Skillful Users and their Totems: An Account of Acquaintance in VR

In commenting on whether perception in VR is illusory or not, Chalmers (2022) states that “[e]xpert users don’t suffer from the illusion that virtual objects are in the physical space in front of them; instead, they experience the virtual objects as being in a virtual space…”. Two questions seem to arise from Chalmers’ articulation. Firstly, why is it the case that expert VR users succeed in becoming acquainted with the virtual objects, and non-experts do not?

I seek to resolve this by presenting an account, which – building on Evans – argues that expert VR users succeed in discriminating and identifying virtual objects, and thus succeed in becoming acquainted with them, due to their respective skill. This skill involves expert users’ knowing how to track and act upon objects in their virtual space, analogous to Evans’ notion of egocentric space.

Yet this leads us to the second question; are expert users infallible in their judgement of virtual objects (and in never ‘falling prey’ to the illusion of VR)? I argue in the negative. As VR technology becomes more ‘life-like’, even highly skilled users might find it hard to tell the difference between the virtual and the non-virtual. A way out of this, I suggest, is for VR users to have their own Inception-like ‘totem’ in order to aid them in discerning.