I think most of us have known "real" VR is inevitable ever since the idea clicked, round about 1990 or so. So far it's lacked the urgency that could have made it a "moon landing"- level quest. Maybe it lacks a killer app.

I think what Palmer has done is organize a vote, where the verdict was, "Yeah, we want it now. Let us find our own killer apps." Whatever, we now have Carmack, Patron Saint of end-to-end Latency, and Samsung, kind of working together-ish in as concerted an effort as there's ever been to make VR work.

Oculus is bound to seem stone-aged even 15 years out, but it's a strong start.

From the article: one thing that stood out that I haven't thought much about is the potential to use VR to achieve altered states (other than the standard immersion and nausea).