IMAGINING TOMORROW: BUSINESS FUTURES | 57 OCTOBER 1, 2023 Not everyone is favorably impressed. More than Business travel is one market being squeezed by XR; it is set to experience 5 million fans negative growth in 2023, for the first time since 2009. Others have blamed virtually attended XR for low growth in self-driving car sales, even as the market for self-driving One Direction’s one- delivery vans is booming. off reunion concert at But the naysayers appear to be in the minority. Well beyond the travel and London’s O2 Arena, tourism sectors, gross domestic product (GDP) is already shifting dramatically to making it one of the the imagination economy. In the entertainment industry, for example, XR games biggest live-streaming continue to dominate; however, the live-streaming of events has also boomed. events to date. The biggest live-streaming event to date came last month, when more than five million fans virtually attended One Direction’s one-off reunion concert at London’s O2 Arena. That record is expected to be overtaken when football’s World Cup kicks off in Qatar next month, an event for which VirTur is FIFA’s official XR partner. One decision is already causing controversy: With rumors of low ticket sales and few fans planning to travel to Qatar, VirTur is offering an “Enhanced Atmosphere” option, replacing the real stadium crowds—or the possible absence of them—with computer-generated fans. XR critic Dex Leigh, author of the recent best-seller, “What Is Real? XR, Fantasy and the Future of Humanity,” calls it “a worrying new milestone in the fragmentation of shared experience.” THE WORLD OF REDESIGNING THTHEE I IMAMAGIGINANATIONTION THE AGE OF “TECHNO-POLITICS” LIFE E ECONOMYCONOMY (IN)SECURITY