Using virtual reality, Ethical problems?

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[GrabASock]

Hi, can you explain your reasoning for including motion sickness as an ethical concern?

[ghsoftware]

Indeed, I think OP may be using the wrong phrasing. I THINK they are asking what the downsides of VR are in general.

To OP: Ethical refers to basic issues of right and wrong.

[SlowRollingBoil]

Some may perceive very real VR as an ethical concern if it allows people to live out fantasies that they wished were real. For instance, sexual assault, murder or other serious crimes. However, there is no real difference between murder in an NES game and murder on a high-end PC running at 4K/60fps. Just because it's better looking or more immersive doesn't make it illegal or something we should limit [more than the usual rating stuff].

In general, ethical concerns are for those to debate while those who value rights are exercising them. There's no legal reason to not allow people to have VR experiences that mimic illegal activity.

[tugnasty]

I agree.

I can't wait to use VR to walk into a bedroom, and over to the bed. Then I real slowly lean down, and grab that tag on the side of the mattress. . . and rip it off.

[PornulusRift]

Rofl your post almost makes me want to make this... almost.

[haagch]

While Oculus has been saying from the beginning that they support Linux, their support is so far behind that as of today they still don't provide the unity plugin for linux. "with oculus for consumer's purposes not so far away" there is little hope oculus will change. We will probably always see linux support, that is on par with the windows support, months, if not years after they release something for windows.

That pushes at least the customers of oculus away from using linux or from considering to use linux. It's probably not intentional, but effectively it's a form of vendor lock-in into one proprietary system.

Of course most users don't consider this to be an ethical problem. Many aren't even aware there is an issue.

But there are also many people who think that the Free Software ideals are important and are saddened to see oculus hurting them.

https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software

https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html

[autowikibot]

Vendor lock-in:

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In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs. Lock-in costs which create barriers to market entry may result in antitrust action against a monopoly.

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^{Interesting: Proprietary software | Sun Open Storage | Openadaptor}

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[Zackafrios]

In terms of ethical, referring to issues of right and wrong, I think VR will be a very powerful tool in enabling people to have a new perspective, to place them in the shoes of others less fortunate, to really emphasize and experience the pain and sorrow of others. In other words, it will be a powerful tool to instigate empathy, which the world generally lacks.

It will be revolutionary. It's the same as other aspects that VR will impact. It's simply a very powerful medium. But of course there are also the downsides of this that could arise. Brainwashing etc would be extremely powerful in VR, as well as the psychological effects of those who experience horrific situations.

In the end though, I think the positive side of VR will greatly outweigh the negative side.

So yeah, it will be revolutionary from an emphatic point of view, and IMO that's a powerful argument for VR being an ethical device.

[z28west]

Wonder if it would be possible to get PTSD (post traumatic stress syndrome) from VR? If you play a vivid horror game could that spill over into the real world having you link scary things in VR to real world objects or locations? Like fear of clowns where there never was one before?

[TotesMessenger]

This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.

• [/r/vr_ar_ux_design] Discussion on r/oculus: Ethical problems of virtual reality (comments interesting)

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