There’s an interesting set of articles at Edge,  about why some of the greatest minds of this planet are optimistic.

Jaron Lanier thinks that “Interpersonal Communication Will Become More Profound” thanks to VR :

I’ve been fascinated by the potential for “Post-symbolic Communication” for many years.  (…)  Suppose you’re enjoying an advanced future implementation of Virtual Reality and you can cause spontaneously designed things to appear and act and interact with the ease of sentences pouring forth during an ordinary conversation today. (…) Some of the most interesting data from VR research thus far involve Homuncular Flexibility. It turns out that the human brain can learn to control radically different bodies with remarkable ease. That means that people might eventually learn to spontaneously change what’s going on in a virtual world by becoming parts of it. (…)

Imagine a means of expression that is a cross between the three great new art forms of the 20th century: jazz improvisation, computer programming, and cinema. Suppose you could improvise anything that could be seen in a movie with the speed and facility of a jazz improviser. What would that mean for the sense of connection between you and someone you love?