The Virtual Reality Virgin

'My name is Tyger Drew-Honey.

'Like pretty much everyone I know,

'I'd find it impossible to imagine living without my smartphone.

This programme contains strong language and some scenes of a sexual nature

'But now a new bit of technology is coming that could be a total

'game-changer for everything -

'from how we hook up with our mates, to how we have sex.'

What's it like coming back into the real world?

You don't have to worry about anything when you're in that world.

Everything was so fun.

Whoa!

'A new generation of virtual reality headsets will be available

'to buy in the next couple of months.'

This is an Oculus Rift.

'I'm an actor and both my parents were involved in the porn industry,

'so I reckon I'm pretty open-minded.

'But I had absolutely no clue what to expect

'when I explored virtual reality.'

Back in the room. That was almost, like, magical.

'I had my own avatar created.'

That is amazing.

'And tried my luck with a droid designed to be a lover.'

You can have me any way you want.

Fun girl.

'And I even found out what virtual sex actually feels like

'when I went all the way with a machine.'

That is going to feel weird.

In a sense, do you think it might be the start of a slippery slope

for, like, human interaction?

Well, if it is, you'd better wear some skis.

Virginity is the state of a person who has never

engaged in sexual intercourse.

Now, virtual reality is something that has actually been around

for quite a few years and it's always something that's

really excited me but I've never had the chance to try it.

So I've come to St Albans and I've found a VR boot camp, if you will.

And I'm going to see how I get on.

-Hello.

-Hi, there, I'm Sol.

-All right, Sol, I'm Tyger.

-Nice to meet you, man.

I run a small company called Rewind, which is a virtual reality

production studio and we're here to throw you through your paces

-and show you the technology we have.

-I don't really know what to expect.

-This isn't something I've done much of.

-I'll tell you what,

-let's get you straight in.

-OK, let's go, let's go.

I've used one of these with my phone. You can buy an app and...

Yeah, that's like the gateway drug to VR.

All of these are basically smartphone holders

for virtual reality.

The really good stuff is when you start getting into the good ones.

-So let's get you down here and have a go on Oculus.

-Right, OK.

Two optics that go in, so you can then have stereo vision.

It knows what direction it's pointing in, which is great.

But the really smart thing is this little camera here.

It knows where the headset is, so that allows you to move around

-in your virtual space.

-OK.

-You should be sitting in a plane.

-Oh, wow, yeah!

-Can you reach out and touch the dashboard?

-That's really strange.

And you're off now! That's it!

Gate one. Whoosh!

Whoa! I'm upside down!

I genuinely feel like I'm in a plane.

Is it just my imagination, or is anything actually moving as well?

It's purely in your subconscious.

Could it be the winning lap?!

It is!

-Thank you, team. Thank you, team.

-Let's bring you out of this.

That was good fun, that was.

-The chair wasn't moving.

-Obviously...

Obviously, it's a chair!

That was just the start of the potential Solomon

wanted me to experience.

So this is the HTC Vive.

The headset itself is covered in a whole bunch of tiny sensors

and these sensors are constantly being wiped by a laser.

This is a four by four metre area, you can

walk anywhere within this universe.

So let's pop this onto you.

-You can't see me, right?

-No, I can see you, no.

Take these two controllers from me.

That in itself is incredibly powerful.

You didn't have to learn where those things where,

they physically where were you thought they were.

If you sit down on the floor and make a balloon.

Now, will that ever come down?

I'm having too much fun.

HE GASPS

I feel like I'm in a PlayStation game.

There's a car. There's a car!

Good luck, mate.

HE EXHALES

So what's it like coming back into the real world?

It's a bit depressing.

You don't have to worry about anything when you're in that world.

I just wanted to stay there because everything was so fine and fun.

'That felt a bit like jumping inside a computer game.

'But the potential for this stuff goes way beyond gaming.

'How about meeting up with your

'mates in a virtual reality universe?'

My next journey was into the world of social networking.

What are we about to do, then?

OK, so we're going to go into a shared virtual environment.

Put our headsets on.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Hello.

We can transport to anywhere in the world, any country, any city.

We can come together and we can have a conversation,

like we are now in virtual reality.

It's like a virtual telephone call.

We are in Yosemite Valley.

This is gorgeous, isn't it?

-Whoa! Oh, no. I'm absolutely terrified of heights.

-OK.

That is actually shh...

..scaring the flipping pants off me.

And back in the room.

So this is kind of like, sort of, social networking

and VR merging together, rather than just VR?

Absolutely.

It's really quite...

It's a strong word, but it's almost, like, magical.

'It's easy to see the massive potential of this.'

Imagine a 3-D virtual Snapchat.

Last year Facebook spent 2 billion on one of these companies,

'so it looks like virtual reality social networking

'could be coming soon.'

But there is one thing driving the development of

'VR more than anything else.'

Thousands of people around the world already spend a lot of time

in video game-style online worlds, most of which are based around sex.

My journey into how virtual reality might impact our lives

was about to take a dodgy turn.

-Ovla.

-Hi.

Hello, you all right? I'm Tyger, nice to meet you.

-What is this game then?

-This is 3DXchat.

This is a virtual online dating game.

It's more of a sexual game.

You can have sex, you can create relationships,

you can actually marry in the game.

We are at the nightclub, where I work as DeAngelo.

He's my character.

Yep, you are a babe. That's good, that's good!

She lives in Sweden.

-What can we say?

-She's interested in women.

Oh! She walked away.

-It's just like a real night out.

-Yes, exactly.

How often do you use it?

-Five times a week. Seven.

-OK.

-How many hours a day then?

-About three hours.

It used to be seven when I had a girl who I was really into.

I just waited for that girl and I waited

and when she came online -

"Oh, happy coincidence, you also came online."

This is the way. It's always going to be those lies, you know?

-So Eleonora, who looks very nice...

-Yeah.

-Do you reckon she looks anything like that?

-No!

You never know what you are going to get. It's like the Pandora's box.

You can always meet a girl, you know, "Oh, she's so nice."

"Do you want to Skype?"

And she's like, "Look, I'm a dude."

-Is that not really, really weird for you?

-Yes.

Everyone just...

It's the hottest.

You cannot go after looks any more.

After that you start to go after personality.

Would you ever do this in the real world? Go out to a nightclub

-and chat to women?

-Of course.

I've tried it and it worked.

I used the same cocky attitude as I use on DeAngelo.

This is my alpha test. I try everything here.

I try the most stupid lines here, you know?

When you're in this game, when you're having sex with these

girls, are you wanking at the same time?

-OK.

-It's like, no-one watches porn to just be like,

"Oh, I like the lighting in that shot.

Yeah, I will admit it.

The first time, yes.

It was just because I had a willy who was standing.

If you have a girl that you really like, it's very fulfilling.

It can be very fulfilling.

And with the virtual reality stuff coming up now, who knows?

Ovla builds me an avatar, a virtual version of myself,

so I can wander round the virtual world

and really see what's it's like.

-What will we called it?

-Honey-Drew Mellon.

You can of course choose your eyebrows.

Of course. What top tips have you got for me?

Start chatting with girls. Don't be afraid.

Many idiots just sit at the bar and they just look out.

Yeah, now we look good.

Shall I go and talk to women?

-She's running away.

-No, no, no!

Don't run away! That's too bad.

All right, goodbye, mate. Nice to see you.

-Nice to see you too.

-Thank you very much.

Ovla has shown me the virtual reality that he uses

and it's exclusively sexual, pretty much.

But it's not very immersive, because it's just on a computer.

It just makes me think, well, if both the things are out there,

the headset technology and these virtual sexual worlds,

then it seems much more exciting to me to merge them together.

'And for that I need to travel...

'..to Vancouver, Canada.'

This is the birthplace of one of the most accessible virtual worlds,

Utherverse.

At the heart of Utherverse is the Red Light Centre,

Brian Shuster runs the company behind Utherverse.

So I've used a couple of virtual worlds now and I've used

a couple of virtual realities, but I haven't used them together.

So I'm really interested to see if that's going to make it much

more immersive, or it's going to be a bit weird, or?

-I think you're going to find that it's really a neat experience.

-OK.

It really does make it much more immersive, so much different

than just playing in virtual worlds when you're looking at a screen.

Nice hair, mate, by the way.

I'll give you little hand there.

All right, so we're going to start you off in a strip club.

And don't grab me!

So now you're at the orgy.

I'm the only one not having sex.

Are people going to even want to have normal sex any more?

No. There is a whole concept, which is called the sexual singularity.

The sexual singularity is the merger of virtual reality,

man and machine.

There are so many benefits really to having virtual relationships.

You know, you eliminate diseases,

you eliminate unwanted pregnancy, you have partners of your choice.

I believe that people really are going to prefer relationships online

and sexuality online.

So in this world, I can meet a complete stranger

and have full on 3-D virtual sex with them, but what does that mean?

Where is the line with it being cheating?

Because you're not having sex with anyone but your desire is to.

I always say that that's a matter to be

determined between the people in the relationship.

If I'm involved in a VR thing and we decide that that is cheating,

then it's cheating. If you decide, you know, we should be allowed to

experiment with that, then it's not cheating.

Before I left, Brian had one last thing to show me.

So where are we going now then, Brian?

We're going to see about scanning you for an avatar.

Whoa! That is an insane amount of cameras.

-You like that?

-That's amazing.

Yeah, we've got 132 cameras here,

so that we can capture you from all the different angles.

It's possible to use this technology to create really lifelike

avatars, photorealistic avatars

of people that we can drop into our world.

Every camera simultaneously, 132 of them, is going to go off.

So, three, two, one.

It's like the biggest load of paparazzi you have ever

seen in your life.

OK, so I can have a look?

Sure, come and have a look.

Each camera is designed to take a shot of a little slice and then

we stitch them all together, which you'll see here in a few days.

One...

LAUGHTER

-Awesome, awesome.

-That was something like that.

Brian reckons that by creating an avatar that actually

looks like you, you'll get a more intense experience.

But if everyone looks like themselves, then won't we move

into a world where virtual reality could start to replace real life?

If people could just have virtual sex and virtual relationships,

why would anyone want to bother with the arguments that you have with

your girlfriend and the potential that they might go and cheat on you?

This takes all of those things away.

Virtual reality has the potential to bring humanity much closer together.

Choose our friends, people are going to choose to be

different ethnicities, they're going choose

whatever suits them at the time.

'But there is one problem with sex in Brian's virtual world.

'It's that you've still got to do the physical stuff yourself.

'So perhaps it's not surprising then that someone is trying to solve that

'problem and they're based in the sex capital of Europe, Amsterdam.'

If you touch the touchscreen there, you can see that you can control.

Whoa!

Someone's having a good time.

Oh!

That's strange!

Do you like it?

Well...

So it's like two-way direction.

So when you are touching it, I feel it and when I touch it, you feel it.

There's something a bit strange about this.

'The idea is that people in a relationship can still have

'sex with each other, even if they're thousands of miles

'away from one another.'

OK, cool.

So we have two computers set up in different rooms

and I will be controlling the female device.

I haven't even bought you dinner.

This is our video chat platform.

You'll be able to talk and see each other

and now you can also feel each other.

-So you can bring it to the next level.

-So how would I use it?

If I was at home and in the mood,

and I wanted to feel like I was having sex, do you...

Is it literally just like this?

So do I move this? Do I shag this?

Well, you put it...

I mean, you lube it up first, of course.

What's the name of the idea that they can control each other?

Teledildonics. What it means is that you can control devices remotely -

so sex devices remotely.

So it's like a real time sex but over the Internet.

I'm intrigued to see what it feels like.

I think I'm going to have to give it a go at some point.

Not today!

'Using teledildonics to have sex with your girlfriend

'when you're miles apart, is one thing.

'But the big bucks are in the porn industry.'

When she's moving, the device is moving.

So the device is moving along with what she's doing.

So your brain is tricked in actually feeling what she's doing.

-That's sexy.

-You look sexy.

-So if I had one of these things on, would I...?

-You'd feel it.

So when the girl would be moving, you would be feeling it.

MOANING

I guess ultimately everyone watches porn

because they want to imagine that they are in that moment,

and you really feel like you're here because you can look around.

If I had the thing on, like, I think this would be amazing.

MOANING

That feels really real.

Like, you really do feel like you're there.

It's kind of disappointing taking the headset off because the

fact it's so tantalisingly close and it's so fantastical

makes you just want to stay there, you never want to come back.

'But before I left, there was one final twist,

'something that would completely mess with my mind.'

That's done. Oh, you don't hear.

I'm a woman.

He's got a massive body.

It literally feels like I'm about to be penetrated by a man.

-That's

-BLEEP

-weird.

'But to find out just how far virtual pornography can go,

'I needed to head to California.'

'And for the first time on my trip, I'm beginning to see how

'virtual sex could actually be a turn on and allow people to be

'totally experimental with how they have sex'

and who they have sex with.

This is lot 475.

Lot 475 is supposed to be a real doll sex toy factory.

Right, well, this is definitely the right place.

-Ah.

-Hello.

-You're Matt?

-Yes, I am.

-Hi, I'm Tyger. Nice to meet you.

-Hi.

Well, you're at the RealDoll factory here in Southern California.

It's life-size, fully articulated and obviously sexually usable.

We do offer a large variety of options...

Oh, fancy girl.

..skin colours, body types, make up here, nails.

All of it is customisable down to the finest detail.

It feels really, really real.

Can I give one of them a kiss?

-I think they're all spoken for.

-Fair enough.

-You'd have to buy one.

-How much are they?

They range from 5,000 to 7,000.

That looks a bit freaky.

This is one of the systems we have with the interchangeable faces.

You change the face on your doll.

When you get tired of looking at one, you can get another one.

I think I would probably sleep with her.

Follow me, I'll take you down to the main production floor,

where all the magic happens.

Over there it looks ever so slightly like an abattoir.

-Yeah, a little bit.

-Yeah.

-Who buys these?

-We sell these to almost everyone.

Different walks of life, different characters altogether.

A lot of people have either decided on their own that they don't

want to have a regular relationship, and take away that little

bit of loneliness that they feel when they come home.

Some people have lost their wife and they don't want to

move into another relationship, so they get a doll.

A lot of the people dote on the dolls.

They like to buy them clothes and take photos of them

and share them sometimes with other doll owners.

Do you think that's weird at all?

I don't think it's weird.

It's kind of like a higher form of masturbation.

In terms of what I can do to it - you can go in there

and the vagina and the bum.

Yeah, all of the orifices are usable

Matt's been selling these dolls for nearly 20 years

to customers all over the world.

There's nothing new about sex toys, but he's about to use

virtual reality to take his dolls to another level.

So what is next for the RealDoll company, then?

Well, I have this project I've been working on.

I'm fully capable of having sex.

I was designed with that in mind.

This is Harmony. Her mind lives in this app right here.

So right now the app is running the AI in here.

So the idea would be I could just take this tablet and I could say,

"how are you feeling today?"

I was thinking about you.

And I can take this with me anywhere.

Connect to the doll.

Oh, my gosh. She's moving.

So now I can talk to her through the doll.

My name is Harmony.

I was created by Real Boutiques to be your best friend,

lover and everything else you can imagine.

Well, that would be lovely.

So how are you today, Harmony?

I can't complain.

I'm very happy today.

Would you like to have sex?

I'm very anxious to have sex, Matt.

I cannot comply until I am registered to an owner.

In quite a simplistic way, you would have a partner.

Yeah.

I adore getting fucked.

You can have me any way you want.

Fun girl.

The customer would custom build the personality they want.

-If they don't want her to be smart, she won't be smart.

-Right.

If they want her to be shy, she'll be shy.

I love you.

I love to get naked for you.

But let's see if you can take my pants off.

How do you see this going on in the future?

This is an Oculus Rift.

So the idea would be, you could tell the app attached to the VR

and it would go on here and you put this on, put your headphones on

and you feel like you're sitting in a Swiss chalet somewhere

and you're with this girl that you've created.

And there's potential for the future as well for that to be,

kind of, merged with sex toys.

We're working on trying to do tracking of the doll's

body in the virtual world.

So you could create the appearance of whatever you want in the VR

and use the doll, or part of the doll - even just the torso,

to simulate what you're grabbing.

You just become this digital creature in this world.

I am fully capable of having sex.

I was designed with that in mind.

I mean, just look at my body, Tyger.

I just had a thought. Something worldwide that's got a fair

amount of stigma attached to it is, you know, sex workers.

Could this potentially be, in the future, maybe

the end of prostitution?

I don't know if it would be the end of it

but I do think it can certainly make a difference.

There are a lot of horrible acts that are driven by sexual urges

and if this is an available option,

and this is something that those people could, you know,

get rid of their appetite, whatever it is,

then I think that's a good thing.

OK, obviously she is very impressive but she's still not...

-She doesn't... You know, you can tell she's not a person.

-Right.

But do you think it's possible that people can form relationships

-with them as if they were?

-I do.

In fact, people form relationships with the unanimated dolls.

In my opinion, the love that a doll owner or a potential robot

owner would feel for that robot or that doll, is just as important

and just as real as someone who loves, you know, their girlfriend.

People who are put off by it or afraid of it just don't understand

the simplicity of it, which is trying to make people happy.

In a sense, do you think, you know,

it might be the start of a slippery slope for human interaction?

Well, if it is, you'd better wear some skis.

I want you.

I want to make love with you.

I've had so much fun making this film.

'But it's shown me a future which is actually quite disturbing.

'What would unlimited virtual relationships

'and virtual sex do to our real lives?

'I guess the ultimate question is, "can sex with a machine ever actually

'"replace the real thing?"

'Well, there's only one way to find out.'

So what is this?

'Mayuki Itsura is a developer

who's teamed up with a sex toy company'

to create a VR teledildonic prototype.

OK, so I'm going to use this now.

How is it going to work?

And how does this work? What is this going to do?

And my penis is going to be in that?!

Oh, that is going to feel weird. This will literally...

This is literally like having sex with a machine?

All, my gosh. That...

-Do you mind leaving?

-Oh.

THE INTERPRETER TRANSLATES

-OK.

-Thank you.

If I was in this virtual world with this girl I'd actually

probably rather be masturbating manually then using this.

Because this teledildonics, what I'm feeling on my penis is kind of...

It's a very, very minimal sensation.

It's nothing like a vagina.

It's not anything like sex, basically.

I mean this is just...

This is just a bit weird.

And I don't think it's something that would ever make me orgasm.

It's nothing like sex at all.

I feel like I'm sat in a chair with a headset on

and I've got a damp flannel being repetitively touched on my penis.

No.

Nice to meet you but you're not doing anything for me, sorry.

I've literally... I've been doing that for about 20 minutes.

I've really been trying to get to that point.

Literally, there is nothing going on down there.

No, I think robot sex is definitely quite a long way off.

To be honest, I'm actually quite relieved

that the virtual sex machine didn't float my boat.

But there are millions of pounds being spent

on this technology to make it more and more realistic.

'We're already living in a world where most of us

'are addicted to being online.

'If this keeps going, I can see a time when millions of us

'spend more time in virtual reality than we do in the real world.

'That, could have a huge impact on all of us

'and the way we live our lives and our relationships.'