Tech oligarchs are encouraging the creation of virtual worlds as a cheap way to avoid problems in the real one.
All those jokes about using the Matrix as escapism in the real early 2000’s coming full circle
Cool
:screm-a:
I dunno, VR seems very 2017-ish, a brief fad that kind of flared up then petered out. I think people like traditional social media on their phone, they’re more interested in posting about Biden in their prayer warriors for ivermectin and trump facebook groups than putting on an oculus and watching a concert.
VR seems very 2017-ish, a brief fad that kind of flared up then petered out
VR would have been huge if fans and companies started adding VR support to the best of the last 2 decades of games. For awhile it looked like that was going to happen, then it just didn’t.
Instead over the better part of a decade we got like maybe 4 worthwhile apps.
Many of the greatest films and historical moments from the first half of the 20th century were lost because the companies let them rot in warehouses.
more interested in posting about Biden in their prayer warriors for ivermectin and trump facebook groups
Every year or so someone tries to make a VR browser where every website is a physical place where you can see other people who’re browsing it, kinda like VRChat but the internet.
IMO that iteration of VR was kind of like if Starbucks offered a $50 cup of coffee.
There’s very few people who wanted it and could afford it who didn’t go out and buy it.
Now we have to get nuanced on “wanted it” and “could afford it”.
Wanted It - It was first gen, not that great tbh. Then facebook bought Oculus, Oculus lied and said FB login would not be required, then facebook announced that they lied, now everyone associates VR with shitty things like forced login to facebook. There were several “unmaterialized wants”, or “wants in waiting”, such as waiting for more games, a killer app, flagship games, please something that’s not a tech demo. I never saw evidence they were trying to branch out into business uses, such as VR as an alternative for 4+ 4k monitors. So if they tried that, they failed to market it, because I might have actually bought one for that.
Could Afford It - in the fiscally responsible sense, not the far right version of that term, of course. That shit was expensive.
Basically, the supply and demand chart condemned this product until conditions improved.
Even if properly funded (not happening) and supplies were available (pc part prices never coming down even when available for purchase) this would still not have the effect they want it to.
Eh, we’ll see. The reason Facebook is investing so much money into VR in the first place is because of how natural a progression their current behavioral manipulation machinations transfer over to VR. The upcoming headset Facebook has been teasing is slated to included eye tracking, face tracking, and probably even heart rate sensing which will give them a slew of data into their user’s behavioral responses. Combine that with all the other data facebook collects folded into their big behavior manipulation platform and we’re gonna have quite the boring dystopia.
Perhaps, but personally I don’t see VR ever taking off in its current state outside of a few useful industrial/business uses and the like; I tried a recent headset recently (one with the fingers thingy) and it’s fun, sure, but as an alternative - even a very limited one - to the real world ? they suck quickly IMO. Perhaps for video games - and I’m not even sure about that - but watching a concert or having a meeting with them ? fuck no.
Give it time, even at an estimated 5 million Facebook Quest units sold, we’re still pretty early in the VR tech adoption cycle; Viable consumer VR wasn’t even really a thing until about 10 years ago. As the tech improves, becomes lighter, more sensory captivating, AR tech will as well and between the two we’ll end up with a considerable segment of the population spending most of their time in a curated echo chamber under control of some major corporation (probably fb/meta).
lol, yeah. That’s my typical disclaimer, which one will get us first? Climate Change or Mixed Reality tech so advanced that the Matrix seems quaint?
The upcoming headset Facebook has been teasing is slated to included eye tracking, face tracking, and probably even heart rate sensing which will give them a slew of data into their user’s behavioral responses. Combine that with all the other data facebook collects folded into their big behavior manipulation platform and we’re gonna have quite the boring dystopia.
:anprim-pat:
sometimes I think Ted was right, what the fuck
It is not possible, on Earth, to give everyone all that they would want. Not everyone can have Richard Branson’s private island,” Doom co-creator and former CTO of Oculus John Carmack told Joe Rogan during a 2020 interview.
Yes, but we want no one to have private islands
:this-is-fine: but literally. enjoying my scenic virtual mansion as my actual house literally burns around me and I die because biological organisms have real world biological needs.
