Computers and VR by A.Rumyantsev, 8B

Science and Technology

Computers and Virtual Reality

by Alexander Rumyantsev, 8B

Advances in science and technology in the last 100 years have transformed the way we live. We use computers and other electric equipment at home and at school. Nowadays we can't do without such gadgets as mobile phones, digital tape recorders, laptops etc.

The computer is an electronic device that stores information and allows changes in it through the use of instructions. A modern computer is capable of doing, for example, word processing and accounting. Working on personal computers (PCs) requires some techniques. Computer programs allow a PC user to type texts, draw objects and diagrams, save and delete them.  Computers give us access to the Internet. You can spend a lot of time surfing the Internet and get all sorts of information from it. You can enter the chat room with other Internet users and debate urgent problems on line, or correspond with your friends via e-mail,  or open your own web site and place there information about yourself.

So, I think that the invention of the computer is one of the marvels of modern science. Computers make possible virtual reality, the technology that allows users to interact with computer-simulated images and offers getting into make-believe world. In today's virtual worlds people can do a lot of things: doctors practise operations on different parts of human body, students learn geography and history by "walking" into the places they are interested in, pilots train on a plane model. The advantages of virtual reality -- both real and potential -- are clear. On the other hand, there is a danger that traditional morality will break down in virtual worlds and this sort of technology will be nothing more than a high-tech instrument for spreading violence. Critics of VR say that a lot of VR programs are exercises in killing rather than in thinking and users may lose the feeling of what is right and what is wrong. The realism of simulators is getting better and better and one of the side effects, besides psychological, is harm to the users' health. People may have headaches, ruin their eyesight and so on. One of the problems we face nowadays with is VR and gaming addiction.

Scientific minds are now working at a lot of urgent problems, including serious diseases like drug addiction, cancer, AIDS, heart and vessel problems

·       collecting, storing, using and sending out information

·       creating highly effective systems of communication

·       learning how to save and conserve energy

·       finding and using alternative sources of energy

·       recycling and reusing materials

·       studying particles smaller than atoms

·       UFOs and the possibility of alien visits

·       climatic change

·       soil, water, air pollution, nuclear pollution and so on.

In conclusion, technology can be a curse or a blessing. In the end new technology will be what we make it. We must be ready to take our place in this computerized, antibiotic, nuclear, supersonic age.