This article hits close to home. I spent a day at Oculus when they were evaluating my product (pre Facebook acquisition) and we were able to play with some of

This article hits close to home. I spent a day at Oculus when they were evaluating my product (pre Facebook acquisition) and we were able to play with some of their prototype headsets. They had games, space sims, etc to check out. But the most shocking simulation was just a bedroom, that was detailed out to the 9's. The developer was articulate around textures and shades and it felt like I was in a real bedroom. Taking off the headset, I felt shocked that that I wasn't removed from my virtual world, it felt like an extension of the real world. It really made me question what reality was and how sensory organs can be manipulated to the point to think something is real when it isn't. Another example is I am starting to feel a connection to digital bits that probably shouldn't exist. I have built systems that have drawn a connection to my identity through media that I collect. This system has been up for 8 years (over a quarter of my life) and it has recently had a catastrophic failure. I genuinely feel sad, and feel that I am missing a piece of myself, my identity. I agree with the article that virtual worlds, social media, and digital identity are skewing perceptions of reality. It will be interesting to see what is on the other side of tunnel of these advancements. Hopefully it will improve humanity and reality, not cloud or hurt it.