How do feel about virtual reality reuniting people with dead family?

What problems do you think are possible?

Virtually reality is resurrecting the dead to help the living cope with their sadness.

A Korean television show used the technology to help a mother meet with her dead seven-year-old daughter. The virtual reality even had touch-sensitive gloves and sound.

The show is called 'Meeting You'. The story is of a family's who loses their seven-year-old daughter Nayeon. Nayeon died from an unknown disease in 2016.

The two were able to touch and play. The little girl even told her mother that she no longer had pain.

The mother seemed to find the experience beneficial. But experts say there are some worries about this experiment on TV for entertainment.

The Korean company MBC, worked hard to make Nayeon's face, body and voice to be as accurate as possible.

The little girl asked her mother where she had been and if she thought about her. Jang then responded: 'I do all the time.'

As her daughter said, 'I missed mom a lot,' Jang replied, 'I missed you, too.'

Jang was shy at first to touch the digital child until Nayeon insisted she hold her hand.

Jang held her daughter's hand. Tears were falling down her face. 

Nayeon's father, brother and sister, were all watching from the audience and were also crying.

At one time, the little girl runs up to her mother and hands her a flower saying: 'Mommy, you can see that I'm not hurting anymore, right?'

At the end, Nayeon lay down to sleep, saying that she was tired, and her mother said goodbye.

However, Dr Blay Whitby, at the University of Sussex says that the television show is worrying.

'We just don't know the psychological effects of being brought back together with someone in this way,' Dr Whitby said.

'A lot of psychiatrists would see this as potentially unhealthy. Making profit from people is also a potential problem.

Wendy Grossman, a writer on computers, freedom, and privacy, also weighed in. 'An important question for me is who controls the daughter's avatar? Someone has to provide it with things to say and movements to make. There is the potential for emotional manipulation. Losing a child is the most terrible sadness of all.'

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=1, B=8, C=3, D=2, E=7, F=5, G=4, H=6

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. Professor Kim wants to resurrect some old ways of teaching.

2. I can’t cope with all this extra work.

3. Drink this because it is beneficial. You won’t get sick if you drink it.

4. I like math because it is accurate. I don’t like subjects like art because the grading is inaccurate.

5. Mr Lee insisted on paying for our dinner.

6. She has weighed in with her opinion about the changes.

7. This young man has potential to be a great pianist.

8. She is manipulating you. She says if you buy her these shoes she will love you.

    

    

    

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. How do you feel about resurrecting dead family like in this family?

2. What advice would you give someone to cope if someone they love dies?

3. Can you see benefits to using virtual reality like in the story?

4. Do you think we need to insist that more learning about the effects of this virtual reality is done?

5. Who do you think should weigh in on this in Korea?

6. What do you think is the potential of this kind of experience?

7. How could people be manipulated by this experience?

8. How accurate do you think virtual reality will become on the future?