How Do We Make Sense of VR?

[aurum]

I came across a new VR device today. It's a jacket that allows you to feel the vibrations of music or any audio you are listening to.

https://www.woojer.com/pages/vest

It got me thinking. VR is already a huge topic of discussion with the Metaverse coming online via Facebook. However, I've seen little sense-making on this topic that has left me satisfied.

So how do we do it? How do we make sense of VR, the Metaverse and all these new technologies?

Here are some potential narratives I've seen outlined:

 

1) VR is the next evolution of human progress. We have been creating crude forms of VR since the dawn of digital recording. But now, our abilities have expanded and we are entering the golden age of VR. This will bring great benefit to humanity. We will have entertainment and inter-global communication like never before. GDP of the economy will greatly increase due to increasing ease of digital transactions. We will improve mental health by allowing people to face their fears in a controlled, safe environment, e.g Andrew Huberman's work. We may even be able to raise the consciousness of the planet by recreating mystical experiences. Therefore, it is best to get on board with the new technology and go with the flow. Do not get attached to old ways of socializing, recreation, etc.

 

2) VR is a sign that humanity has gone off track. People are already lonelier and more isolated than ever before due to the internet. We have created a situation where human beings essentially almost never have to leave their house to survive. Thus, we lose connection with each other. This creates misunderstandings and even violence as people move further into their own withdrawn worlds. We are losing our ability to socialize, date, touch and commune with Nature. VR is not a root cause solution to real world problems. It is a product of our capitalist system that demands indefinite growth and humanity's obsession with being able to manipulate and control life. As we wake up spiritually and mature as a species, we will realize we do not want or need these technologies. We have anything we need already. We must return to a more natural way of living. As the creators of technology, no new technology is inevitable. We have the ability to say "no" if we deem a new technology does not serve our greater well-being. Technology serves us, not the other way around.

 

3) VR is a necessary evil for the collective evolution of humanity. It has pros and cons. Although we may see some temporary problems arise, on the whole it will benefit humanity. It is a long-term play, and we must accept that the good outweighs the bad. Infinite intelligence is at work and has deemed VR should come online.

 

4) "Life is virtual reality" - mystics

 

What are your thoughts? How are you making sense of virtual reality? Is there another narrative you are using other than what I've written?

[Sucuk Ekmek]

I prefer the real thing. Not the ways around. New tech means new rules. Who gonna set the rules? Consumers of virtual reality?  Now these massive techs  are in decline and they will reflect  even more survival agendas. I am not aganist tech but who will set the rules? I think whole situation of  Covid is a good example of a new tech and it's rules. 

[Loving Radiance]

VR is like books. If books are used for avoiding life, to escape & replace reality, then it's leading to contraction & separation. The more immersive a technology is, the greater it's potential for abuse is. It will happen and people will learn from it. In the end it will lead to more connection of mankind because people learn from the excesses. It will balance out.

Kinda like 3)

Edited March 29, 2022 by Loving Radiance

[Arcangelo]

We will be really effed up when those goggles become glasses.

[DocWatts]

VR will in all likelihood become increasingly accessible and useful for all kinds of niche applications, but don't expect them to replace flat screens in your lifetime.

As someone who uses VR regularly, some of the claims about it (both advocating for it and decrying it at dystopian) are just out of touch with reality.

The average person isn't going to want to sit with a device strapped to thier head rather than looking at an external device such as a phone or television, especially since more often than not we're interacting with other people when we're looking at a screen.

In my view, an optimistic scenario that's at least somewhat plausible is one where maybe %5 of electronic media migrates over to VR as the technology becomes more accessible.

Perhaps a good analogy would be something like drone technology, which has made a noticeable impact in niche areas, but has barely made any noticeable impact in the lives of.moat ordinary people.

Edited March 29, 2022 by DocWatts

[zurew]

20 hours ago, aurum said:

What are your thoughts? How are you making sense of virtual reality? Is there another narrative you are using other than what I've written?

Have you seen the film called 'Ready player one' it is a really good one, it can give you a perspective about a world where VR is commonly used.

I think that there are some valid fears about VR. No tech is neutral, every new tech has a huge impact on our lifes, it can change how we view the world and ourselves, it can change our thinking etc.

On the other hand there is a huge potential as well (after it will become really advanced):

• We could use it for psychology as well (for example testing for phobias or imagine creating variations of yourself and doing activities with yourself talking with your past selves - i know this is far beyond just VR, but it could be used for healing for sure, and to recognise our biases better)
• It could be used for certain experiments (Any environment could be constructed where you can face your fears, to learn about yourself by dropping yourself in different kind of hard situations that could never ever occur in real life also social experiments could be created where we can create the adequate environment and situation for the tests without needing to find an outside place for it or without using any money )
• Could be used for spiritual development (if we could recreate retreat places and if we combine it using such headphones that can block every outside noise, then it could be really powerful) 
• Could be used to develop mental resistance (imagine if you could build for yourself any enviroment where you can test yourself as much as you want, putting there your worst fears, phobias, ideas and live with it for a certain amount of time) - this can be also made such a way where we collectively testing ourselves in certain isolated situations how would humankind react for certain things in practice
• Learning in a different way (Building vr worlds that is very similar to the real world, imagine being there with your virtual character and learning about extinct animals or even living animals by being in their environment seeing them interacting with them, learning about them in such a way where you don't just use your sight but more of your senses).
• Learning skills (Bulding a vr world that is similar to the real world, we could create such enviroments and situations what would be expensive or unaccessible otherwise) like creating a situation for surgeons where they can train themselves to do certain kind of hard surgery procedures, so they can be ready mentally when they really need to do their job.
• Make hard things more enjoyable and doable (for instance having a room bike and using a vr headset at the same time and being in an evironment that is enjoyable may increase the possibility for certain people to do some exercises.)
• Developing the need for spirituality (Maybe by being able to live our highest hedonistic desires in custom environments, more and more people can come to the conclusion to seek something deeper, this way we can maybe burst most people's materialistic desire bubbles)

[Yarco]

I've got a Quest 2 but I've been pretty busy and maybe only spent about 20 hours in VR so far. Here's my thoughts though...

On one hand it feels like a revolutionary groundbreaking new technology. On the other hand it's not quite there yet.

There's still a problem with the sheer size and weight of the headsets. I can sit at a computer for 8 hours a day to work. But I can't wear a VR headset for 8 hours without major discomfort.

Glasses might fix it, but it's more like a halfway solution. It's more augmented reality instead of virtual reality.

I think we are still a long ways off from fully immersive VR, where people can devote their entire life to it like Ready Player One, where all their hobbies and how they earn money and socialize is all in this one device. 

I don't think we are in a VR golden age by any measure yet. And I don't think it's going to greatly benefit humanity as it currently exists. At the moment it's mostly a new medium, like radio, TV, Internet, etc.

I don't think VR is going to have substantial negative implications on society as it currently exists. As I mentioned above, the discomfort of the headsets and motion sickness is self-limiting and it's hard for me to see someone getting so addicted they are in VR 8 hours a day and start neglecting real life. Social media is already bad enough that VR won't isolate people that much more than has already happened.

Censorship of VR is a big concern for me. As it stands now, if your Facebook account gets banned, you can't use your Quest device (they're going to fix this.) I would rather have a more decentralized version of the metaverse, or several different metaverses that can all interact with each other. I don't think people can make an open source Metaverse in time to beat Facebook though. We lost the "wild west" internet we had in 1999 and VR might be the last chance to reclaim some of that craziness.

I think Facebook is taking a pretty big risk. VR has always been a huge failure in the past. The sheer manpower they're throwing at it is impressive, but I still give it only like a 25% chance of really taking off in a huge way within the next 5 - 10 years. In their big Meta announcement video, I think they said there are basically like 10 separate huge problems that need to be solved simultaneously before it can really go mainstream.

Biggest thing for me is that VR seems like an insane insane insane insane opportunity to make money. If/when it does take off, there's going to be a huge wealth transfer. And there are already at least dozens of ways to extract value from VR. VR is going to make so many millionaires. For programmers, artists, videographers, and all kinds of creative types. Right now VR games aren't that great, they're about as easy to make as regular PC games, and there is very little competition. Designing and selling assets/items is going to be huge. Designing and selling rooms or houses or worlds in VR is going to be huge. 

I started learning 3D modeling at the end of last year but I've put it back on hold for now, because I think there are probably 2-3 years before I can really put it to use. So I'm working on some other stuff in the short term, then I plan to pick 3D design back up and make an easy million in VR once things really blow up.

In the past, you spend time making one chair, then you have to sell that chair and start all over again, buy more wood, etc. In VR there are 0 input costs or expenses, you design the perfect chair once, and then you can sell infinite copies while you sleep, with no extra work or expense except a small transaction fee.

Designing VR items in 2025 will be the equivalent of writing ebooks for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing in 2007. Or ranking websites in 2000. There is insane opportunity coming. Start building the skills now if you want to take part. You don't have to even get involved with VR yourself, you can just design assets in Blender and sell them to these future VR degenerates. Although from the limited time I've spent with art tools in VR, creating stuff within VR itself makes things 10x easier. In a couple years these tools will be idiot-proof (they're already almost there) and the only limitation will be your imagination.

Look at everything through the lens of money. VR is maybe the biggest money-making opportunity our generation will get besides buying Bitcoin in 2009.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Yarco

[aurum]

22 hours ago, Sucuk Ekmek said:

I prefer the real thing. Not the ways around. New tech means new rules. Who gonna set the rules? Consumers of virtual reality?  Now these massive techs  are in decline and they will reflect  even more survival agendas. I am not aganist tech but who will set the rules? I think whole situation of  Covid is a good example of a new tech and it's rules. 

What do you mean by rules?Government usually steps in to regulate new tech.

[aurum]

21 hours ago, Loving Radiance said:

VR is like books. If books are used for avoiding life, to escape & replace reality, then it's leading to contraction & separation. The more immersive a technology is, the greater it's potential for abuse is. It will happen and people will learn from it. In the end it will lead to more connection of mankind because people learn from the excesses. It will balance out.

Kinda like 3)

Yes undoubtedly there is potential for abuse. Likely more and more stories will come out of people having “VR addiction” or something similar.

[aurum]

m

8 hours ago, DocWatts said:

VR will in all likelihood become increasingly accessible and useful for all kinds of niche applications, but don't expect them to replace flat screens in your lifetime.

As someone who uses VR regularly, some of the claims about it (both advocating for it and decrying it at dystopian) are just out of touch with reality.

The average person isn't going to want to sit with a device strapped to thier head rather than looking at an external device such as a phone or television, especially since more often than not we're interacting with other people when we're looking at a screen.

In my view, an optimistic scenario that's at least somewhat plausible is one where maybe %5 of electronic media migrates over to VR as the technology becomes more accessible.

Perhaps a good analogy would be something like drone technology, which has made a noticeable impact in niche areas, but has barely made any noticeable impact in the lives of.moat ordinary people.

That feels like a balanced perspective to me. People with a more dystopian view could argue that we would have said the same thing about cell phones when they came out. But VR definitely takes it to another level, which people may not be willing to go to.

[aurum]

6 hours ago, zurew said:

Have you seen the film called 'Ready player one' it is a really good one, it can give you a perspective about a world where VR is commonly used.

I think that there are some valid fears about VR. No tech is neutral, every new tech has a huge impact on our lifes, it can change how we view the world and ourselves, it can change our thinking etc.

On the other hand there is a huge potential as well (after it will become really advanced):

• We could use it for psychology as well (for example testing for phobias or imagine creating variations of yourself and doing activities with yourself talking with your past selves - i know this is far beyond just VR, but it could be used for healing for sure, and to recognise our biases better)
• It could be used for certain experiments (Any environment could be constructed where you can face your fears, to learn about yourself by dropping yourself in different kind of hard situations that could never ever occur in real life also social experiments could be created where we can create the adequate environment and situation for the tests without needing to find an outside place for it or without using any money )
• Could be used for spiritual development (if we could recreate retreat places and if we combine it using such headphones that can block every outside noise, then it could be really powerful) 
• Could be used to develop mental resistance (imagine if you could build for yourself any enviroment where you can test yourself as much as you want, putting there your worst fears, phobias, ideas and live with it for a certain amount of time) - this can be also made such a way where we collectively testing ourselves in certain isolated situations how would humankind react for certain things in practice
• Learning in a different way (Building vr worlds that is very similar to the real world, imagine being there with your virtual character and learning about extinct animals or even living animals by being in their environment seeing them interacting with them, learning about them in such a way where you don't just use your sight but more of your senses).
• Learning skills (Bulding a vr world that is similar to the real world, we could create such enviroments and situations what would be expensive or unaccessible otherwise) like creating a situation for surgeons where they can train themselves to do certain kind of hard surgery procedures, so they can be ready mentally when they really need to do their job.
• Make hard things more enjoyable and doable (for instance having a room bike and using a vr headset at the same time and being in an evironment that is enjoyable may increase the possibility for certain people to do some exercises.)
• Developing the need for spirituality (Maybe by being able to live our highest hedonistic desires in custom environments, more and more people can come to the conclusion to seek something deeper, this way we can maybe burst most people's materialistic desire bubbles)

I like this list. Some of these are already happening and it will likely only expand.

[aurum]

5 hours ago, Yarco said:

Look at everything through the lens of money. VR is maybe the biggest money-making opportunity our generation will get besides buying Bitcoin in 2009.

That’s definitely a perspective I hadn’t been thinking much about. Profiting off of VR is not my highest priority, I’m mostly interested in how it affects collective social well-being. But there may be financial opportunities in the future to look at.

[Sucuk Ekmek]

1 hour ago, aurum said:

What do you mean by rules?Government usually steps in to regulate new tech.

 Any rule, nonspoken or law. 

When things become intertwined and centralized govts are losing their power to regulate. I didn't see any govt criticising the faults of Covid situation. They took it like a religion almost like their life depends on it and suddenly it's gone.