Experience on Demand
What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do
12 March 2019
Description
An in-depth look at virtual reality and how it can be harnessed to improve our everyday lives.
Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience possible. These experiences, ones that the brain is convinced are real, will soon be available at the click of a button.
In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of virtual reality to help readers understand this new medium. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be used to hone our performance, help us recover from trauma, improve our learning and communication abilities, and even enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities so that we treat others, the environment and ourselves better.
Reviews
"… [Jeremy Bailenson's] enthusiasm is contagious, and he explains complex issues to an audience broader than fellow scientists, providing a real vision of our possibly VR-infused future." — Nature
"If you want to understand the most immersive new communications medium to come along since cinema... I’d suggest starting with Mr. Bailenson’s [book]. It’s short, it’s levelheaded and it tells you what you need to know. Among other things, the book answers the sometimes vexing question of what VR is actually good for." — The Wall Street Journal
"Remarkably interesting... People interested in the current state of virtual reality’s applications will enjoy Bailenson." — The New York Times
"An accessible introduction, a cogent primer, to the potential and pitfalls of VR." — The Washington Post
"Jeremy Bailenson’s work is unflinching and brave. He helps us see more of our vulnerabilities and our potential than ever before. This book describes the edge of human self-knowledge, and a precipice of human foibles to avoid." — Jaron Lanier, VR pioneer and author of You Are Not A Gadget
"Few people alive know as much about VR as Jeremy Bailenson. For decades he’s been researching how VR affects humans. Read this before you enter this new world." — Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired and author of The Inevitable
