Will travel one day become unnecessary?

[harvyk]

And yes you will get someone thinking travel is too expensive but they still want the experience of travel and this is where virtual reality comes into the picture.

What you might even find is that virtually visiting a place is the first thing you do when you start planning. You jump on and get familiar with the place (and even chose a place based on your VR experience) prior ever leaving your home, much like the guidebooks of old.

As for me, I'll no doubt enjoy the VR experience (when it becomes properly available), but I for one still love the feeling of getting onto a plane, and I even enjoy the plane ride. For me there is almost a sense of accomplishment which come with stepping off a long haul flight and into a strange new country, one of almost the comfort and safety of home is now on the other side of the world. I suspect that much like people like taking risks / thrills when traveling now, it'll be that sense of the missing safety net which VR travel would never really be able to replicate, since all you need to do is turn the VR system off and you're safely back in your own living room.

 

[artemis]

My thoughts

Business travel will all but disappear. Online presence will take over, even high skilled work (eg a surgeon doing delicate operations) will ultimately be achievable via a combination of the internet / robotics

Still a long way off - remote surgery. Technically feasible now, but most patients still like the idea of seeing their surgeon and most surgeons still like the idea of being able to feel their patient (espec if something goes wrong!).

I hear what you're saying about business meetings, but for me, conferences provide a break from my work and mean that the phone stops ringing and I actually get a break. Despite the fact that I'm training/learning/networking. And it's the personal contact of networking that makes business trips so worthwhile! For me, anyway.

I hope if technology advances like in the movies it's because someone invents a floo network like in Harry Potter...

 

[harvyk]

Still a long way off - remote surgery. Technically feasible now, but most patients still like the idea of seeing their surgeon and most surgeons still like the idea of being able to feel their patient

For now anyway...

The funny thing with any new tech is it always has it's detractors. Could you imagine a world without the telephone \ TV \ computers \ microwaves \ the Internet? Each tech on it's release and for several years afterwards had it's detractors who where convinced that the introduction of said tech would be the end of civilisation. It wouldn't have surprised me if the wheel had it's critics back in the day.

 

[Sprucegoose]

We will never be the Sims