(gentle music)
- [Narrator] Today we are all familiar with one reality,
the one we live and breathe in every day of our lives.
But in the future could advances in science,
open the door for new kinds of reality?
- I wanna take you on one of my favorite experiences.
- Wow.
I'm 80 years old,
and I've never been in a hot air balloon,
but yet I was up in a hot air balloon today.
That's magnificent.
- [Narrator] Could something that looks like a game,
actually provide the key to changing our lives
in the real world?
- Now we're friends.
- [Priscilla] I think about how my life might be different
if I had not started playing VR.
- [Priest] We are gathered here tonight.
- It was one of the greatest times of my life.
(crowd cheering)
- [Priscilla] I love you.
(uplifting dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Writing a new chapter
in the history of the universe
on 'Life 2.0.'
(playful music)
- Some people have a negative reaction to virtual reality
because they say it's for children.
You put on goggles, and you see a video game,
and you score points, and that's it.
But you see, this is just the beginning of a new technology,
which is gonna expand our horizon.
For example, think of something as simple as the boat.
When the boat was first created, it was a toy,
but eventually it became the way
we began to colonize the entire planet Earth.
So just because virtual reality looks like a toy,
don't underestimate its potential.
- The foundation of human connection
is really shared positive experiences.
- Hello!
- Hi, there. I'm Kyle.
And I see the future of virtual reality
as the perfect tool set
to spark human connections through shared experiences.
- [Narrator] Kyle Rand has a unique mission
to introduce the elderly to virtual reality.
- About five years ago, my grandmother,
she was diagnosed with her second round of cancer,
and it put us as a family in this really hard situation
of having to figure out how to take the best care of her
and how to make sure
that she really had access to a good life.
We ended up moving her into a senior living community,
and she did not have a good experience,
but we saw was that
she was spending all of her time in her room.
She wasn't really stimulated.
And when you contrast that to her whole life,
she was a college professor.
She was a brain cancer survivor.
She loved hosting family events.
She like had this really, really vibrant personality.
And then to see her
just spending day in and day out in her room,
it hit her hard,
going from having a full life
to being super-under-stimulated.
Dementia kind of took her really fast.
Seeing my grandma go through this,
realized social isolation was a really serious problem.
- [Narrator] Kyle isn't the only one
who's begun noticing a problem.
- AARP released a study that correlated the negative impacts
of social isolation to be as detrimental to one's health
as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
What a lot of people don't realize
is that being lonely is actually leading
to mortality increases within this population.
So if we can find a way to get people to talk,
get people to connect,
we can actually extend their life-span.
- [Grace] (laughs) Can we get started?
- [Narrator] Kyle came up with an innovative idea.
Why not use virtual reality - Mind if I help?
- [Narrator] to create experiences
that senior citizens can enjoy together,
thereby sparking friendships
that could improve their health?
- [Kyle] But it was this crazy concept, right,
using this cutting edge technology for this population
that is stereotyped as super-tech-averse.
All right. - Perfect.
- Everyone was like, 'This is never going to work.'
- [Narrator] At the Whitney Place,
assisted living and memory care facility
in Natick, Massachusetts,
the promise of virtual reality is already beginning.
- All right, welcome everybody.
I'm going to put this headset on.
Comfy? - That's fine.
- Perfect.
- [Narrator] Kyle Rand and Grace Andruszkiewicz
are about to guide a group of senior citizens
through their first VR session.
- I think the stereotype behindseniors being tech averse
is a bit wrong.
It's really that people don't respond well
to poorly designed interfaces.
Is it loading right now?
So anytime you take some interface
that was designed for kids and you put it on someone
who is less experienced with technology,
they're going to have a more frustrating time.
Does everyone see the butterflies?
So what we did is we kind of redesigned the headset
so that staff within the community, they have a tablet,
so they're able to kind of control the experience,
and the residents really get to focus
on what they're experiencing.
Where do we want to go today?
- [Johann] Italy.
- You want to go to Italy?
(gentle music)
- Oh, isn't that beautiful?
- [Narrator] VR headsets display images
that appear to be life-size.
- That's magnificent. Look at it.
- [Narrator] When the users move their head or their eyes,
the headsets track their motion,
causing the images to move with them.
- Oh wow. - Oh.
- [Narrator] And creating the sensation
that they are really there.
- Even at the Trevi Fountain,
you just wanted to go down the steps,
- I kept putting my foot down
because I thought I was going to go down the step.
- The reality of it. I mean, that word is so apropos.
- [Johann] Isn't that lovely?
- It is beautiful.
- Yep, it certainly is.
- I want to take you on one of my favorite experiences.
Has anyone ever gone on a hot air balloon ride?
No? Do you guys want to try that?
- Sure. - Yes.
- Wow.
- What do you think?
Don't get scared if you look down.
- With both hands, I had gripped on the chair.
(laughs) 'Cause we were up so high.
- By allowing people to go experience the world again
and do it together.
What are you seeing?
- [Johann] Dolphins all around us swimming.
- [Kyle] They started talking about what they're seeing,
what they're experiencing.
- [Johann] Oh, they're so big.
- [Kyle] That leads to them starting to share stories.
(chatting over one another)
When they take the headset off.
- [Grace] Welcome back.
- Welcome back.
That conversation that started with the headset was on,
it continues.
- [Johann] That was wonderful. Thank you so much.
- My pleasure. Thanks for joining us.
- Oh, no.
Really, your opportunity to do this was incredible.
It really. - An eye opener.
I loved the balloons.
- To see how high up they go.
- They sure did.
- It brings out conversations you don't definitely have.
- (laughs) Yeah, exactly.
- People are really starting to pay attention
to the problems with social isolation.
And that's not just seniors.
That's people who have long stays in hospitals,
people with major depression.
There are people of all ages, all types who are isolated.
- [Narrator] Kyle foresees a future in which virtual reality
will be used to connect people all around the world.
But could VR really helps spark meaningful relationships,
or could the future of virtual reality
actually mean the end of real human-to-human interaction?
(dramatic music)
Already technology has all but eliminated
the distances between us.
At almost any time in almost any place,
you can pick up a device
and connect with anyone in the world.
- Most of us are connected
to some sort of social media platform.
We use these applications almost every single day.
- [Narrator] But even though
we're all connected more than ever before,
are we really plugged into one another?
- I feel like social media has all but destroyed that,
human feeling terror, interaction with other people.
This feeling of having to compete with everybody,
it just feels subhuman to me.
- [Narrator] Priscilla Wadsworth
suffers from generalized anxiety disorder.
- I grew up in a small town in Alabama.
I was actually not very popular.
I was kind of the outcast,
and that probably helped fuel my social anxiety
later into adulthood.
- [Narrator] Today, she works as a sports artist,
drawing popular Alabama football personalities.
I just do all the drawing at home and all the shipping,
and that definitely contributed to becoming a hermit
because I think the more that I stayed to myself,
the harder it was to go out and meet people.
I first heard about VR through different YouTubers.
- All right, let's go ahead and try this.
- I remember seeing that and thinking like,
'Wow, I really want to try that.'
when I was little, I was really into video games,
and I used to think like,
'Wow, I would love to like be in the game.'
- This just looks flawless.
- It just so happened that they sold the Oculus at Best Buy.
It was about $700 or something.
And I was like,
'Okay, it's expensive. Let me think about this.'
I got like right to the door, I was like,
'Who am I kidding? I'm just going to go get it.'
- [Narrator] Priscilla went home
and started playing a game called 'Rec Room.'
It's designed to mimic the 'Rec Room' feeling
of a YMCA
where you can play a bunch of different games
with other people.
- The first time that I played,
and I realized that all of these characters out there
are real people and I'm like, 'Oh, Oh no.'
'Cause, you know, I just,
I had spent so time for so many years,
mostly just keeping to myself, I kind of thought like,
'Okay, like catch my breath. It's okay.
Just go back out there and play.'
- [Narrator] Priscilla took a deep breath
and entered a game.
(players chatting)
And for the first time in her life,
something that had rarely happened in the real world
suddenly began to materialize in this virtual world.
- A Walker.
I found myself being able to be really relaxed
and be myself just right off.
And usually it takes me a really long time
to do that with people to really be myself.
I actually was able to make my first friend pretty fast.
- Now we're friends.
- [Priscilla] From there, it just seemed like it snowballed.
And I just kept adding friends,
just meeting people I thought were funny.
- You got a new hat.
- And it was really fun.
I honestly felt like
it was one of the greatest times of my life.
I felt like I belonged.
And I felt like there were a lot of other people like me.
- [Narrator] By connecting her to people
she would have never met in the real world,
virtual reality opened up
an entirely new reality for Priscilla.
And soon it would lead to an unexpected
and life-altering event in her real-world life.
- [Priest] We are gathered here tonight.
(gentle music)
- Found out about VR by accident.
And I was just looking around for something to buy.
I was on Amazon, just browsing to see what was hot.
And the HTC VIVE popped up.
I figured why not give it a shot?
- [Narrator] Mark Gebbia is a website designer.
Like Priscilla, he works from home
and mostly keeps to himself.
- I grew up as a military brat.
My mother was in the Navy. So we moved around a lot.
Those earlier experiences
definitely turned me into an introvert.
But when I finally discovered virtual reality,
I was floored, and I couldn't leave VR.
I was in there eight hours a day,
every day for the first like three weeks.
That's where I met Priscilla.
- We had become friends in 'Rec Room'
because we played together
and just joke around and have fun.
- Oh, nice.
- This is going to be a standoff.
We'd start meeting up on certain days of the week
and playing different games together.
- Getting to know the people in VR is different
than any other medium.
I got it.
I think it helps a lot
that it's completely disconnected from the real world.
No one knows who you are.
So you have no expectations on you.
- When you're playing a game like 'Rec Room,'
everybody has pretty much the same body type.
I mean, you can change your outfit and your hair,
but nobody's being judged on how they look right out.
- You are kind of hidden behind this shroud.
You got it.
- Sorry, sorry.
- [Mark] But the mic picks up your voice so clearly
that it sounds like someone's right next to you,
and it gets your body language.
So it makes it easier to get to know someone.
- Grab my hand. Don't let go.
- It feels a lot more like you're there with a person.
And I feel like that's a really important thing
on how people have been able to connect
on a much deeper level.
- [Narrator] After a couple months of chatting in the game,
Priscilla accidentally sends Mark a message
that will move their virtual friendship into the real world.
- I ended up sending a message to Mark
instead of somebody else.
I realized that when he responded, of course.
That was the first time that Mark and I
had a more in-depth conversation
other than surface level stuff in 'Rec Room.'
- We ended up talking for hours every day,
just typing to each other
and continued hanging out in 'Rec Room.'
Hey, how you doing?
- Hi.
- Long time no see.
- We both started to realize there could be something there.
And I think it took two weeks for us to get it in our minds
that we wanted to get married,
even though we hadn't met in person,
which I know that sounds really, really crazy.
But I remember the night that it was brought up, I said,
'There's something really weird that I'm thinking about,
and I'm really scared to say it.'
And he said something like, 'I think I know what it is.'
Couple of weeks later, he flew to Alabama.
He proposed on the first night that we met in person.
And then we got married four days later.
(gentle music)
- [Mark] The wedding was pretty simple.
- [Priscilla] We went to a gazebo in a park.
- [Mark] Had a nice little 10-minute ceremony
with our own vows.
- [Priest] Love is patient. Love is calm.
Love never fails.
- [Narrator] A few days later,
the real celebration takes place
back in the world where it all began.
- [Priest] We are gathered here tonight
to celebrate the joining of Priscilla Olivia Wadsworth
and Mark Daniel Gebbia.
- [Mark] We want to do the VR ceremony
because everyone in our 'Rec Room' friend group
was aware of the romance.
We wanted to include them in something.
- [Priest] Mark and Priscilla have some vowels
that they would like to recite.
- The VR wedding was even more special
than the real life wedding.
- [Mark] Priscilla Olivia Wadsworth, on this day forward,
I promise to give you all of my love
and never let you feel alone in life again.
- [Priest] I love you, Mark.
And I promise I'll love you for the rest of my life.
- [Priest] For the first time in 'Rec Room,'
Mr. and Mrs. Mark Gebbia.
(everyone cheering)
- [Narrator] Priscilla and Mark
might just be the first couple in the world
to meet in virtual reality,
build a relationship there and tie the knot there.
- [Priscilla] I love you.
- [Narrator] For now, they are one of a kind.
But in the future, could it become normal for all of us
to start living more or even most of our lives
in this new reality?
- [Host] By strapping on 3D visual display goggles
and specially censored gloves,
one can be immersed into new worlds.
- [Narrator] In just a few decades,
advances in virtual reality have exploded.
- [Host] What is unique about virtual reality
is that the user has complete control over the environment.
- [Narrator] In the future,
it's poised to play an even greater role in our lives.
- The positive side of virtual reality
is of course enormous, but there is a dark side.
When virtual reality reaches fruition,
I think that virtual reality will be so realistic,
so lifelike and so preposterous
that some people may prefer to live in that world
rather than live in the real world.
- And you can see virtual worlds being created
where people just kind of escape.
It could be moving in that direction.
I like to think
that they'll just try to use the virtual reality
as a way of augmenting the world that we have,
as well as giving people the opportunity
to experience things that they ordinarily wouldn't.
- I think about how my life might be different a lot,
actually, if I had not started playing VR.
I really wonder where I would be.
Would I still be an Alabama?
Instead, I'm married and living in Seattle.
- There's so much in the media
that portrays cutting edge technology
as something that's dangerous.
But I think what we've seen in our approach really
is that virtual reality is a tool
that can be used to form new connections.
- That's magnificent. Wow.
- [Kyle] There's tons of research
behind the use case of VR for empathy,
and if you can get people to experience, you know,
other cultures, other parts of the world
and understand the difficulties and the problems
that other people are experiencing,
then they might have a desire to help those people.
- You see technology spreads information,
it spreads knowledge.
Knowledge spreads empowerment.
So realize the tremendous possibilities for education
for seeing things with new eyes,
for exploring new worlds.
That's the promise of virtual reality.
(dramatic music)