Virtual reality is as dangerous an oxymoron as alternative facts.

Change my mind.

There was a pseudo-philosopher in every circle of friends, back in the day, that would try to lord his intellect over the everyone gathered around the bong by throwing out the question, “But what is reality?”

Science fiction threw out narratives involving holograms so exacting that they couldn’t be distinguished from solid form.

Some douchebag or another would posit in public that reality is a construct, and people would take that at face value. You might think about it in terms of cultural norms or mores and decide that yes, reality is really decided by consensus.

Now we have the term, ‘virtual reality.’

I’m going to take the position that virtual reality is nowhere near real. It is not virtually real. It is, at best, simply another medium to present images. It’s interactive television, and nothing more.

Real is real.

Fake is fake.

Why am I willing to argue about it? Words are important. Calling the artificial real, in any context or medium, will devalue reality.

End of story.