NEW WORRIES MORE EXOTIC 

In the 1950s parents spent sleepless nights worrying about their kids having sex and getting pregnant. The 1960s and 1970s saw parents worrying about their children using drugs. The 1980s were filled with worry over unprotected sex and contracting Aids. The 1990s are offering new fields for adventure: Virtual Reality.

Virtual reality could be the ultimate in seduction and addiction. Imagine being able to actually experience any fantasy or experience, from wrestling an alligator underwater to skiing down Mount Everest! And knowing before entering the experience that physical danger would be imaginary. Although once into the experience, you might be so caught up in the action that you would remember that it wasn't real. The terror or exhilaration would be real. Development is underway in a dozen different laboratories around the world. The concept is an outgrowth of work done some years ago by scientists at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) who wanted to have a robot in space operate on a space station patient while being directed by a surgeon on earth. In those days they called it Telepresence. Since then commercial applications have been further developed and tested by Jon Lanier of Virtual Reality Inc. of Mountain View, California, the most unorthodox investigator in this field.

Like many technologies, virtual reality might be a double-edged sword. You will shortly be able to take an "electronic trip" that could switch drug addicts away from hard drugs by offering them an electronic/photonic "high". This too, could become, addicting for some people. But then so is golf. It certainly would add a whole new dimension to the phrase "entertainment tonight".

Imagine the education when a student could actually experience scuba diving while sitting in an arm chair? Or flying a plane, skydiving, or climbing through the jungle canopy over the Amazon. Perhaps talking to Plato, consulting the Oracle at Delphi or tripping through Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood. This would be so real, recall wouldn't appear as something previously imagined -- it would be indelibly imprinted on your brain as real. Similar to psychedelic experiences during the 1960s and 1970s. Or as shown in the film "Total Recall" and explained in Aldous Huxley's memorable book "Doors of Perception". You think many wouldn't want to try this?

*Editors Note: More information: Read "The Use of LSD in Alcoholism and Psychotherapy, Published by Bobbs-Merrill, New York. Dr. Tomorrow, a seven year veteran as part of a medical research team in this field during the early 1960s, is one of the authors of this medical textbook.

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