The Issue of Virtual Reality in The Movie "Uncanny Valley"

Virtual reality has come in and out of popularity over the past few decades but with the advancement of technology and availability of tools, it is now poised to become the future of humanity as it will change the way of how we see the world and will become more physical and sensory oriented.

In this movie, Uncanny Valley, a gaming world is used to explore the effects of digital addiction and how it will lead to the destruction of mankind as its victims have lost all the interest in their real lives. They don't know how to be around people and find the reality boring and unhappening. It shows that in future, people will eventually stop socializing, going outside of their places because of their addiction to the violent fantasy where they think they can do whatever they want to do and be want they want to be without actually thinking that are they really in control or is someone controlling them?

A point will come where the line between reality and imagination become a blur and like the addicts of today's world, they will be easy to manipulate and exploited. If they were given choice they would sustain their virtual existence as they have become so addicted that there is almost no offline-life for them. As one character said: "I don't feel comfortable around people, I don't really know what I should say or do. Gameplay is just simpler. There's no people and just targets." The characters live in a very dirty, squat house and wear tattered clothes shows the signs of poverty and their non-existent real life. They spend their days in seclusion and solitude; and find the gaming life exciting and fascinating where there are unlimited possibilities, risks, and life adventures. In this way, they differ from normal healthy humans makes them fall into the bottom of the uncanny graph as described by the Masahiro Mori. He explains that because of a slight variation in movement, behavior, and attitude something that has come to appear close to human—but not quite human-like, easily tumble down into the uncanny valley. Due to a glitch in a game, a character finds out that the game he thinks he was playing wasn’t actually a game but a war and how the military was using them through the nose gadget to kill innocents without even having to deal with the guilt of killing them. They have been deceiving them through VR and using them for their own dirty purposes to unleash death without them knowing.

In the present world, the technology is connecting people far away but is separating families and holding them back. It is a problem we are facing in current society due to the excessive use of mobile phones and social media activities as if it has become a part of us but it’s horrifying that virtual reality will take away the sense of social responsibilities, righteousness, and even reality.

All in all, besides the immense potential and ease Virtual reality will bring, it can be a real threat to mankind’s existence and because of the violence created by it, humanity may actually meet its doom.