3 ms·

It's funny, because, while I'm not extremely isolated, I have lived through periods of my life when all my family was abroad (I stayed in Uruguay, most emigrate

It's funny, because, while I'm not extremely isolated, I have lived through periods of my life when all my family was abroad (I stayed in Uruguay, most emigrated, others studied abroad), and I have few local friends. No amount of telephone calls, chats, Facebook or Skyping can compare to in-person interaction. I have a photo of a recent Christmas, with 3 screens with Skype calls to family in Canada and Europe on each screen, and while it helps to "be" there more than just a phone call, it's still nowhere near the same. It is of course anecdotal, but that was my experience. I didn't have a full-wall videoscreen with HD, maybe for a limited environment like a meeting it can be a very reasonable simulation... but at least in Latin countries like mine, "real" negotiations and bonding/trust building occur over a shared meal or other shared experiences, which cannot be currently simulated. Going back to the original topic: business air travel isn't dying soon. Maybe some inmersive 3-d environment will finally kill it (and we'll see Second Life as an innovation before its time, much like the Apple Newton?)

hershel 13y ago
But skype does miss eye-contact and picture of half body (to get all hand movements which are important) , and the illusion of being in the same room created by telepresence , and probably had worse latency , and probably other factors i'm not aware of. And we know from the "uncanny valley" that humans are very very sensitive to little things in human/human communication. So it might just be that telepresence offers a altogether different quality of experience. And regarding the topic - currently , maybe business air travel isn't dying(thought in 2009 there was a lot of talk about disruption from telepresence). But assuming we'll find the formula for remote face to face communications, and assuming there's enough bandwidth, the pace of change could be rapid(unless people will keep sticking with tradition, which might be the thing now that slows the process). Anyway, i would be really interested to see major deployment of telepresence quality systems deployed in homes, and how that would affect culture.
- GFischer 13y ago
  Me too.. especially for remote work, it would be extremely disruptive. I don't want to move from Uruguay, but a person with similar qualifications in the U.S. makes at least twice as I do. If telepresence makes it easier for me to work remotely, it would be huge for me. The telepresence robots are cute and maybe a step in the right direction.

hershel 13y ago

But skype does miss eye-contact and picture of half body (to get all hand movements which are important) , and the illusion of being in the same room created by telepresence , and probably had worse latency , and probably other factors i'm not aware of. And we know from the "uncanny valley" that humans are very very sensitive to little things in human/human communication. So it might just be that telepresence offers a altogether different quality of experience. And regarding the topic - currently , maybe business air travel isn't dying(thought in 2009 there was a lot of talk about disruption from telepresence). But assuming we'll find the formula for remote face to face communications, and assuming there's enough bandwidth, the pace of change could be rapid(unless people will keep sticking with tradition, which might be the thing now that slows the process). Anyway, i would be really interested to see major deployment of telepresence quality systems deployed in homes, and how that would affect culture.

GFischer 13y ago
Me too.. especially for remote work, it would be extremely disruptive. I don't want to move from Uruguay, but a person with similar qualifications in the U.S. makes at least twice as I do. If telepresence makes it easier for me to work remotely, it would be huge for me. The telepresence robots are cute and maybe a step in the right direction.