There I was, sitting at the edge of a cliff, feeling every single heartbeat pounding in my chest. The noise of distant rumble of rails distinctively repeated in my ears, and before I could gather my thoughts and take another breath, I was sent underground. Wind was rushing through my face, the hair-raising experience of swinging down a roller coaster at headlong speed, and the stumble in my stomach started to horrify me.

For most people, Extended Reality technology, also known as XR, is hailed as the next technological wave following the internet revolution in the late 20th century. Giants in the tech industry all over the world, like Meta and Apple are embracing this development, all hoping to lead humanity into a new era unlike any before. Public also has tremendous expectations on XR technology, hoping it brings more equity and happiness to the world. While technological advancement undoubtedly brings convenience to our lives, I think it is crucial to approach its impact critically.

We should utilize VR to create more widespread mental health care because it produces a platform for radically transforming the treatment of psychological disorders, like PTSD, Social Anxiety Disorder, and phobias. This is made possible through the development of virtual reality exposure therapy(VRET), telehealth-based VRET, and sensory rooms. 

How do we know if something is right or wrong? Is it as simple as a correlation to good or bad? Is this ethical differentiation innately recognized or a result of conditioning? While the matter of morality often has somewhat of a consensus, the borders to these questions remain undeclared.

Introduction to Augmented reality in sports

As an athlete, you are always looking for a leg up. Whether that be through optimized nutrition, a well-balanced sleep schedule, performance specific strength and agility training, or intense practices, every single athlete is on the hunt. In a new age of advanced technologies swarming nearly every industry, the sports training industry seems to be falling behind. But, Virtual reality is slowly seeping into the world of youth sports and is proving to be the next key progression in sports training. 

In his book, Reality+, David Chalmers uses virtual reality as a new way to conceptualize old philosophical questions such as “are virtual worlds real?” and “can we know whether or not we are living in a virtual world”, in an attempt to make sense of our current reality and determine how “real” it might actually be.

With this entry, I’m wrapping up my third summer in a row working at the library! All of them have been spent working primarily on Aurum VR, an interdisciplinary project between Studio X and the Robbins Library, where we use primary texts from the Robbins's collection to recreate an alchemical lab in virtual reality.