Empathy, Inc.: Acclaimed Indie Movie is Dark Twist on VR Utopianism

Empathy, Inc. is a new, acclaimed indie movie coming to an arthouse theater near-ish you (and hopefully one or more streaming services), and to judge by the trailer, it's a darkly clever twist on the most utopian claims from the virtual reality industry. Here's the synopsis:

Hotshot venture capitalist Joel has a multi-million-dollar deal go up in smoke, and he and his actress wife Jessica are forced to move in with her parents and start from scratch. At the lowest and most desperate moment in his life, Joel meets old friend Nicolaus and his business partner Lester, who are seeking investors in a new technology known as XVR--Xtreme Virtual Reality--from their company Empathy, Inc., which is said to offer the most realistic and moving experiences for users by placing them in the lives of the less fortunate. Joel gets the startup its funds but soon discovers that the tech's creators have far more sinister uses in store for their creation and that the reality it provides its customers isn't virtual.

If the technology use case sounds familiar, it's likely because many tech evangelists were just recently claiming virtual reality could do that very thing. For example, like I wrote a couple years ago: 

VR has often been boosted as an "empathy" machine, especially in a much-watched TED talk from VR evangelist Chris Milk, enabling users to feel what it's like to walk in another person's shoes... [But u]nless and until VR becomes truly mass market, content created for empathy purposes will tend to be highly self-selective and self-affirming.

For instance, it's one thing to create a VR experience about what it's like to be homeless in real life, but the only people likely to experience it are those who already empathize with homelessness as a real life problem. Does anyone really think even a VR enthusiast who has no evident empathy for the poor in real life -- like for example, I don't know, Palmer Luckey -- put the time and effort into having an experience which is intended to challenge their world view? 

Anyway, curious to see how these themes play out in the actual film (or not). In any case, the Rotten Tomatoes consensus says it's worth checking out.

Comments

[TonyVT Skarredghost]

It seems intriguing... even if the trailer is not that clear on what the movie will propose, imho