They all thought i was mad.... buwahahaaha

Whenever i talk to people about energy concerns and their projections out to 2050 (you know the ones, we'll all be eating soylent green and using old pc's to crack wallnuts) i mention one of my left-field ideas that long before then Virtual Reality will be indistinguishable from Actual Reality. Going down to your local pub for a beer will feel as 'real' as being in a virtual office during the 'day'. Imagine the paradigm shift that would arise in everything we do:

• Transport - why drive? you're already there.
• Urban congenstion - why live in crowded/isolated spaces if you don't want to?
  
• Energy use - you only need enough power for your pc and super-duper broadband, you could generate this from some PV and baseload nuclear/geothermal
• Travel - how would you know the difference? Actual travel turns into a status symbol of no practical value (much the same way as ludicrously overpriced watches are inferior to cheap digital watches for telling the time, they just posses more... style)

Imagine a world where everyone lives wherever the hell they like using trivial amounts of power readily generated at its point of use with no need to commute and life's neccesities produced locally but working globally - cool.
Some jobs still require specialised equipment to be centrally located but i would expect VT robotics to take care of that pretty easily (with extra hands and a 100x zoom eyeball to boot) so you could put 'industry' in remote and unpleasant AR locales.

Why am i rambling on about this? Here's another data point that says it isn't completely mad. Electronic eyes allow blind woman to see! Bioengineers are starting to tinker directly with the signal pathways that go into your brain.
You don't need to smell a rose to 'think' you're smelling a rose - VR == AR

Funky times ahead ;-)