Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual Reality has come a long way from what Ruth La Ferla described in her 2009 New York Times Article, "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You". That article delved into the "virtual splurging and shopping sprees" that Avatars could experience which to some extent satisfied players monetary material desires they couldn't afford in real-life. While 4 years later, Diane Mehta was contemplating if virtual realities have a future in her interview with Jacki Morie, today virtual reality platforms have been growing exponentially and the technology has been advancing at a dizzying rate. Virtual worlds have moved beyond games and are being used as world wide classrooms, business meeting locations and as real life training engines. Since VR allows almost instantaneous collaboration efforts, things like friends getting together to do homework or create music have no impediments of location, travel and timing. I for one hope that VR moves to the level of Star Trek the Next Generation's vision of holodecks. Where for brief periods of time, we literally can be where we want to be or do what we want to do.