SIMULATING WORST-CASE SCENARIOS TO BRING OUT THE BEST IN US
Researchers hope to make their virtual reality “field trip’’ a vital conservation tool, aiming to give its “travelers’’ as real an experience as possible. The goal is to get people to understand in a visceral way what climate change is doing to the oceans. Rather than show them a slide show, or a video, or have them sit in front of a computer screen, virtual reality mentally transports them directly into the natural environment.
“There is an underwater calamity underway,’’ says Jeremy Bailenson, professor of communication at Stanford University and director of its Virtual Human Interaction Lab, where this and other “expeditions’’ are under creation. “We can’t get everyone to read scientific papers about climate change, so this shortcuts all of that. We want people to walk out of there feeling empathy and wanting to act. It really gives you a feel for what’s going to happen if we don’t do something.’’
Bailenson believes that virtual reality can play a significant role in not only in making people more environmentally friendly, but in prompting people to save more for retirement, exercise more and feel more empathy for important social issues, such as homelessness.
See the full story here: http://www.popsci.com/virtual-reality-coral-reef-environment