The Future of Truth: Using Virtual Reality to Verify Reality

Spatial imaging, visual truth, and how author Michael Crichton saw it coming.

The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. — Michael Crichton, 2003¹

I was recently having a discussion with an acquaintance who works in what I’ll call “high-level global finance.” This person is known for accurately predicting the future. I can’t go too much into their role, but it’s the type of job that some folks might protest against.

Because this person is SO smart, I was mostly listening while they talked to another person in big finance. They were discussing their most pressing fears for the future, the one thing their organizations were most concerned about, and dumping the most research money into.

No, it wasn’t climate change. It was cyber security.

They feared our digital financial systems are vulnerable to attacks from humans and AI. There are macro concerns, like hostile foreign entities gaining control of a bank or electronic trading market, and there are micro concerns, like a thief using a deep fake/hacking technology to steal all the money in your grandma’s bank account.

Verifying truth and personhood, distinguishing reality from the artificial, is becoming increasingly difficult, and hacking into encrypted systems is getting easier. AI and quantum computing developments are speeding up the disintegration of electronic security.

Risky Visions

They say that quantum computers will be able to break through any encryption by 2030 (or sooner), and we already have highly sophisticated deep fake videos and audio that will only get better and better.

In 2023, the think tank the RAND Corporation released this ominous warning:

One of the most important quantum computing algorithms, known as Shor's algorithm, would allow a large-scale quantum computer to quickly break essentially all of the encryption systems that are currently used to secure internet traffic against interception. Today's quantum computers are nowhere near large enough to execute Shor's algorithm in a practical setting, and the expert consensus is that these cryptanalytically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) will not be developed until at least the 2030s.

Although the threat is not yet imminent, the consequences of a hostile actor's execution of Shor's algorithm could be incredibly dire.

Large organizations across the world are racing to create post-quantum cryptographic algorithms to prevent data breaches, but the average user will still be left needing to validate and prove their own human identities and documents. We think Captchas are annoying now, but the situation of data security and human-truth-proving is only going to get worse.

So, I started thinking, despite lackluster reviews and sales, maybe the AppleVision Pro is really onto something with spatial videos. Maybe we need this Virtual Reality tech to verify REAL reality.

This idea did not come to me when I first tried the VR device, which you can read about here:

Though I was impressed by the spatial video probably the most out of everything in Apple’s mediocre demo.

But the more I think about it, the more I believe Apple’s consumer spatial video recording tech will become useful and important for security and the preservation of truth, at least in the short term.

VR to Verify RR

Real reality, which I’ll call RR, is becoming very easy to fake with pixels. Humans can fake it and even machines can now fake it. Fake videos and audio can be created easily now from scratch, or real video and audio can be easily manipulated. The practice of using videos to verify truth is already questionable. Already we see people in court cases arguing over if videos or photos were or were not manipulated, and editing videos has become insanely easy. Again, this will only get better and better.

Ai generated videos from text prompts already look SO real.

And look how easy it is to manipulate real video. This came out 12 days ago from Adobe. Anyone can use this tech if they can pay

Then there are other programs and tricks to erase the metadata and digital traces that would reveal your manipulations, to make it look “original.”

But you know what is still much harder to manipulate? VR environments and spatial images.

What is Spatial Video Recording?

Spatial video recording captures video with data on the depth and dimensions of the scene, the X, Y, and Z axis, not just the flat images of traditional cameras. This type of recording can create augmented or virtual reality footage using multiple cameras and sensors.

Potential Applications in Identity Verification

1. Enhanced Biometric Authentication: Traditional biometric systems use facial recognition, fingerprints, or iris scans for identity verification. Spatial video could enhance these systems by adding a 3D component, making the biometric data much harder to fake.

2. Security Checks in Sensitive Areas: For areas requiring high security, like airports or banks, spatial video could continuously verify the identity of individuals as they move through real space. This would be more robust than single-point checks or closed-circuit surveillance systems. (Of course, this is also scary in the wrong hands…)

3. Remote Authentication: In remote banking or online services, spatial video could verify a user’s identity during transactions. By requiring a short spatial video recording during the login process, services could ensure that the person entering the credentials is the legitimate account holder and not a hacker using stolen data.

Law enforcement and the justice system may also move from using 2D images to 360 and spatial video once this technology becomes widely available at consumer prices.

Step into the Evidence

Spatial imaging could soon be the only reliable way to capture reality. And even that I’m sure we’ll eventually be able to fake, but it could hold off the collapse of visual truth for a while.

Imagine a world where photos no longer suffice as police evidence and the detective or trial jury must go into an immersive VR-captured documentary recorded by spatial security cameras of the crime scene.

Imagine owning a business in another country, but with the spatial video capture technology, you can pop on your VR headset and be inside your business in real-time vs just watching 2D security camera footage.

Imagine holding up your driver’s license and rotate it in your hands while capturing it on spatial video to verify your identity for an online application.

So, I’m adding the rise of spatial imaging to my 2024 predictions.

Even though the AppleVision Pro sold badly, this part of the technology could prove useful until we figure out how to fake and manipulate it.

Michael Crichton Already Imagined It

With every new idea or new piece of technology, I can usually find a science fiction writer or novelist who imagined it first, and this idea of using VR to verify RR is no exception.

While George Orwell in 1984 imagined how oppressive powers might manipulate truth, six-foot nine-inch genius Michael Crichton imagined in 1994 how we might use virtual reality to verify the truth in his novel, and subsequent film, Disclosure.

Yes, I say genius because I love Michael Crichton’s books, and because his creative output was extraordinary. Side tangent, but Micahel Chrichton, known for writing Jurassic Park, is a man who, while completing Harvard med school, also wrote SEVEN novels, a movie, several more manuscripts, screenplays, and a non‐fiction book on the state of the American hospital, published by mainstream publishers. He wrote bestsellers DURING HARVARD MED SCHOOL, which he also completed on time. How insane is that? Bored with med school, he said he often wrote 10,000 words a day. He also later directed films and helmed video games. I remember reading about his prolific writing habits years ago in his excellent memoir, Travels, and thinking what the actual fffffk...

While Disclosure is not the exact same as using spatial imaging, it imagines a tech entrepreneur caught in a high-stakes sexual harassment claim who then creates and uses a VR world-constructing prototype to visualize the case data and to explore the events and recorded records of his case. He searches this VR world for evidence to clear his name and keep his well-paying job. This book later became a film.

It’s funny to watch the VR scene now, to see how we imagined VR in the 90s. It looks pretty much like VRChat or VR video games now. Except, why is the avatar wearing glasses in the VR world? And why is he standing on a kid’s trampoline? Lol. Hollywood…

I need to do a deep dive on Michael Crichton one day because he’s truly a fascinating literary figure who got into some pretty esoteric stuff. Despite selling over 200 million books, I rarely hear people mention him these days. He’s not given the credit or historical writer recognition he deserves.

Now You

Do you worry about deep fakes and cyber security?

Have you tried VR headsets? Do you play VR video games?

Can you think of any books about a future world where no media is reliable?

1. Michael Crichton’s full speech where this quote was taken from. I don’t agree with everything, but it’s an interesting read.

Or you can listen to an ai narrated version of it here.