Machines that make us better at being human? Yes! Some smart folks at Stanford University are using virtual reality (VR) to give people a chance to feel what it\u2019s like to, say, be homeless with a family.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve been there, it\u2019s hard to not to care.<\/p>\n
Inside the VR headsets are entire worlds. When you have the headset on you can move around the space and interact with the characters. You meet them, hear their stories and ultimately live with them for as long the simulation lasts.<\/p>\n
The Stanford studies show that after using VR people feel strong emotions for the folks they met. And they carry that empathy with them into the real world.<\/p>\n
The thing is, our brains are really good at dividing the world into \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019. And then totally cutting out the \u2018thems\u2019 from our reality.<\/p>\n
Virtual reality might help create a new, compassionate reality that includes all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Machines that make us better at being human? Yes! Some smart folks at Stanford University are using virtual reality (VR) to give people a chance to feel what it\u2019s like to, say, be homeless with a family. Once you\u2019ve been there, it\u2019s hard to not to care. Inside the VR headsets are entire worlds. When you have the headset on\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[132,291,292,293,294],"class_list":["post-6099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-paths","category-sonder","tag-empathy","tag-future-of-technology","tag-stanford","tag-technology","tag-virtual-reality"],"yoast_head":"\n