The Dark Age of Virtual Reality-Based Torture Is Approaching Fast
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The best guard against the use of VR in torture may be the simple fact that current methods of torture are easier. “There are so many ways to inflict harm on people, sometimes it’s the simplest things, and a whole lot of technology is not needed,” said Dr. Vince Iacopino, an expert on the assessment of torture victims and lead author of the UN’s Istanbul Protocol for investigating and documenting it. “I don’t know how much to make out of new technologies, whether people can be hurt any more than they already can with the most simple methods.”
The experts I interviewed were reluctant to hypothesize about how one might turn VR to similar ends, which is understandable. If there’s a will and a means, though, it’s a good bet someone will exploit it. The NSA surprised computer experts not with the range of techniques they’d developed, but because they fully pursued literally every avenue available. Considering the apparently systematic, research-based approach demonstrated by our own government regarding torture, we shouldn’t assume virtual space is off the table.