Tech companies have spent years developing better, cheaper devices to immerse people in digital worlds. Yet they are still figuring out how to make virtual reality the kind of technology that people cannot live without.

So for inspiration, they are turning to science fiction.

科技公司多年來一直在研發更好、更便宜的裝置，讓人們浸淫在數位世界裡。但他們仍在苦思如何把虛擬實境變成人們生活中不可缺的科技。

因此，為了找靈感，他們找上科幻小說。

At Oculus, a leading virtual reality company, a copy of the popular sci-fi novel "Ready Player One" is handed out to new hires. Magic Leap, a secretive augmented reality startup, has hired science fiction and fantasy writers. The name of Microsoft's HoloLens headset is a salute to the holodeck, a simulation room from "Star Trek."

"Like many other people working in the tech space, I'm not a creative person," said Palmer Luckey, 23, a co-founder of Oculus, which was bought by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. "It's nice that science fiction exists because these are really creative people figuring out what the ultimate use of any technology might be. They come up with a lot of incredible ideas."

知名的虛擬實境公司Oculus發給新進人員一本暢銷科幻小說「一級玩家」。神秘的擴增實境新創公司Magic Leap已雇用科幻和奇幻作家。微軟的HoloLens頭罩式裝置的名稱，即是向「星際爭霸戰」中的模擬室「全像甲板」（holodeck）致敬。

Oculus的共同創辦人、23歲的帕爾默．拉奇說：「我和其他許多在科技界工作的人一樣，不是有創意的人。有科幻小說的存在真好，因為這是些真正有創意的人想像任何科技最終用途可以是什麼。他們想出來很多很棒的點子。」Oculus2014年被臉書以20億美元買下。

Those ideas are especially relevant now, as some of the biggest technology companies are nearing a major push of a new generation of virtual reality products. In the next few months, virtual reality headsets from Oculus, Sony and HTC go on sale. Venture capital money is pouring into the industry.

But how people will interact with the imaginary worlds remains largely unknown territory. And that is where science fiction comes in. Science fiction is shaping the language companies are using to market the technology, influencing the types of experiences made for the headsets and even defining long-term goals for developers.

現在這些點子尤其重要，一些龍頭科技公司即將大推新一代的虛擬實境產品。在未來幾個月，Oculus、索尼和宏達電的虛擬實境頭罩式裝置將開賣。創投資金正大量投入這個產業。

然而人們將如何與想像的世界互動，大致上仍屬未知之境。而這正是科幻小說派上用場的地方。科幻小說正在形塑各公司用來推銷這項科技的語言，影響為頭盔設計的各種經驗，甚至定義開發商的長期目標。

"Science fiction, in simplest terms, sets you free," said Ralph Osterhout, chief executive of the Osterhout Design Group, which builds augmented reality glasses.

Perhaps no fictional work resonates more throughout the industry these days than "Ready Player One," written by Ernest Cline and now being made into a movie by Steven Spielberg.

生產擴增實境眼鏡的奧斯特豪特設計集團執行長芮夫．奧斯特豪特說：「科幻小說，用最簡單的話來說，讓你自由。」

近來也許沒有一部科幻作品能比恩斯特．克萊恩寫的「一級玩家」在整個產業引起更大共鳴，此作正被史蒂芬史匹柏拍成電影。

Much of the action in the book takes place inside the Oasis, a global virtual reality network. Characters in the network attend school, socialize and take part in a high-stakes treasure hunt. Through virtual reality, they can inhabit the perspectives of actors in classic movies.

The book was published in 2011, around the time Luckey began building an early prototype of the Oculus headset.

書中許多情節發生在「綠洲」，一個全球的虛擬實境網絡。網絡中的角色會上學、社交、參加高風險的尋寶活動。透過虛擬實境，他們能夠進入經典電影演員的視野中。

這本書出版於2011年，大約是拉奇開始建造Oculus頭盔初期原型的時期。