Science

Virtual Reality As A New Form Of Existence

The Future of Living in Digital Worlds

By: Khue Vu, Journalist

February 27, 2025

The concept of bringing the virtual realm to the physical world using AR or Augmented Reality is fascinating and intriguing, and many big corporations have come up with technologies that can achieve this. But what if we bring ourselves into the virtual realm? As VR technologies evolve, they may soon allow people to live, work, socialize, and even “exist” entirely within the virtual realms.

Digital Reality

As of present time, VR has already offered us immersive experiences where we can interact with digital environments that feel as though they are a part of the real world. As VR technology improves, people spend more and more time in these virtual realms, potentially living entire lives within them. In these virtual realms, the consciousness of a person could escape the physical limitations of their real-life body such as aging, sickness, and injury. This gives rise to the concept of digital immortality, where someone could continue to “live” in these digital realities.

Mind Uploading

One possible way to turn virtual reality into a new form of existence is mind uploading; the idea of transferring our consciousness into a digital form. This would allow people to live in virtual environments after their body is no longer functional. This way, we could create a form of virtual immortality, where the mind exists independently of the body.

The Human’s Consciousness

Our consciousness is created by brain activities that can be understood in terms of waves, particularly neural oscillations or brain waves. The brain operates through electrical activity, where neurons communicate by firing electrical pulses. This activity generates electrical waves that can be measured as brain waves. Although we don’t have the correct answer to what consciousness is, some theories suggest that consciousness arises from the integration and flow of information, which could involve wave-like patterns of neural activity, or that our consciousness are tied to the quantum realm, where wave-like properties of particles, such as superposition and entanglement, plays a role in cognitive processes. This can be connected to the fact that, in a sense, everything in the universe is made up of waves at the most fundamental level. By turning these waves into codes, we can code ourselves into the virtual realms.

Social Impact

As VR technology rapidly improves, it also impacts our behavior and relationships. Transferring our consciousness into virtual realms could redefine how we interact with each other. Being constantly connected to the internet, perhaps we don’t even have to “talk” to communicate with another person.

Is It Ethical?

As technology improves, many people raise concerns and worries about the ethical issues of transferring oneself into the virtual realms. Would you still remain yourself after being transferred into a digital realm? Would you still be considered “alive”? Who would own the digital consciousness? Are you still considered a “human”?