If you know about the Oculus Rift virtual reality gamer goggle company that Mark Zuckerberg just bought for $2 billion in June, then you probably think you are way cool.
But you’d be even cooler yet if you say, well, those goggles are tethered, connected to a computer, and just play a game.
In fact, after this blog, you’ll know all about a non-tethered, wireless set of goggles that aren’t interested in games, but focus on creating empathy to help avoid real life and death issues.
That’s the virtual reality of I-Chicken, a demonstration by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), funded by The Simpson’s co-creator Sam Simon. PETA’s now touring college campuses across the nation to introduce a new study on radical empathy that hopes to get people to rethink eating chicken.
Don’t laugh. Nine billion chickens are killed in the U.S. each year for food, or about 26 million chickens a day. And if you eat it with the skin and fried, the cholesterol levels are enough to wreak havoc with your health.
As a point of disclosure, my wife works for PETA, though she did not work on the development the of I-Chicken project.
Once you put on the goggles, you simply flap your wings and meet your chicken buddies. And then you, as the chicken, with your chicken pals, go off to be slaughtered.
