Virtual reality (VR) has arrived. It has already been described as "revolutionary" and the "next big thing" in technology.
Its applications extend beyond entertainment and games to include education, art and a range of other innovative uses.
But VR also has the potential to promote social change.
From words to pictures
There is a reason we say "a picture is worth a thousand words". Images can communicate complex ideas and provoke emotions more effectively than descriptions.
For example, take Aduc Barec's story: she was compelled to leave Sudan in the early 1990s because of the civil war. Her family walked for a month before reaching Ethiopia, where they lived in limbo until they settled in a refugee camp for five years. Aduc and her family were later resettled in Australia.
When we read her story, and those of other refugees, it is often difficult to imagine and understand their experiences.
Here's another example. Imagine reading for the first time reports from the animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) about the plight of pigs in factory farms. You would read that, from a young age, piglets are physically mutilated without painkillers, that for most of their lives they are confined indoors in a crowded pen, and that their ultimate fate is the abattoir, where they are stunned and slaughtered.
For some, the details in these examples are provocative enough. But others may find it difficult to empathise and understand when simply reading the descriptions on their own.
Perhaps watching a video of the plight of refugees or that of pigs in factory farms may stimulate greater intellectual and emotional reactions?
