What Happens When Virtual Reality Gets Too Real
Summary: VR will change morality. The change won&#x27;t be the end of the world. Most likely, some changes will be highly disturbing.<p>I enjoy computer games. I played FTL until I had all the ships and all of the achievements, so perhaps I qualify as a gamer. I volunteer at a videogame museum. I have many friends who are avid gamers. That said, I seem to keep on meeting young people have a moral system along the lines of, &quot;If the laws of physics and the laws of the government where I reside allow it, I can do it, and it&#x27;s moral.&quot;<p>The world isn&#x27;t going to end, and it won&#x27;t result in an instant Mad Max post-apocalyptic world, but technological changes do have an effect on morality. Pre 1400, insisting that people be on time to the minute, or even to 15-20 minutes would have been considered quite crazy. Birth control had a tremendous effect on what society considers moral. When music had to be distributed as manufactured objects, the technology brought about one set of moral standards with regards to the selling&#x2F;owning&#x2F;distributing of music. Now that all media exist as bits, we are now seeing a different set of moral standards come into being. (One of which is, &quot;Pics or it didn&#x27;t happen.&quot;)<p>So VR is clearly going to influence what society considers &quot;moral&quot; -- probably in ways we can&#x27;t easily forsee. Many of alive today -- even typical members of the HN community -- are going to find some of these changes quite disturbing.