Pitch
Popularity of VR devices will make Singaporeans less observant of their surrounding, and thus easier targets for terrorist.
Description
Make life easier/more difficult for Singapore?
More difficult
Describe the change
We have seen how the wildly popular Pokemon Go game made people less aware of their surrounding, resulting in traffic accidents (Japan) and falling into traps by robbers (Missouri). This signifies the growing demand for Virtual Reality (VR) devices.
According to Deloitte Global, virtual reality (VR) sector is expected to sell an estimated 2.5 million VR headsets and 10 million game copies would be sold in 2016 alone. Markets and Markets, on the other hand, predicted that Virtual Reality market will worth 33.90 Billion USD by 2022.
However, VR technology would make Singaporeans even less aware of their surroundings than the smartphones. A The New Paper news dated 16 Sep 2016 carried the story of a 6 year-old girl being drown in the hotel pool while his dad "was looking at his mobile phone".
With VR devices, they may not even be aware of a terrorist attack happening right in front of their eyes (since they may be, ironically, too busy fighting villains in their virtual world).
How will this change impact Smart Nation Singapore in 2030?
The proliferation of VR devices in the consumer market would result in lower public vigilance. Combined with the growing public complacency due to absence of terrorist attacks or mass casualty incidents on the soil of Singapore, mass consumption of VR devices could significantly increase the number of causalities, should such an attack succeed. However, it would be futile for government to stem the flow of such devices into local consumer market.
This is complicated by the fact that, to increase the growth and competitiveness of infocomm industry as part of the Smart Nation vision, Singapore has to continue positioning itself as a technology hub and attract investors, including manufacturers of VR devices, into Singapore. The conflict between economy development, social resilience and national security would increasingly become a headache for the Singapore government in 2030.
By: