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The worst moment for me was after working by myself in VR logging in to a shared workspace and having a dude, muted, sat on the couch next to me. It loaded me i

by svnt 4y ago

The worst moment for me was after working by myself in VR logging in to a shared workspace and having a dude, muted, sat on the couch next to me. It loaded me in unmuted by default and I was talking to myself about what was happening. It wasn’t at all clear that he was muted and I was unmuted and his hands were moving disconcertingly near where his body should have been. I started describing him to someone irl and his weird avatar head turns slowly toward me, hands still pulsating. I said something like “uh shit I think he can hear me…?” and his floating weird head glitchily nodded, fingers creeping across his torso the whole time. I logged out. That was it. So many things wrong I’m not sure I could find any reason why I’d try that again.

zmmmmm 4y ago
So you had one bad experience in the immature stage of early development of a technology. I don't understand how you extrapolate that to the entirety of every possibility it will ever have to offer. Yes Zuckerberg's metaverse vision is weird and creepy. But the underlying tech that is being developed to enable it to exist is transformational. The use cases will develop from what suceeds and people actually like. You could just as easily have painted a dystopian picture of people staring blankly at their iPhones walking down the street instead of talking to the person next to them.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  The previous comment reminds me of how older people used to describe the internet when it was slowly gaining traction. It’s obvious that there were a lot of rough edges, but it would be really short sighted not to see the future potential. The same thing happened to the first smart phones.
  - usrbinbash 4y ago
    The www did things better than anything that already existed. Many things it offered were both massively useful and simply not exist before. What exactly does "Metaverse" improve? What does it offer to the business world that cannot already be done? And are these improvements worth a 1799$ Price-Point per employee, plus all the work & expenses imposed by integrating this into existing structures, and making sure its compliant to regulations and company rules? And are these improvements worth enough to the employees themselves so they will be willing to wear a headset for 8h a day (Especially in labour markets that already face a supply problem)?
    - chaostheory 4y ago
      One of the many benefits that the metaverse introduces is immersion into virtual presences. You’d realize this if you ever tried anything more than Google cardboard. That’s not to say that VR doesn’t have many temporary downsides that will be addressed with tech improvements, but to not see its potential is the same way the internet was treated by older folks in the last century > The www did things better than anything that already existed. Older folks didn’t realize this since they waited a long time to actually try it, similar to how older folks treat VR today Still, your statement on the internet was not true especially when it came to low res videos and many other flaws which we have since addressed over time. Back then surfing the internet also tied up a household’s main form of communication.
      - usrbinbash 4y ago
        > You’d realize this if you ever tried anything more than Google cardboard. I have a quest2, and I think its a fantastic piece of hardware. I am having tons of fun with it and use it every day. For gaming. Because in gaming, immersion into the world is something I cherish and want, and am willing to spend money on. I am not looking for immersion into a spreadsheet, or my source code. There, I look for information density, ease of navigation, searchability, tooling, interoperability, the ability to share and collaborate quickly and efficiently, and to make my intentions available for processing by machines. My question is: Which of these priorities does VR enhance, in what way, over the existing technology?
        chaostheory 4y ago
        How about a near infinite canvas with 6DOF for a Visio app along with social immersion? How about a desktop the size of your physical room? You have to try the productivity apps before you pan it
        usrbinbash 4y ago
        I am not looking for "social immersion" when drawing a diagram. I am looking for getting information into and out of systems quickly and efficiently. And I already have "infinite canvases" in drawing apps, at least until my systems 64GB of RAM are full. What I don't have, and also don't want (because I cannot see how this would increase my productivity), is the necessity to walk around my room or perform gestures with controllers to navigate said canvas (or desktop), when I can do the same with a quick and precise flick of my mouse or a keyboard-shortcut.
- svnt 4y ago
  Some people seem to be defending VR itself vs my comment on the metaverse. I use VR a fair bit. I’m not excited specifically about the co-working/social use cases. Presentations can be really cool. I won’t get into whether the current state of smartphone use is or isn’t dystopian, at least not on HN.

by svnt 4y ago

zmmmmm 4y ago

So you had one bad experience in the immature stage of early development of a technology. I don't understand how you extrapolate that to the entirety of every possibility it will ever have to offer. Yes Zuckerberg's metaverse vision is weird and creepy. But the underlying tech that is being developed to enable it to exist is transformational. The use cases will develop from what suceeds and people actually like. You could just as easily have painted a dystopian picture of people staring blankly at their iPhones walking down the street instead of talking to the person next to them.

chaostheory 4y ago
The previous comment reminds me of how older people used to describe the internet when it was slowly gaining traction. It’s obvious that there were a lot of rough edges, but it would be really short sighted not to see the future potential. The same thing happened to the first smart phones.
- usrbinbash 4y ago
  The www did things better than anything that already existed. Many things it offered were both massively useful and simply not exist before. What exactly does "Metaverse" improve? What does it offer to the business world that cannot already be done? And are these improvements worth a 1799$ Price-Point per employee, plus all the work & expenses imposed by integrating this into existing structures, and making sure its compliant to regulations and company rules? And are these improvements worth enough to the employees themselves so they will be willing to wear a headset for 8h a day (Especially in labour markets that already face a supply problem)?
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    One of the many benefits that the metaverse introduces is immersion into virtual presences. You’d realize this if you ever tried anything more than Google cardboard. That’s not to say that VR doesn’t have many temporary downsides that will be addressed with tech improvements, but to not see its potential is the same way the internet was treated by older folks in the last century > The www did things better than anything that already existed. Older folks didn’t realize this since they waited a long time to actually try it, similar to how older folks treat VR today Still, your statement on the internet was not true especially when it came to low res videos and many other flaws which we have since addressed over time. Back then surfing the internet also tied up a household’s main form of communication.
    - usrbinbash 4y ago
      > You’d realize this if you ever tried anything more than Google cardboard. I have a quest2, and I think its a fantastic piece of hardware. I am having tons of fun with it and use it every day. For gaming. Because in gaming, immersion into the world is something I cherish and want, and am willing to spend money on. I am not looking for immersion into a spreadsheet, or my source code. There, I look for information density, ease of navigation, searchability, tooling, interoperability, the ability to share and collaborate quickly and efficiently, and to make my intentions available for processing by machines. My question is: Which of these priorities does VR enhance, in what way, over the existing technology?
      - chaostheory 4y ago
        How about a near infinite canvas with 6DOF for a Visio app along with social immersion? How about a desktop the size of your physical room? You have to try the productivity apps before you pan it
        usrbinbash 4y ago
        I am not looking for "social immersion" when drawing a diagram. I am looking for getting information into and out of systems quickly and efficiently. And I already have "infinite canvases" in drawing apps, at least until my systems 64GB of RAM are full. What I don't have, and also don't want (because I cannot see how this would increase my productivity), is the necessity to walk around my room or perform gestures with controllers to navigate said canvas (or desktop), when I can do the same with a quick and precise flick of my mouse or a keyboard-shortcut.
svnt 4y ago
Some people seem to be defending VR itself vs my comment on the metaverse. I use VR a fair bit. I’m not excited specifically about the co-working/social use cases. Presentations can be really cool. I won’t get into whether the current state of smartphone use is or isn’t dystopian, at least not on HN.