Over the next decades, technologies for virtual reality are going to become significantly
more advanced. But how advanced will virtual reality become after hundreds or thousands
of years? And what would be the most logical path to get there? This video will explore
those topics. In:
In the year 2030, 8K VR Headsets Are Commonplace By 2030, the latest VR screens now have 8k
resolution, which has 4 times the number of pixels as 4k screens. When you view character
models and objects up close with these devices, there is zero visible pixilation resulting
in breathtaking detail and realism.
Because of other equipment upgrades, VR games also have near zero latency and a wide field
of view.
Additionally, some haptic suits have become electrode meshes to maximize comfort and convenience.
In the year 2030, Many VR Headsets Now Include Brain-Computer Interfaces
In 2030, many VR headsets now include the option for brain-computer interfaces to record
users' electrical signals and enable actions by merely thinking about them. Headbands and
wrist bands with non-invasive sensors have become the preferred choices for mainstream
brain-computer interface use.
These devices scan beta, gamma, and other brain rhythms involved in problem-solving
and orientation tasks and converts the wearer’s mental intentions into actions. The brain
computer interfaces themselves do not process the signals; they send those signals to consoles
that decrypt the data.
Game developers and VR content creators also have the ability to track and analyze the
emotional states of users who volunteer that information. This allows these companies to
create more compelling experiences with their content in the future.
However, these devices have limited functionality and there are still some issues with controlling
objects in virtual environments and video games.
In the year 2030, Virtual Worlds Are Considerably Larger Than Ever
Extremely large and highly detailed VR worlds are now possible. This is largely due to emergence
of 6g, which is 100 times faster than 5G and runs at terabyte per second. This is critical
since higher numbers of VR users are now using cloud gaming services.
In 2050, 16K Virtual Reality Headsets Are Mainstream
By 2050, most headsets now come with 16K resolution as a standard, which is 4 times number of
pixels as 8K displays from 2030 and more than 16 times the pixel count of 4K devices from
the early 2020s. The 16K format offers a photorealism that is practically impossible for the human
eye to distinguish from the real world.
Meanwhile, a mid-range graphics card has more than 10 petaFLOPS of processing power, which
is 1,000 times more powerful than high-end graphics cards in the early 2020s.
In the year 2050, Brain-Computer Interfaces Have Improved By Orders Of Magnitude
By 2050, all virtual reality headsets come with brain-computer interfaces of some type.
The somewhat niche and experimental brain-computer interfaces in the 2030s are being replaced
by much more sophisticated versions, making brain signal data less noisy.
Brain computer interfaces now offer a bidirectional exchange of information. These advanced neural
interfaces send waves to the brain, transmitting visual, audio, and other sensations to the
user. The images and experiences generated by these devices are almost indistinguishable
from reality, and they’re unique to each user because they depend on the structure
of the brain.
You can easily manipulate any object in a game using your brain signals. This feature
is particularly important in the latest Star Wars game where you play as Jedis and Siths
with force abilities. And in the latest Matrix game where you can play as The One.
Additionally, these devices allow people in VR games and experiences to communicate with
each other using relatively simple thoughts. However, it will take a few more decades before
this feature is refined.
In the year 2050, Virtual Worlds Are Vastly More Realistic
With the release of Unreal Engine 8, it’s easier and faster than ever for game studios
and independent creators to build large and realistic virtual cities that are fully explorable
in terms of shops, office spaces, and most other types of interiors. Likewise, an entire
forest can now be rendered with sub-millimeter precision, showing unique and random features
such as individual leaf marks or insect bites.
This variety and realism is apparent in character models as well. Generative adversarial networks
(GANs) can generate an almost infinite variety of each physical attribute such as faces,
hair, body types, and clothing. This is made possible because of enormous amounts of visual
data fed to these neural networks. This technique also improves character gestures, expressions,
and actions, making them more fluid and lifelike. At this stage, character animations aren’t
100% realistic yet, but they are jaw-droppingly close.
And with the latest version of Metahumans, it’s relatively easy to build hundreds of
unique, non-playable characters at a time that each have unique personalities and life
stories.
Additionally, thanks to a modern version of a language model similar to GPT-3 from the
early 2020s, non-playable characters can now generate and sustain natural, nuanced, and
indefinite conversations with the use of powerful and responsive deep-learning algorithms in
the cloud.
Audio in general is richer, more atmospheric, more varied, and realistic. Sound waves can
be manipulated in exquisite detail as they bounce around virtual environments and are
influenced by different objects, surface textures, and weather conditions.
Grand Theft Auto 8, which includes a VR mode, uses much of this technology and on the first
day of its release, it made billions of dollars.
IIn the year 2050, VR Glasses Feature Multiple Display Modes
The display modes for the VR glasses include the following:
• The Augmented Reality mode will allow the lenses to be transparent so that you can
view holograms • The Mixed Reality mode will allow the
lenses to be transparent as well so that you can view hyper-realistic virtual objects in
the real world that seem to obey the laws of physics
• The Virtual Reality mode has an opaque coat of silver over the glasses so that you
can fully-immerse in a virtual world
In the augmented and mixed reality modes, you can view a smartstream where you can manipulate
multiple apps and files using your brain activity. It’s because of these features that VR glasses
are considered the next step of evolution after smartphones.
The ear sets that come with virtual reality headsets are almost invisible and work using
bone-conducting technology.
VR contact lens is another area that is gradually being adopted.
In the year 2050, Realistic Touch, Smell, And Taste Are Now Possible In Virtual Reality
Haptic suites now work using exo-skeletons to simulate touch or they may stimulate nerve
endings to cause muscle contractions.
Because of this technology, you can feel sensations such as cold and heat on precise body regions
with sub-millimeter precision. You can clearly differentiate between being punched or caressed
in a virtual environment. And you can feel the sensation of a gentle breeze or the sensation
of swimming through a virtual lake.
In addition to haptic technology, smell and tastes are digitized as well. Digital smells
and tastes are beginning to be added to virtual environments and are accessible using signals
from brain computer interfaces.
In the year 2050, Real Locations Are Being Used For VR Experiences
As part of a massive effort to build profitable ecosystems in the metaverse, multiple companies
have created entirely digital versions of real cities and locations. This allows smoother
continuity between location-based holograms in the physical world, actions made in the
associated virtual world, and vice versa. Advances in GPS, 3d scanning, and AI technologies
made this possible well before 2050.
Increasingly, VR Games are being created using real locations as the environments.
This development is also transforming the virtual tourism industry.
In the year 2100, Full-Immersion Virtual Reality (FIVR) Becomes Mainstream
Full-Immersion Virtual Reality involves injecting tens of billions nanorobots into the brain
that are programmed to function simultaneously. These nanobots are too small to disrupt the
electrical signals in the brain and they won’t cause harm due of their limited functionality.
Implants in general are also tailored to the unique physical composition of each person’s
brain as opposed to VR helmets in Science Fiction.
Nanobots work by blocking all sensory information and downloading alternate information to the
5 senses. In other words, sensations like vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch are
temporarily substituted by a computer program. This would allow users to feel like they’re
100% connected to virtual environments.
As a result, VR experiences are now indistinguishable from reality. Some users report that they
forget reality exists within seconds after being immersed in these experiences. That’s
why these experiences typically come with timed and easy-to-use escape mechanisms so
that users aren’t lost in these experiences for indefinite amounts of time.
And thanks to this technology, in multiplayers games, you can communicate with other players
using moderately-complex thoughts.
In the year 2100, All VR Experiences Have Photo-Realistic Graphics
Decades after all non-VR video games became photo-realistic, all VR experiences are capable
of being 100% photo-realistic as well. This is due to the fact that $1,000 of computing
power is now equal to a billion Earth's worth of human intelligence. Laptop-sized computers
of this year can perform the equivalent of all human thought over the last ten thousand
years in less than ten microseconds.
These VR experiences are so convincing that they force humans to question whether their
own reality might be virtual.
In the year 2100, Characters In Virtual Worlds And Videos Games Are Just As Intelligent As
Real Humans It’s now becoming common-place to encounter
characters in virtual worlds and video games that exhibit human-level intelligence. These
characters can perform a wide range of activities, creatively problem solve, and exhibit life-like
emotion. At this stage, even artificial general intelligence is starting to become possible
for non-playable characters.
This is leading to an emergence of people getting more emotional support and satisfaction
from virtual characters rather than from other humans.
In the year 2100, Virtual Worlds Are Now Planet-Sized Advances in memory, internet speeds, cloud
computing, and other areas now enable planet-sized virtual worlds to be commonplace. Because
of the partnership of several companies over decades, many of these worlds are modeled
after planet Earth with numerous alterations applied to them like size, landscape variations,
and time periods to make these worlds more interesting.
This development revolutionizes open world and role-playing games.
In the year 3000, Entire Virtual Worlds Are Constructed Using The Smallest Quantum Units
As Building Blocks As the computing power for supercomputers
reached the zettascale, yottascale, and beyond, smaller and smaller pixelations were being
applied to greater and greater volumes of space-time.
It’s now possible to replicate every single subatomic particle in a real environment and
the countless quantum events that occur in those environments. Objects in virtual environments,
including the air, are now comprised of individual molecules and atoms. And physical forces such
as gravity, electricity, magnetism, air resistance, and more now function the same in virtual
environments as they do in real life. This offers a level of realism that was inconceivable
with full-immersion virtual reality by itself.
In the year 3000, Humans Are Able To Transform Virtual Environments With Their Thoughts
Thanks to multiple scientific breakthroughs, it’s now possible for people to instantaneously
transform multiple dimensions of objects at almost the atomic level using only their thoughts.
This development leads to an explosion of creativity and innovation that was inconceivable
to people in earlier centuries.
To people from the early 21st century, the virtual worlds in this era would far surpass
the most epic movie environments they ever watched and offer an unimaginable level of
detail, ingenuity, and originality. And reality in these worlds is able to change in ways
that can’t be adequately explained with words from previous centuries.
Research is even underway that will allow humans to become virtual environments by connecting
their consciousness to those environments. This would allow people to instantaneously
re-arrange the atoms anywhere in a virtual environment with only their consciousness.
In the year 3000, Characters In Virtual Worlds Are Capable Of Super-Intelligence
Characters now have a wide range of intelligence levels. Not only is it normal for characters
to have human-level intelligence, but some of them have considerably higher intelligence
than humans. Humans now require intelligence and memory-boosting implants to comprehend
these characters and the worlds they live in.
In the year 3000, Digital Immortality Is Commonplace For a few centuries now, the average person
has had access to special clinics where then can upload their consciousness to computers
so that their consciousness can live on long after their physical death.
Many people choose to have their consciousness transferred to simulations before their physical
bodies die, allowing their digital selves to live forever in those simulations. By now,
many of these people have lived in these digital simulations for at least a few centuries.
Anyone who is biologically alive can enter these simulations to potentially interact
with these people.
In the year 10000, A Simulated Universe Has Been Created
This simulated universe has similar laws of physics to our own. Some people are granted
access to enter and leave it as they please as long as they don’t disturb the civilizations
that live in it too much.
It’s become routine to run experiments on artificial Earths in this universe, slightly
alter parameters such as gravity, mass, temperature and so on, then fast-forward billions of years
to compare outcomes. Intelligent species evolving on these virtual worlds may be entirely unaware
that they are part of a giant simulation.
Thanks for watching. Make sure to watch the video series to the right about technologies
in future time periods.