[applecore]

Virtual reality isn't about “escaping reality.” If anything, this technology makes it possible to relive your experiences, and, much more importantly, show somebody else the inside of your own mind, both of which are reality-affirming activities.

[istorical]

No it is exactly about escaping reality. It's literally fooling your sense of sight and hearing with with more believable simulations than ever before, so much that we now use the term "presence" to describe the feeling you get when your reptilian brain believes you actually are in the place the headset has transported you to.

It's the culmination of thousands of years of technological escapism that began with literary fiction and has progressed to movies and video games. But this new evolution promises to be the most potent form of escapism yet due to presence.

Whether escapism can be used healthily is a different question, but it is certainly escapism. Right now the technology is still primitive, but we do need to begin to ask important questions about the priority we place on the real world vs simulations. As we work towards brain computer interfaces, we must decide the proper balance between inhabiting, playing in, and working in the real world with its unbreakable physics and rules and the virtual world where we may change the rules of the game whenever we wish and many constraints are mutable.

[kriro]

I disagree with this. The most successful applications that I am aware of are in realms where reality is being reproduced and not escaped. The key advantage is that variables in those worlds can be changed and/or stuff isn't as dangerous while still being realistic.

While escapist and fantasy worlds are fun and very much thinkable (and the line is pretty blurry if you think of the use of VR in therapy for example) reproducing reality is very much "a thing".

Domains that come to mind are: medical training specifically surgery and training for miners.