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You wait until VR goes mainstream. That question is about to become central to much of life. And we’re really not so far away.

onion2k 7y ago
You wait until VR goes mainstream. How do you wait until never?
- randomsearch 7y ago
  Ha :-) in the 90s I remember thinking how much the Internet was going to revolutionise the world. I tried to explain to my parents that a revolution was coming that would change their lives. I was wrong, in one sense - the impact was far greater than I had envisaged. It was very difficult to imagine my parents having social media accounts and iPads back then. But now they do. I don’t see why VR will be any different. I think VR will be more disruptive than the internet (although synergistic) - the clue is in the name. An alternate reality is about as impactful as you can get.
  - onion2k 7y ago
    I think VR will be more disruptive than the internet The internet enabled new ways of doing things. There were things that were literally impossible before we were online. VR doesn't do that. It's great tech, it's very clever, it improves on whats there now but ultimately it's just a fancy monitor and a new sort of mouse. There's nothing that can be done VR that can't be done outside of VR. That is a very limiting factor for it's impact on the world.
    - randomsearch 7y ago
      So I see where we disagree, then. I do really think VR enables new possibilities, some of them I can think of but most beyond my imagination. Don’t want to further the argument, but at least we identified the point we diverge on! We’ll see. If you haven’t been to any kind of VR meet-up or hacking group, research lab or whatever, I’d recommend taking any opportunity to do so, as it might change your mind. An example I saw recently was research therapeutic use of VR in hospitals, with incredible effect sizes. And that kind of thing is just baby steps.
    - galaxyLogic 7y ago
      > There's nothing that can be done VR that can't be done outside of VR. That is much like saying there's nothing that can be done in a telephone call that can't be done by telegraph. You just pass around information. I believe the killer application of VR will be tele-presense. Avoid the traffic jams and airport delays. You could say we can already have a video conference. But the point is that video-conference is simply not Hi-Fi enough. It is not the same thing as having the people in the same building and room actually. That is why people still do business-travel at great cost even though they can have a video-chat or video-conference. It's another question as to when VR will become Hi-Fi enough to enable tele-presence almost indistuinguishable from real presense. 5G may not be enough. We may need 6G. But once we're there there's much less need for business-travel, commuting will be done for pleasure not for business.

onion2k 7y ago

You wait until VR goes mainstream. How do you wait until never?

randomsearch 7y ago
Ha :-) in the 90s I remember thinking how much the Internet was going to revolutionise the world. I tried to explain to my parents that a revolution was coming that would change their lives. I was wrong, in one sense - the impact was far greater than I had envisaged. It was very difficult to imagine my parents having social media accounts and iPads back then. But now they do. I don’t see why VR will be any different. I think VR will be more disruptive than the internet (although synergistic) - the clue is in the name. An alternate reality is about as impactful as you can get.
- onion2k 7y ago
  I think VR will be more disruptive than the internet The internet enabled new ways of doing things. There were things that were literally impossible before we were online. VR doesn't do that. It's great tech, it's very clever, it improves on whats there now but ultimately it's just a fancy monitor and a new sort of mouse. There's nothing that can be done VR that can't be done outside of VR. That is a very limiting factor for it's impact on the world.
  - randomsearch 7y ago
    So I see where we disagree, then. I do really think VR enables new possibilities, some of them I can think of but most beyond my imagination. Don’t want to further the argument, but at least we identified the point we diverge on! We’ll see. If you haven’t been to any kind of VR meet-up or hacking group, research lab or whatever, I’d recommend taking any opportunity to do so, as it might change your mind. An example I saw recently was research therapeutic use of VR in hospitals, with incredible effect sizes. And that kind of thing is just baby steps.
  - galaxyLogic 7y ago
    > There's nothing that can be done VR that can't be done outside of VR. That is much like saying there's nothing that can be done in a telephone call that can't be done by telegraph. You just pass around information. I believe the killer application of VR will be tele-presense. Avoid the traffic jams and airport delays. You could say we can already have a video conference. But the point is that video-conference is simply not Hi-Fi enough. It is not the same thing as having the people in the same building and room actually. That is why people still do business-travel at great cost even though they can have a video-chat or video-conference. It's another question as to when VR will become Hi-Fi enough to enable tele-presence almost indistuinguishable from real presense. 5G may not be enough. We may need 6G. But once we're there there's much less need for business-travel, commuting will be done for pleasure not for business.