4 ms·

An Agoraphobic Traveler Wanders the Earth

41 points by exanimo_sai 6y ago

flak48 6y ago
Traipsing through Street view in VR is even more surreal. I got my grandma to try it on Oculus and she couldn't get enough. At one point she asked if she could call up my aunt to come at the door when I showed her my aunt's house on the other side of the world :). I had been getting antsy due to this lockdown, but this made me appreciate my grandma's patience and fortitude even more for being practically locked down for over 10 years. I'm glad I could help her experience cities from all around the world at this age Oculus TV/YouTube also have a series of immersive VR travelogues, some even in 3D which are even more unreal. There's definitely a lot more reasons to try out VR than gaming, if you haven't already. Especially if you're somewhere you won't be able to realistically step out any time soon
- centimeter 6y ago
  > At one point she asked if she could call up my aunt to come at the door Cute, but I can't imagine how hard it would be to live in a world where the systems I interact with every day are so far beyond my understanding. That would drive me insane pretty quickly.
  - karpierz 6y ago
    Is it that far beyond her understanding though? It's as simple as saying: "No, it's like someone's taken a picture of the world and you're looking at it."
    - hombre_fatal 6y ago
      She basically thought she was somehow represented in that part of the world by wearing the goggles. It's scary to be that wrong about reality.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - Cpoll 6y ago
        It's only a half-step from what we already have, you have to think about it technically to realize how difficult it is. We already have live broadcasts, CCTVs, aerial imagery and photo satellites. Astral projection is almost the same thing :) I suspect even very educated people might make this class of mistake if they don't take the time to think about how something works.
      - forgotmypw17 6y ago
        If you think you have a firm grasp on reality, I've got some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
      - flak48 6y ago
        > She basically thought she was somehow represented in that part of the world by wearing the goggles. Not really
      - centimeter 6y ago
        The fact that all of these comments are disagreeing with you is concerning. Are most people this confused in their day-to-day lives? If I ever discovered I had a misunderstanding of that magnitude, I would be shocked and appalled.
  - flak48 6y ago
    TL;DR I feel most folks aren't bothered about understanding these things (I'm not judging, but just the way it is) I believe most actually take such kind of advanced tech for granted. e.g I remember just 10 years ago the tech behind face swapping / Instagram and TikTok filters was purely the stuff of image processing/ ML papers . Today the average non-technical user seems to know nothing about how cutting edge this tech is, and doesn't really seem to care. I think it's a testament to how well this tech is packaged and made available to the end user. Call it UX or whatever you want. Even if you just consider something like WiFi/mobile data, I personally find it a miracle that my devices are somehow communicating through the air; but the average user seems to take this for granted and hardly wonders about how it works. The frustration if any, only seems to kick in when something they have come to expect to "just work" doesn't work the way they are used to (and not sparing a thought for the fact that it somehow works in the first place).
  - z3t4 6y ago
    She probably thouht it was a live feed. Street map is just using 2d images, but what if we could record in real 3d, so that you could walk around the scene!
seesawtron 6y ago
Perhaps adding real-life destinations in the video games would make this trips more fun. Like Red Dead Redemption/GTA with more real places.
- JoeDaDude 6y ago
  I suspect people who do this would enjoy exploring in the Geoguesser game [1] where you are dropped somewhere in the street view world and have to figure out where. [1] https://www.geoguessr.com https://www.geoguessr.com
  - seesawtron 6y ago
    Love it.
- basementcat 6y ago
  Assassin's Creed did this to some extent with Rome and other cities.
- cercatrova 6y ago
  Microsoft Flight Simulator (the upcoming one) will render the entire world using satellite imagery and Bing maps.

41 points by exanimo_sai 6y ago

Traipsing through Street view in VR is even more surreal. I got my grandma to try it on Oculus and she couldn't get enough. At one point she asked if she could call up my aunt to come at the door when I showed her my aunt's house on the other side of the world :). I had been getting antsy due to this lockdown, but this made me appreciate my grandma's patience and fortitude even more for being practically locked down for over 10 years. I'm glad I could help her experience cities from all around the world at this age Oculus TV/YouTube also have a series of immersive VR travelogues, some even in 3D which are even more unreal. There's definitely a lot more reasons to try out VR than gaming, if you haven't already. Especially if you're somewhere you won't be able to realistically step out any time soon

centimeter 6y ago
> At one point she asked if she could call up my aunt to come at the door Cute, but I can't imagine how hard it would be to live in a world where the systems I interact with every day are so far beyond my understanding. That would drive me insane pretty quickly.
- karpierz 6y ago
  Is it that far beyond her understanding though? It's as simple as saying: "No, it's like someone's taken a picture of the world and you're looking at it."
  - hombre_fatal 6y ago
    She basically thought she was somehow represented in that part of the world by wearing the goggles. It's scary to be that wrong about reality.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Cpoll 6y ago
      It's only a half-step from what we already have, you have to think about it technically to realize how difficult it is. We already have live broadcasts, CCTVs, aerial imagery and photo satellites. Astral projection is almost the same thing :) I suspect even very educated people might make this class of mistake if they don't take the time to think about how something works.
    - forgotmypw17 6y ago
      If you think you have a firm grasp on reality, I've got some bad news for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    - flak48 6y ago
      > She basically thought she was somehow represented in that part of the world by wearing the goggles. Not really
    - centimeter 6y ago
      The fact that all of these comments are disagreeing with you is concerning. Are most people this confused in their day-to-day lives? If I ever discovered I had a misunderstanding of that magnitude, I would be shocked and appalled.
- flak48 6y ago
  TL;DR I feel most folks aren't bothered about understanding these things (I'm not judging, but just the way it is) I believe most actually take such kind of advanced tech for granted. e.g I remember just 10 years ago the tech behind face swapping / Instagram and TikTok filters was purely the stuff of image processing/ ML papers . Today the average non-technical user seems to know nothing about how cutting edge this tech is, and doesn't really seem to care. I think it's a testament to how well this tech is packaged and made available to the end user. Call it UX or whatever you want. Even if you just consider something like WiFi/mobile data, I personally find it a miracle that my devices are somehow communicating through the air; but the average user seems to take this for granted and hardly wonders about how it works. The frustration if any, only seems to kick in when something they have come to expect to "just work" doesn't work the way they are used to (and not sparing a thought for the fact that it somehow works in the first place).
- z3t4 6y ago
  She probably thouht it was a live feed. Street map is just using 2d images, but what if we could record in real 3d, so that you could walk around the scene!

seesawtron 6y ago

Perhaps adding real-life destinations in the video games would make this trips more fun. Like Red Dead Redemption/GTA with more real places.

JoeDaDude 6y ago
I suspect people who do this would enjoy exploring in the Geoguesser game [1] where you are dropped somewhere in the street view world and have to figure out where. [1] https://www.geoguessr.com https://www.geoguessr.com
- seesawtron 6y ago
  Love it.
basementcat 6y ago
Assassin's Creed did this to some extent with Rome and other cities.
cercatrova 6y ago
Microsoft Flight Simulator (the upcoming one) will render the entire world using satellite imagery and Bing maps.