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A population of people sitting on their basement with embedded optics and aural living to 300 years and fat as a herd of dairy cows. Probably have a feeding tube stuck in their gut with baby food being pumped in.
A population of people sitting on their basement with embedded optics and aural living to 300 years and fat as a herd of dairy cows. Probably have a feeding tube stuck in their gut with baby food being pumped in.
What a wonderful future you are wishing for.
Curmudgeon alert!
You probably would have been against novels too, in another time...
A population of people sitting on their basement with embedded optics and aural living to 300 years and fat as a herd of dairy cows. Probably have a feeding tube stuck in their gut with baby food being pumped in.
What a wonderful future you are wishing for.
Well since its unlikely i'll get to experience my dream of a harem of elf girls and being a physically imposing person il spend whatever it takes to get vr.
You'll see Infinadecks in a VRCade or theme park before you get one at home, but don't disregard its potential. It is the missing link between room-scale VR and fully explorable virtual worlds.
Last but definitely not least, Project Cars in VR, which I'm SO looking forward to. This, with a really good chair and steering wheel / pedals is going to be amazing.
You probably would have been against novels too, in another time...
Realism alert!
My first computer (real computer) was an IBM PC-1 bought in 1982 for over $3k. Our brand new car, bought the year before cost a little over $4k.
I look to the future with a realistic eye. I recognized, even then, that computers would be key in everything humans did in a very short period of time, and geared myself towards learning as much as possible about them. I told anyone who would listen that they should buy one for their children and encourage them to understand them. A lot of them thought i was a bit nutty.
I look to the future with a realistic eye. I recognized, even then, that computers would be key in everything humans did in a very short period of time, and geared myself towards learning as much as possible about them. I told anyone who would listen that they should buy one for their children and encourage them to understand them. A lot of them thought i was a bit nutty.
I was right then. I'm right now.
Right about what?
You painted a brief, comically cynical view of the future with regard to VR. Got anything constructive to add?
Yes. I honestly think it is an amazing technology. I eagerly look forward to it. I'm am an avid game player and can't wait until it is a finished product that is affordable. I would love to be young and in a position to work with this technology. I can imagine the excitement you experience every day because I've been there.
I do see all the fantastic possibilities (although not as many as you, I bet), but I also have the common sense to recognize the problems inherent in it.
You can be as dismissive as you want, but doing so blinds you to the dangers of VR. I understand you work with it so your all giddy, but it will likely become an escape for a lot of unhappy people. You see them every day. Head down constantly texting. No eye contact. Looking down in their cars while texting thinking no one knows what they are doing. With VR and the ability to do daily chores like shopping and have it delivered to the house they will settle into their cocoon, never leaving.
With AI becoming a reality and robotics reaching the point of independence the workforce will be drastically reduced. What to you see as a future of millions of out of work people on the dole? Drugs? Crime? VR?
While you sit in your office all wired about what VR can do please keep in mind the dark side of this technology, but don't let it drag you down. Instead try to think of ways to solve the possible problems inherent in the technology. Who knows, maybe you'll be the one to have a breakthrough idea that will sidestep future problems.
That would be fantastic.
You can try to ignore this behavior because you don't want to hear about it, but it will become reality. Not virtual.
Enjoy your work. Do not. I repeat, do not let anything detour you from what you are doing. But don't ignore aspects of it that may not be to your liking.
Last edited by Tek_Freek; 01-10-2016 at 02:44 PM..
Part of it's the price as well. Oculus Rift is like 600 dollars. It's hard to get too many people who want to part with that much for essentially a game accessory. This is likely simply the first step of a new technology that will take time to develop. I don't foresee any of these devices making a huge splash though.
Part of it's the price as well. Oculus Rift is like 600 dollars. It's hard to get too many people who want to part with that much for essentially a game accessory.
I don't think you're wrong about the perception of it. However, it will do SO MUCH MORE. The social potential is kind of staggering based on a couple of things I've tried and some of the software and technology I'm seeing -- it's really no wonder why Facebook bought the company.
The first Playstation was over $600 in terms of today's dollars, for instance. I bought a computer to do 3D modeling and rendering back in 1996 that cost $3700 ($5600 in today's dollars). But it's true that they (Facebook and Oculus) made a premium product (essentially what we're getting as the CV1 is what they had originally planned as the second or 1.5th generation product; the CV1 was originally going to be just a slightly sleeker DK2 for $350). I'm very glad they went to great effort and expense to produce a really nice product that won't fail to impress people. It's got ALL custom parts, feels great, is superlight, works amazingly well, and comes in a nice box with all the accessories needed. My only misgiving is that Oculus Touch couldn't be included. But we have the HTC Vive pre-orders coming February 29th and it will include everything needed for full hand-tracked room-scale (5 meters x 5 meters) VR.
But it is in early adopter territory right now. The first HDTVs were many thousands of dollars. First iPhone was $600 with a contract eight years ago. First DVD player, first CD player, etc. Keep in mind other than Gear VR (which isn't full VR) there still has never been a consumer virtual reality system available to the general public, as of today 1.13.16. That will change, finally, on 3.28.16.
Part of my job as an early adopter will be to draw people in and show them compelling experiences (which might be games and might be something completely different like Tiltbrush or Toybox), not so that they necessarily go out and buy a real computer and a Rift or Vive or PS4 and PSVR, but so that their imaginations are sparked and they start imagining what you COULD do with this technology down the road, in the Second Generation and beyond. I'm here and many other places online and in the real world to answer any questions or concerns people have (one big one is motion sickness) and to explain the vision and where we see things going.
There is certainly a lot of money pouring into VR/AR/MR. Every single day I hear about some big new player entering the market. Yesterday it was Google:
You can be as dismissive as you want, but doing so blinds you to the dangers of VR. I understand you work with it so you're all giddy, but it will likely become an escape for a lot of unhappy people. You see them every day. Head down constantly texting. No eye contact. Looking down in their cars while texting thinking no one knows what they are doing. With VR and the ability to do daily chores like shopping and have it delivered to the house they will settle into their cocoon, never leaving.
I don't actually work in VR, but I'd like to. I'd like to write about it, or design for it, or work on interfaces, or act as a liaison between developers and product owners.
I think we have a responsibility to create diverse, wide-ranging experiences. Are there going to be people who abuse it, who become obsessed with it? Probably. We've seen that throughout the history of new media, from books through VR. I don't think the answer is to stop developing the technology and software though. I don't know exactly what the answer is, or that there is one.
With AI becoming a reality and robotics reaching the point of independence the workforce will be drastically reduced. What do you see as a future of millions of out of work people on the dole? Drugs? Crime? VR?
Certainly we face an uncertain future. I've written about these types of problems a number of times here, on my blog, on Facebook, etc. My personal plan is to retire at age 50 (nine years from now). I don't have any answers here, either. It's a huge, multi-generational, global problem.
In Ready Player One, society has had a soft collapse. Real reality sucks, and virtual reality is really pretty good. Hence, people do spend most of their time in VR. However, VR as presented in RP1 isn't necessarily this horrible, dark cesspool of hopeless addiction. It's really a rather hopeful, optimistic book. It's interesting because it's part of what inspired Palmer Luckey to create the first generation of consumer VR. Life imitating art imitating life. We'll see how Spielberg does in the film version.
Here's a great short film about the dangers of a VR future:
Instead try to think of ways to solve the possible problems inherent in the technology.
Right now, the community is mostly focused on reach out and adoption, but the prospect of people becoming dependent on VR are not outside of the group consciousness. But how do you create incredibly immersive technologies with extremely compelling experiences while limiting the time people want to spend in them? It's kind of a Catch-22.
I think three interesting areas that might ameliorate some of the fears are A. VR as psychotherapy tool, B. social VR experiences, and C. physical VR (where you get a good workout).
Last edited by Nepenthe; 01-13-2016 at 08:06 PM..
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