5G network will be out. This is variation of Moore’s Law. Not Gordon Moore, but Roger Moore (double nyet 7). In 2 years, 5G network be all over Flint, Michigan where that other Moore guy be from.

As far as the rest of 2011, economy come back because Tech sector strong like bull once again. Because of future medical technology in 10 year, at least 10-percent of U. S. humans be made up of titanium, carbon fiber and other synthetic parts.

Dis all for now. Me go eat ham sandwich.

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