Freedom of 3D Thought: the First Amendment in Virtual Reality
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Oklahoma City University School of Law From the SelectedWorks of Marc J. Blitz 2009 Freedom of 3D Thought: The irF st Amendment in Virtual Reality Marc J. Blitz, Oklahoma City University Available at: https://works.bepress.com/marc_jonathan_blitz/8/ THE FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN VIRTUAL REALITY Marc JonathanBlitz* INTRODUCTION There is no life I know To compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free, If you truly wish to be. - Willy Wonkat A distorted reality is now a necessity to be free. 2 - Elliott Smith When inhabitants of the early twenty-first century explore or play in virtual worlds, they generally do so while staring at two-dimensional personal computer screens. In virtual worlds such as Second Life, for example, people stroll through computer-generated cities, shop at virtual stores, or attend virtual meetings, by controlling the actions of an animated figure (called an "Avatar") with a keyboard and/or a computer mouse. 3 While this fantasy life can be deeply engrossing, it is relatively * Associate Professor of Law, Oklahoma City University. For helpful discussion on these issues and/or the article itself, I would like to thank Jacqueline Lipton, Neil Richards, Adam Kolber, Greg Lastowka, Joshua Fairfield, Lisa Ramsey, Christopher Yoo, Deven Desai, Deborah Tussey, Michael O'Shea, Michael Grynberg, Andy Spiropoulos, Lee Peoples, Dennis Arrow, Paula Dalley, Vicky MacDougall, Barry Johnson, Michael Gibson, Art LeFrancois, Steven Clowney, Carla Spivack, Eric Laity, and Larry Hellman. I would also like to thank Nathaniel Boyer, Steven Keslowitz, Chris Fenlon, and all of the other editors at the Cardozo Law Review who helped me to improve the article and shepherded it to publication. I LESLIE BRICUSSE & ANTHONY NEWLEY, Pure Imagination, on WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF THE PARAMOUNT PICTURE (Hip-O Records 1996) (1971). 2 ELLIOTT SMITH, A DistortedReality is Now a Necessity to Be Free, on FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL (Anti 2004). 3 See MICHAEL RYMASZEWKI ET AL., SECOND LIFE: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE 5-6, 11 (2d ed. 2008) ("The SL virtual world physically resembles the real world. It consists of interlinked regions that contain land, water, and air (SL lets you build castles in the sky), with gravity, weather, sun and moon that regularly cut across the horizon .... Second Life is populated by 1141 HeinOnline -- 30 Cardozo L. Rev. 1141 2008-2009 1142 CARDOZO LA W REVIEW [Vol. 30:3 easy to distinguish from the brick and mortar world in which we drive real cars and learn, work, or shop in real buildings: We are on one side of the computer screen; the virtual environment of Second Life is on the other. There is, however, another kind of electronic environment that is more all-encompassing. It does not merely claim a small piece of our perceptual field. It swallows it entirely. It is not simply a virtual world on a screen-but a full-fledged virtual reality-a three-dimensional space that we seem to be within. In such an electronic environment, we do not merely move an Avatar on a virtual street; we have the experience of walking upon it ourselves. 4 The street life we see consists not of computer animations confined to a rectangular interface in front of us, but of pedestrians, street vendors, and cars that appear to move all around us. In fact, in some virtual reality environments, we might not only see and hear such a street scene, but smell and touch it as well.5 As one writer defines it, virtual reality involves computer simulations that "[w]ra[p] sounds and pictures around us and immers[e] our senses in such a way that the line between real and illusionary worlds disappears. '' 6 As another puts it, virtual reality (or "VR") creates an artificial environment that displaces our external environment and "make[s] a person feel transported to another place."'7 It generally does so by shutting out the images and sounds we receive from the physical world-and replacing them with images and sounds generated by a computer and fed to us from a head-mounted display (or "HMD") placed over our eyes. This display does not just feed us these images and sounds. It carefully weaves them together into an illusory three-dimensional world, one that shifts to show the appropriate part of itself with each turn of our heads or movement of our eyes.8 The sounds we hear seem to reach us from across the avatars: virtual representations of SL members, known as residents ....Second Life gives you the freedom to pursue your dreams and interests. For some, this means having as much virtual sex as possible; for others, it may mean attending a religious service or playing combat games in spaceships they helped to build."); see also What is Second Life?, http://secondlife.com/whatis (last visited Oct. 31, 2008). 4 See FRED MOODY, THE VISIONARY POSITION: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE DIGITAL DREAMERS WHO ARE MAKING VIRTUAL REALITY A REALITY xxiii (1999) (defining "virtual reality" as "a computer interface that appears to surround the user with an artificial environment, often called an immersive world, or an immersive environment" (emphasis in original)). 5 Id. at xxiv (noting that in most virtual environments, "[t]he user would most likely wear a data glove," allowing him or her to "touc[h] or gras[p] objects in the artificial environment") 6 L. CASEY LARIJANI, THE VIRTUAL REALITY PRIMER 1 (1993). 7 MICHAEL HELM, VIRTUAL REALISM 7 (1998). 8 See HEIM, supra note 7, at 20 ("The HMD allows the user no choice but to ignore the distractions of the surroundings. The HMD uses tiny light-weight stereo binoculars to display computer graphics just inches in front of the eyes. The earphones built into the helmet allow the user to hear only the computer-controlled sounds of the virtual environment .... [a]s you move your head, eyes, and ears the displays and earphone present all appropriate viewpoints-all HeinOnline -- 30 Cardozo L. Rev. 1142 2008-2009 2008] FREEDOM OF 3D THOUGHT 1143 distances of this virtual space. But they actually come from speakers within the HMD. 9 The texture and resistance we feel when we touch an object makes it seem to us as though we are touching real metal, wood, fabric, or water. But this hardness or resistance is an illusion: it actually comes from pressures and tactile sensations artificially generated by "data gloves" or "data suits" that hug the surface of our skin.10 For many years, such virtual reality technology was a familiar sight only in university laboratories. Today, with rapid increases in computer- processing power and other technological advances, VR is finally moving from the laboratory to everyday life. Video game enthusiasts have already begun using VR goggles and data gloves to immerse themselves within the action of the game." Psychiatric patients use them to "virtually" confront and defeat 3D manifestations of their inner demons-whether these consist of traumatic war memories, or objects of phobia or addiction. 12 Soldiers can now rehearse their combat operations in a simulated foreign battlefield before they ever set foot upon it;13 medical specialists may soon conduct a dry run of a surgery 14 on a virtual patient before risking it on a flesh-and-blood person; architects may soon routinely walk their clients through the inside of a virtual building before it is constructed; 15 judges and juries may soon survey virtual reproductions of crime scenes instead of just hearing 16 about them from witnesses. instantly calculated and recalculated by the computer."). 9 See LARIJANI, supra note 6, at 34-35 (describing how "omnidirectional" sounds can be generated by an HMD). 10 See HELM, supra note 7, at 7 (describing how VR can allow people to manipulate and feel "a virtual teapot" with a "fiberoptic glove"). 11 See Justin Mullins, Welcome to Total Immersion Gaming, NEW SCIENTIST, Apr. 21, 2006, at 38. 12 See Hunter G. Hoffman, Virtual-Reality Therapy, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Jul. 2004, at 58- 65; Rachel Nowak, VR Hallucination Used to Treat Schizophrenia, NEW SCIENTIST, Jul. 1, 2002, at 18; Will Knight, Computer Games Can Treat Phobias, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Oct. 20, 2003, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4292-computer-games-can-treat- phobias.html; Sam Lubell, On the Therapist's Couch, a Jolt of Virtual Reality, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 19, 2004, at G5, available at http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_- 02_l9.pdf. 13 See Mark Alpert, My Virtual War, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Feb. 2006, at 94-95 (describing use of virtual reality technology for military training); Duncan Graham-Rowe, Would-be Rookies To Face Video Gauntlet, NEW SCIENTIST, Nov. 30. 2006, at 28 (describing how "the US army is developing virtual-reality aptitude tests for recruits"). 14 See Michael Reilly, A Wii Warmup Hones Surgical Skills, NEW SCIENTIST, Jan. 19, 2008, at 24 (describing the use of virtual surgery to test effect of Wii-based games on surgery training); Thomas Erickson, Artificial Realities as Data Visualization Environments, in VIRTUAL REALITY: APPLICATIONS AND EXPLORATIONS 15 (Alan Wexelblat ed., 1993) ("An obvious use for [] artificial reality environment is in planning a surgical operation."). 15 Alan Wexelblat, The Reality of Cooperation: Virtual Reality and CSCW, in VIRTUAL REALITY: APPLICATIONS AND EXPLORATIONS, supra note 14, at 23 (noting that "[s]ome applications of VR technology-such as three-dimensional walkthroughs and entertainment-are beginning to see widespread use"). 16 Celeste Biever, Courtrooms Could Host Virtual Crime Scenes, NEW SCIENTIST.COM NEWS SERVICE, Mar. 10, 2005, http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7130.