Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Our future. Whether we like it or not.

More info here.
Soon we will be not only playing games in a virtual reality, but also communicating, working, and even developing relationships in virtual reality.

Which might seem cool and innovative to most of us, but that is until we realize how we will look to those not "jacked in."

Yeah, that might be a problem.

Personally I am looking forward to VR. I have read some amazing ideas concerning its numerous applications, and the possibilities for improving our lives in multiple ways.

However the question of what it will do to our ability to function in the non-VR world is one that we really need to come to terms with.

26 comments:

  1. Leland2:39 AM

    "In the year 2525,...."

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    1. Anonymous3:17 AM

      I remember that song.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous3:41 AM

    I'm a tech geek from way back, but there's nfw I'd don some stupid electronic 3D vision devices to communicate. More crap to feed the human narcissistic appetite.

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  3. Anonymous3:49 AM

    http://rightwingnews.com/democrats/look-at-what-was-caught-on-tape-as-hillary-celebrated-win-in-nevada/?utm_source=cotr&utm_medium=cotr&utm_campaign=cotr

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    1. Anonymous6:12 AM

      Why I click anything from "Right Wing News"?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous4:17 AM

    People can't function without their phones..I saw this years ago when I watched moms pushing their kids in strollers, and instead of interacting with the baby, "look sweetie, there's a cardinal. See the red bird?' they were chatting away to their friends. It's a wonder baby girl ever learned to speak at all. Look at the Palins...always with one or two devices in hand. We can't talk to each other. Can't handwrite a letter. Can't do anything without checking the device. I fail to see how VR will make anyone's life better.

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    1. Anonymous4:48 AM

      You are so right! Well said!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:36 AM

      Especially nice when the baby in the stroller is jacked in to its own tablet.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous9:33 AM

      Maybe virtual sex will mitigate overpopulation and rape and wives' headaches.

      Delete
    4. Anita Winecooler4:13 PM

      We have a "phone jail" in our dining room. Nothing is served until all electronics are locked up. They get used to it. I don't think an hour or more of conversation at a dinner table is a waste of time.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous4:42 AM

    Sounds like the plot of an A. E. Housman short story that I read years ago. Everyone lived, worked alone and all interaction with other people was through electronic means.

    I'll never be able to think of the name of the story now that I want to remember.

    In other news, I just heard that Bill Gates is siding with the FBI in the Apple dilemma. Big shock there.

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    1. Anonymous8:47 PM

      I couldn't remember the name of the short story but I also got the author wrong. It was E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops"

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:01 AM

    Wall-E. Scary times. Glad I will be dead by then.

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  7. My son is working on a VR voice recognition application. Like it or not virtual reality is here.
    The application would transform life for many who are hampered by any number of disabilities.

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  8. Anonymous5:56 AM

    Read the book "Feed" by MT Anderson.

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    1. Anonymous6:57 AM

      Or watch 'Surrogates' from 2009 starring Bruce Willis!

      Delete
  9. Anonymous5:57 AM

    Hey Im for technology. Things that make sense!! But. And that is a BIG BUTT!!! When I look around and see drivers on the phone while driving. I see people at the restaurant looking at the phone instead of talking with their companions. or those that believe that their life is on that phone? I say NO. Throw it in the gigantic landfill of useless garbage from elsewhere. Nope. I do not approve of programing my fellow American to be robotic, insensitive idiots. Nope.

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    1. Anita Winecooler4:08 PM

      You gotta admit it's funny when they fall down open manhole covers, trip in fountains, or walk into poles, trees and fire hydrants. My pet peeve is people eating out of bags with a big mac on the dashboard, a big gulp in one hand, and french fries in the other.
      Another is applying make up in the rear view mirror while careening from lane to lane on a highway.

      Delete
  10. The computer age has already isolated us.

    Every waking day I visit, among others, the blog of a fellow out of Alaska who is keeping a sharp eye out for the next atrocity committed by a Palin. On the other hand, I do not know the first or last names(s) of my next-door neighbors and this set's been in there ten years.

    Then too, we're in an age where we don't know if we're going to be in the next mall, movie theater, church or government building where some armed to the teeth zealot is going to stage his frustration.

    The pc has fostered the ability for all of connection with more individuals than any other time in history, yet I suspect the number of people who have fewer in-person interactions per day with their living fellows has grown proportionately. As Anna Quindlen once put it, "there's the illusion of closeness, but always at arms-length."

    It's the made-reality of that South Park episode where there's a mass loss of Internet, and Stan's mean sister Sherrie meets her online boyfriend and the two youngsters can't relate in a human face-to-face. We're getting there.

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    1. Anonymous11:47 AM

      "We're going to California kids, I hear there's internet there".

      It was a such a classic episode and fine comedic parody of "The Grapes of Wrath".

      Of course, Randy only needs the internet because he's going through porn withdrawal.

      At the end of the day, VR will focus mostly on porn, and cats, just like the rest of the internet ;-)

      Delete
    2. Anon 11:47
      It's like Dennis Miller put it years ago, before he turned into a right-wing shill:

      "Folks, the day the average factory worker can put a helmet on his head and be convinced he's having sex with Claudia Schiffer, it's going to make crack look like Sanka."

      Delete
  11. Anonymous6:13 AM

    I agree!

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  12. Anonymous9:06 AM

    So? If Apple phones are the only secured network and product on earth then all the rest of the phones, tablets etc are open for hacking, is that right? And hackers only hack those phones which call apple phones? and then the big top security corps. Macaffee, Norton, and the lastest PC matic are the brains of hacking? really? In order to gain control we must hire snowden, purple haired nipple pieced Johnson and mac to secure our life and phone. Is this wonderful technology necessary? Do you need a program to tell you when to wipe your azz and a gps to tell you what direction to wipe? Are we so advanced that in order to be declared "smart" that we must own a "smart" phone? Really? wow. whoa is me. Whom is protecting whom? Whom has a right? Apple is not just in America, it is worldwide. This is not just an American problem with apple this is global security. We cannot have America stifled and everywhere else open season for terrorist hacking and terrorizing humans all over the world. Looks like we must regulate technology before it hits the market instead of wait and see what happens. What prevents the ceo's and employees of these corporations from committing crimes, extortion, tracking, hacking, fracking and down right murder using their Iphones? NO corporation, individual, agency should have the ability to dictate to world or give the ability to commit criminal activity using common products. Quit supporting such corporations that have proven to be powerful and have allowed criminal activity using their products.

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    1. Anonymous11:50 AM

      I for one am extremely happy with my Apple products specifically due to there being no "back door" written into an of their coding.

      Microsoft has always had back doors written into their code, that's why people who use Windows must employ virus protection, Apple users don't bother with virus protection you need a back door for viruses to enter.

      Now why would a person choose to use an operating system that has an inherent flaw built into it? A flaw that makes the user vulnerable to hackers and viruses?

      Doesn't make any sense.

      Delete
  13. Anita Winecooler4:01 PM

    While I'm sure they can develop less invasive tests on humans, and learn how medicines work on a cellular level, I really don't see this catching on beyond the gaming community. It would literally make every seat in a stadium or air plane, front row or first class, raising the prices for already espensive frills.
    My company has a form of "go to meeting" on our internal system so everyone's on the same page as far as production, sales, goals, and service are involved, We talk and see each other daily, for a brief time, and we'd never meet in real life. It works well for our company, but full on VR will just put ceilings on all our cubicles, so another level can be virtually built on top. I don't think I'll be around when this comes to full fruition, but I think there's more negatives than positives to make it feasible. Humans are social creatures by nature, give me a real waterfall and deer to experience the old fashioned way, though it may catch on in a "phone sex" type of setting for those into that.
    Did anyone else ever say something and hear your parent's words leave your lips? I just scared myself!!!!

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  14. There will still be those that eschew it.

    It took me years before I got a cell phone (my Mother gifted me with a Tracphone, then bought the cards for it but when I finally dropped it it had 900 minutes on it. I never used it.) and when I finally got an iPhone I mostly use it when I shop at the store because it has my grocery list and tells me the aisles so I can shop faster even in a strange store. It also has my coupons in it.

    I don't do Facebook, twitter, Imgr, Flickr, Pinterest or any of that other stuff. I have better things to do and I don't think anyone is interested in my life. I also have privacy issues with all of those platforms.

    Now, granted I am older but I have always embraced tech. I was on the internet and using e-mail before a lot of the public because I was connected at work. I still do a lot online. I do all of my banking online and quite a bit of my shopping. But just because they've come out with a new thing doesn't mean you have to embrace it immediately. Nor does refusing to do so make you a Luddite. It just makes you cautious.

    But I prefer to sit and wait and evaluate once some time has passed before I dive in. I'd like to think the numerous privacy breaches from Facebook have supported that personal policy.

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