Virtual Reality Will Commoditize Everything, Even Time Itself

What happens when everyone has access to everything?

True virtual reality will allow you to do pretty much anything you want to do in the world for much less money, time, and effort than you need to do it now.

Things that currently have value due to scarcity or price (usually related) will be able to be duplicated infinitely for free. Software is a democratizing force, and this particular type of software democratizes experience itself.

For instance, in physical reality there are only a limited amount of front row tickets to see Taylor Swift live at Madison Square Garden. Those tickets are very expensive. And the event itself only happens at one specific date and time.

In VR, there are an unlimited amount of front row seats. In fact, the single absolutely best seat can be sat in by everyone. That sort of volume would drive prices down, or potentially it could even be free (ad supported VR?). And you could go on whatever day and time it is convenient for you. VR is like Prime Now for everything ever.

Not only will it make every experience available to everyone and drive prices down, but VR will also allow us to compress time itself.

In physical reality it takes me 30 minutes to get to work and 30 minutes to get back home. That’s an hour of commuting every day. (not including other types of commuting like going to meetings, etc.)

Now imagine if I went to work every day in VR– I could cut that travel time to zero. I could have the benefits of working in an office without needing to go anywhere. An hour saved every work day would be more than 10 full days a year. Over a lifetime that would be years of time gained!

(not to mention my giant sparkling clean VR office that I pay no rent for)

I can even imagine VR software increasing speeds of certain experiences within VR, so that menial interactions happen let’s say 5% faster. Without being perceivable, those types of optimized increases could free up 5% of your time to spend on things like going to more Taylor Swift concerts.

What sort of business models will emerge in a world where everyone can have everything?