Last night was the first debate for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidates, but it was also the first presidential debate in history that could be viewed in virtual reality. CNN teamed up with software company NextVR to broadcast the event live in a 360-degree virtual reality video accessible only to users of Samsung's Gear VR headset, which is available now for $99 on the Samsung Store, and requires a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone as the viewer.

In case Facebook's 360-degree video wasn't enough for you, Netflix is bringing its streaming video service to virtual reality. With the help of Oculus, Reed Hastings and company will allow you to binge their content catalog in VR.

Virtual reality just took its first step into a larger world: Player two has successfully entered the game.

One of the key revelations of the seminal 1999 sci-film The Matrix was (spoiler alert) that most of humanity was trapped inside an elaborate virtual world. At the time, the scenario seemed far-fetched, if not wholly outside the realm of possibility. But 16 years later, scientists are getting much closer to replicating reality with an increasingly indistinguishable computer-generated copy. Just take a look at the latest advances from the University of Michigan's UM3D Lab, which focuses on research into virtual reality, 3D modeling/printing, motion capture, and other emerging technologies.

If actually being somewhere that resembles a Mad Max-style wasteland wasn't enough, virtual reality will make its debut at Burning Man this year, turning the inside of a two tents into trippy 3D canvases.

During his townhall Q&A session on his Facebook page today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared his idea of what a technologically integrated future looks like: and it's a lot like an episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.