[dboat]

I wouldn't want to be an early adopter for this type of technology. Even just play old VR is still so new that we don't know what sort of effects prolonged use will have on physiology and cognition, and direct stimulation of the brain, a system whose precise functioning still seems so largely unknown to us, seems all the more dangerous.

I feel that some day we will be able to comprehensively decode neural communication but I would liken our current state to something like surgery in the Victorian era. I wonder if these student volunteers see the situation differently than I do, or if they are just that brave.

[hnlmorg]

VR really isn't new. It's quite literally been around a few decades. Longer if you count devices like Sensorama[1] but the Oculus-style VR headsets that we're familiar with now has been around since the 90s (albeit at a significantly lower polygon count).

Plus there has been lots of research already about extended periods of altered realities. From people living inside mock space capsules through to simple experiments with people wearing special glasses[2]. Though granted I don't know of any research regarding extended use Oculus-style VR for weeks / months at a time, there have also been a lot of research regarding the use of such technology and how it can alter our mental perceptions beyond what we visual see (eg I cannot find a reference for this one but I did read research about people using avatars of the opposite sex and how quickly people came to register that was their pseudo-psyical body)

As an aside, this research reminds me a bit of Sword Art Online[3]. A Japanese light novel (which has been ported to different formats from anime through to computer games) and which is about "full dive" VR headsets.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorama

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upside_down_goggles

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_Art_Online