Some interesting properties of Immersion:
Immersion is Recursive
Have you ever had a dream so vivid you thought it was real? That is a great example of immersion. This immersion can be recursive. What does that mean?
Let’s say we’re playing a video game where we explore from a third-person perspective, or we’re watching an engaging movie. When we’re fully absorbed, we start to feel what the characters feel. If a character experiences loss, we feel their sorrow. If they achieve something, we share their joy. Now, picture playing this game using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset. The immersion deepens to the point where we feel we’re part of the story. Often, we’re so engrossed that coming back to reality takes a moment after we take off the headset, similar to waking from a dream. This demonstrates the power of modern technology. The more our senses are engaged — seeing through a screen, hearing through headphones, feeling through touch-sensitive devices — the more real these experiences become. We start to feel as if we’ve stepped into the game.
Now imagine a future where VR gaming is common, with systems like the Metaverse. Suppose there’s a simple game, like Mario, within the VR environment. We begin playing Mario and quickly become so involved that we feel as if we are Mario. Thus we get immersed inside an immersion. As you can see this factor of immersion can go recursively with each layer of artificial reality.
So, the big question is, could our reality be just another layer of this recursive immersion? If so, what exists before our current reality?
Immersion is transferable
This property is closely related to the previous one and is fairly obvious, but worth mentioning. Immersion can be transferred from one experience to another, with a time delay. That is, you can be immersed in a painting, after which you can then look at a movie and become immersed, and so on and so forth. The time delay corresponds to biological factors.
Immersion occurs serially
Being immersed in multiple experiences in parallel is next to impossible. In day-to-day life, immersion can happen only one experience at a time. This is because focus and attention can be placed only on one thing at a time.
Immersion breaking factors
Immersion is broken by several factors, like glitches, conscious realization, sensory deprivation, high emotions (like stress, anger, boredom), etc.
Can you think of more properties of immersion?