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The car, the computer, the spreadsheet, the internet - correct me but I believe most of these examples solved clear problems or dramatically accelerated some ty

by ip26 4y ago

The car, the computer, the spreadsheet, the internet - correct me but I believe most of these examples solved clear problems or dramatically accelerated some type of work. Each time, they succeeded because people loved this new tool enough to throw money at it - far more money than expected. That got the ball rolling to refine the offering. I'm not sure what new problem the metaverse solves, aside from boredom (video games) or loneliness (social networking).

karmakaze 4y ago
Blackberry/RIM also saw no problem that the iPhone was solving. Sometimes markets are created with a product everyone didn't know they needed/wanted, even the first Sony Walkman. I'm reserving judgement until I experience first-hand what it's like to share a virtual space with someone I care about when we're physically hundreds/thousands of kms apart with real-time facial expressions on a photorealistic model of their face.
- clhodapp 4y ago
  Meta haven't made anything remotely resembling that yet, though. They've got pretty generic avatars performing canned animations in a VR environment. It seems like it will probably take them 5-10 years of hard research, likely with many dead ends and false starts, to get there. In Apple terms, they have announced the iPhone before doing all of the capacitive touch research and UX development that actually made the pubic want the product. While it might be possible for them to eventually achieve their vision, it seems like a bad idea to try to drive so much hype this early with faked videos. It's very likely that the public (especially Wall Street) will lose patience waiting for them to actually make what they've promised.
  - karmakaze 4y ago
    With all the deepfake demos, I would think this is immediately realizable. The facial tracking demos for Quest Pro on a deepfake of yourself would certainly be possible and compelling.
- joshspankit 4y ago
  Blackberry/RIM would still have a place today if they had not chased the market. A focused business device with reliable and secure communication between employees and management, as well as a week (or two) of battery life and hardware focused on stable input by hand? There’s still a hole in the market. When was the last time you absolutely trusted iOS to deliver a notification to you?
derangedHorse 4y ago
I think AR & VR can help solve similar things to your list of technologies. Arguably the car, computer, spreadsheet, and the internet all help with the facilitation of communicating information. A case can be made for all of them having a variety of utility but I’d like to focus on the social underpinnings of all these technologies: -Cars bring people closer to each other faster than ever before -Computers allow for us to create, present, and process information for each other in standardized ways (spreadsheets are an extension of that) -The Internet has allowed us to increase the speed of communication previously afforded by telegraphs and phone lines As Zuckerberg says, he’s trying to further the means of communication between one another by adding the feeling of remote presence. Just like how hearing someone’s voice can be seen as a jump from reading a text from them, seeing someone else’s body in 3D space could bring a new level of connection to 2 individuals. It also has the potential to change how we perform simulations (something valuable for many different types of work), and can even act as a way for individuals to connect themselves to different physical places on earth in a way that they may have never had the means to see otherwise.
philjohn 4y ago
I quite like the idea of the education angle - taking your history class through a faithfully recreated Rome, or watching a re-enactment of a famous battle. Seems like a pretty engaging way to absorb information. The product design angle also looks interesting. It seems like the end state isn't what's available now - it's something that is the size of a pair of glasses, no pulling your phone out of your pocket, all the information you need right there.

by ip26 4y ago

karmakaze 4y ago

Blackberry/RIM also saw no problem that the iPhone was solving. Sometimes markets are created with a product everyone didn't know they needed/wanted, even the first Sony Walkman. I'm reserving judgement until I experience first-hand what it's like to share a virtual space with someone I care about when we're physically hundreds/thousands of kms apart with real-time facial expressions on a photorealistic model of their face.

clhodapp 4y ago
Meta haven't made anything remotely resembling that yet, though. They've got pretty generic avatars performing canned animations in a VR environment. It seems like it will probably take them 5-10 years of hard research, likely with many dead ends and false starts, to get there. In Apple terms, they have announced the iPhone before doing all of the capacitive touch research and UX development that actually made the pubic want the product. While it might be possible for them to eventually achieve their vision, it seems like a bad idea to try to drive so much hype this early with faked videos. It's very likely that the public (especially Wall Street) will lose patience waiting for them to actually make what they've promised.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  With all the deepfake demos, I would think this is immediately realizable. The facial tracking demos for Quest Pro on a deepfake of yourself would certainly be possible and compelling.
joshspankit 4y ago
Blackberry/RIM would still have a place today if they had not chased the market. A focused business device with reliable and secure communication between employees and management, as well as a week (or two) of battery life and hardware focused on stable input by hand? There’s still a hole in the market. When was the last time you absolutely trusted iOS to deliver a notification to you?

derangedHorse 4y ago

I think AR & VR can help solve similar things to your list of technologies. Arguably the car, computer, spreadsheet, and the internet all help with the facilitation of communicating information. A case can be made for all of them having a variety of utility but I’d like to focus on the social underpinnings of all these technologies: -Cars bring people closer to each other faster than ever before -Computers allow for us to create, present, and process information for each other in standardized ways (spreadsheets are an extension of that) -The Internet has allowed us to increase the speed of communication previously afforded by telegraphs and phone lines As Zuckerberg says, he’s trying to further the means of communication between one another by adding the feeling of remote presence. Just like how hearing someone’s voice can be seen as a jump from reading a text from them, seeing someone else’s body in 3D space could bring a new level of connection to 2 individuals. It also has the potential to change how we perform simulations (something valuable for many different types of work), and can even act as a way for individuals to connect themselves to different physical places on earth in a way that they may have never had the means to see otherwise.

philjohn 4y ago

I quite like the idea of the education angle - taking your history class through a faithfully recreated Rome, or watching a re-enactment of a famous battle. Seems like a pretty engaging way to absorb information. The product design angle also looks interesting. It seems like the end state isn't what's available now - it's something that is the size of a pair of glasses, no pulling your phone out of your pocket, all the information you need right there.