Tech oligarchs are encouraging the creation of virtual worlds as a cheap way to avoid problems in the real one.
The price on VR will eventually reach the point where it’s affordable enough for most people. We’re almost there already with stuff like the Oculus Quest. Also remote work through VR (assuming the tech works well enough) would basically mean no need for a physical location for companies/jobs that don’t require physical labor, which would be a lot. That would hypothetically mean no need for renting commercial space, and could dramatically reduce cost of living for employees who would otherwise be working together at some location in a high rent city. Those advantages would be a pretty big deal for those corporations that could take advantage, and this would likely drive widespread adoption.
Assuming it works well, it would have nearly all the same advantages as working in a shared physical office vs working at home. It really depends on the job of course, but for anything that requires any kind of collaboration, working with others in the same shared space for the duration of the work day is quite a bit different than just relying on conference calls and messages. There’s a lot of casual interaction that otherwise gets missed if you’re relying solely on video software. Also, for managers/employers, they like to be able to monitor and keep tabs on people like they normally would be able to do in a physical office and a shared virtual space would allow them to do that in a way that normal remote communication would not. Also, “company culture” and that sort of bullshit would play into this as well.
