"Virtually" Organic - boon for animal rights or technological abomination?

Battery farmed animals are a big issue for animal rights activists, but what if these animals, while remaining in the same physical environment, were living "their best life" in a virtual paradise? Sci-fi through the ages has suggested such a system for humans, with both "Better Than Life" from Red Dwarf and later "The Matrix" showing just how blissful ignorance of your physical surroundings can be.

And with sci-fi becoming reality through the latest technology trends, we can all now visit the 7 wonders of the world, travel across the milky way and even hang out on the sets of our favourite TV shows, all from the comfort of our front room.

Virtual Reality [VR] no longer requires expensive specialist equipment, or clunky add-ons for cumbersome computers, the phones we use every day offer this ability through any of the countless many apps utilising the technology.

So if we are managing to enjoy the benefits of this latest innovation, what about extending the "enjoyment" to our friends in the animal kingdom? There are of course technological hurdles to overcome, just like launching a product to any new market. But now that so much is understood about how animals see and experience their environments, these are simply minor details to be ironed out at which point a fully functional "Animal VR" headset could be released!

Towards the end of last year there were in fact a slew of stories on the internet when images were posted supposedly showing cows wearing VR headsets in a farm near Mos"cow", but the validity of the images and accompanying press release were never independently verified.

Still, where there's smoke, there's usually fire and this field is sure to interest those on both sides of the animal farming fence. Whether it be from battery farming firms, looking for ways of answering the critics of the living conditions of their stock, or the animal rights activists who will want to review and analyse any and all use of virtual environments to determine whether the animals are enjoying a better quality of life or is this technology just yet another smokescreen to mask the real issue.

But if this kind of marriage of technology and animal genuinely does provide those animals with a better quality of life, isn't the next [un]natural step for this concept to be trialled on humans? Given we already understand and use this technology and with many people engaged in mundane and unfulfilling work, if you had the choice of transforming your workday from mucking out a butchery blood bin to playing tennis with Roger Federer I imagine plenty would opt for sharpening up their forehand game.