At the dawn of the decade that gave us both “The Real World” and “The End of History,” virtual reality seemed to hold the keys to the next great paradigm shift. In the early 90s, it no doubt felt “a bit like looking up the Wright Brothers and taking their original prototype out for a spin,” as the book describes. The experience is immediately identifiable to anyone who has spent time in a modern VR headset. I felt a growing vibration through the handlebar, and the 3D photo that filled much of my field of view came alive, animating into a yellow, scratchy, but still effective 3D motion picture.” “I was transported to the driver’s seat of a motorcycle in Brooklyn in the 1950s,” the author writes.
Rheingold describes awe - even surprise - that the system was still operable almost 30 years after its introduction. By the time Howard Rheingold’s “Virtual Reality” was published in 1991, the Sensorama was already a “slowly deteriorating” relic stashed away in a cabana next the pool at its inventor’s West Los Angeles home.
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