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Do 10 minutes of Titans of Space, and you'll see the potential for education. Imagine the same technology applied to history, biology, geography. Going with your class through a crowded street of ancient Rome. Visiting different cities in other countries, seeing the customs and cultures. Travelling through the human body and going inside cells and organs. All this, not just looking at an abstract representation of those (flat screen), but actually feeling you're there.

PM me in 5 years, and if there aren't at least 100 million people owing VR HMD's, I'll eat my shorts.

Unless you want students to have sex with each other, visual and audio stimulation, with limited hand haptics, good hand and facial tracking and binaural audio is all you need for what's been proposed. All this will be easily obtainable within 5 years or less.

You contradict yourself. The clunkiness of cars, radios and TV only proves that a good concept is only waiting for the technology to catch up. VR is a great concept, which until now was not feasible. But it's starting to become feasible, and is likely to have massive adoption in 5-10 years, which will definitely include usage in education and surgence of virtual classrooms (as suggested by Oculus' CEO).

Let me guess. You never tried a VR done right, and pretty much dismisses the entire concept as a failure. I would really like to see your reaction when actually experience the sense of "presence" in VR for the first time.

I think he was referring to people with complete lack of imagination, and who think they know everything about VR just because they tried some clunky low-resolution 3-pound helmet back in the 90's and haven't even had the decency to try the DK2 before condemning VR as an eternal fad.

No, a computer monitor is not enough. It's one thing to watch something on a screen, it's another to be in another world or environment. Also, you can't socialize much using a monitor. The most you can do is use text messages and awkward videos. With VR, you can interact with other, as if you were in the real world, while walking in some street in ancient Rome, or cruising on a ship traveling through the human body, or the solar system.

I agree. It's sad to see this level of luddism and ignorance in slashdot comments. It seems common these days.

I was starting to wonder when they would get to it...

The key word is positional. Makes the world of difference.

So the flawless ultra low latency positional head tracking, the low-persistent display and the SDK with time warping and all other optimizations that will likely come from Oculus mean nothing, right? Good luck with your Durovis Dive and your Cardboard box HMD.

This is NOT a fcking biological warfare research! For fucksake, read about the research! It's about understanding why the Spanish Flu was so deadly. This research helped us identify the genes which made that disease so deadly in the first place, so we have a better fighting chance to prevent other similar diseases from killing millions of people like that one did.

The best way to protect the human race from future occurrences of deadly pathogens, such as ebola and Spanish flu, is to study them and understand why they are so deadly so we can find ways we can counteract them if similar epidemics occur in the future.

No one made the Spanish Flu, yet it appeared and killed millions of people. This type of study, while dangerous if not done safely, will help protect us from future occurrences of similar types of virus. The best way we can protect ourselves from an enemy, if to understand them. This is much needed research.

I ask you!