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This is probably the most forward-thinking move that Facebook can make. I've personally been kicking around ideas about what society will look like in a post-VR

by Kapura 13y ago

This is probably the most forward-thinking move that Facebook can make. I've personally been kicking around ideas about what society will look like in a post-VR revolution world, and it seems that Zuck et. al. have come to the same conclusion that I have, namely, it will change what it means to interact socially with others. Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. Imagine sitting in the front row of the next presidential debate, where you can see the sweat forming on the candidate's brow under the lights. You can look over and talk to your friend sitting next to you without disturbing the action. Imagine being able to tour a facebook friend's new apartment without leaving your chair. This is super duper exciting, but I hope that Facebook doesn't kill it.

saraid216 13y ago
> Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. And you offer one of them a hug and then pause and realize, "Oh yeah. I'm just sitting at home by myself again. Just like high school." > Imagine sitting in the front row of the next presidential debate, where you can see the sweat forming on the candidate's brow under the lights. You can look over and talk to your friend sitting next to you without disturbing the action. And now I have no hope for American democracy. It is dead.
- hsod 13y ago
  > And now I have no hope for American democracy. It is dead. I know HN has a natural tendency towards wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I don't understand this reaction at all. Why would watching a debate from a virtual auditorium be any worse for democracy than watching it on TV? Sometimes it feels like comment threads on here are secret competitions to see who can have the most extreme negative reaction.
  - saraid216 13y ago
    > I know HN has a natural tendency towards wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I don't understand this reaction at all. That's fair. I didn't bother explaining it since the details of implementing a democracy is a hobby horse of mine and dropping a couple paragraphs seemed... beside the point. But, > Why would watching a debate from a virtual auditorium be any worse for democracy than watching it on TV? It's not the act of watching that I'm criticizing here. It's the fact that it's being venerated as remotely important. The mere suggestion that seeing a sweat drop on a presidential candidate's forehead is even passingly relevant to anyone is profoundly disturbing to me.
    - parasubvert 13y ago
      Presidential elections have been a "looks good on TV" contest since the first televised debate in 1960, when Nixon lost. 54 years later, there is no sign of that changing. Humans are humans - the soap opera is more important than the policies.
      - saraid216 13y ago
        Why would you expect it to change? No one is trying to change it.
  - cryoshon 13y ago
    The real joke here is equating watching the debates with American democracy. Almost nobody watches the debates, and if they do, it really doesn't matter, because they're constructed to be a mere smokescreen designed to sound good while committing to less than a gust of wind in the autumn. Remember the last however many SOTU addresses where we were promised change and reform to our ever-crumbling empire? Remember all the things that have changed for the better?
pjmorris 13y ago
Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa. Or wheelchair. Imagine jumping out of the Stratos like Felix Baumgartner, from your desk. I wonder whether GoPro is working on a stereo vision headset (with microphones) so extreme athletes can capture what desk jockeys will play back on their Rifts, Walter Mitty style. Edit: Imagine what playing Madden 2016 could be like.
- dnr 13y ago
  Sorry to nitpick, but when you write "Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa" I have to wonder whether you've actually had an epic ski run. If you had, I think you'd agree that the primary senses that make it so incredibly enjoyable are kinesthetic and touch (feeling and responding to the texture of the snow), not visual or sound or anything that could be captured by a VR device. This isn't to say that a recording like that would have no value, but it would only be a small step above watching a ski movie. And wheelchair users aren't excluded: paraplegics can use sit-skis to experience the real thing.
  - pjmorris 13y ago
    I've gone on mediocre ski runs, so I'll accept the nitpick. Here's another; My hunch is that the simulations will involve standing, leaning, hopping, etc, so the runs probably won't happen on a sofa. I've certainly been amazed by the paraplegics I've seen on the slopes. I still think that more people will be able to afford the VR gear than will be able to afford traveling to slopes, buying lift tickets, real gear, $10 sandwiches and $3 apples.
socceroos 13y ago
My goodness all of that sounds so depressing. Exactly what kind of handcuffs are you going for here? Either way, you end up f$&#ed.
- wmeredith 13y ago
  Oh, whatever. What I really want is a teleporter, this is the next best thing.
interpol_p 13y ago
> Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. Why do people keep saying stuff like this? It doesn't sound good or exciting at all. It sounds about as exciting as video calls, QR codes, and NFC payments. Which is to say, utterly lacking in creative vision and not of benefit to humanity. VR has a real shot at transforming part of the gaming landscape. That's where the exciting stuff will happen — and it won't even change all of gaming, just a small and focused subset.
- badsock 13y ago
  Or Zuckerberg's examples: seeing an avatar of your doctor in 3D, or your classmates in a classroom. It's got the whole "imagine a fridge that can tweet you when your milk is about to expire!" smell of having to work far too hard to come up with something interesting-sounding. I think the reason people were excited was that this could have be something transformative - a new sensory conduit into our brains. And I think the disappointment is to have that be replaced by something so mired in the same-old same-old. A stereoscopic rendering of the world as it already is, by a player that's practially a figurehead of lack of innovation (other than in ops management and revenue models).

by Kapura 13y ago

saraid216 13y ago

> Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. And you offer one of them a hug and then pause and realize, "Oh yeah. I'm just sitting at home by myself again. Just like high school." > Imagine sitting in the front row of the next presidential debate, where you can see the sweat forming on the candidate's brow under the lights. You can look over and talk to your friend sitting next to you without disturbing the action. And now I have no hope for American democracy. It is dead.

hsod 13y ago
> And now I have no hope for American democracy. It is dead. I know HN has a natural tendency towards wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I don't understand this reaction at all. Why would watching a debate from a virtual auditorium be any worse for democracy than watching it on TV? Sometimes it feels like comment threads on here are secret competitions to see who can have the most extreme negative reaction.
- saraid216 13y ago
  > I know HN has a natural tendency towards wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I don't understand this reaction at all. That's fair. I didn't bother explaining it since the details of implementing a democracy is a hobby horse of mine and dropping a couple paragraphs seemed... beside the point. But, > Why would watching a debate from a virtual auditorium be any worse for democracy than watching it on TV? It's not the act of watching that I'm criticizing here. It's the fact that it's being venerated as remotely important. The mere suggestion that seeing a sweat drop on a presidential candidate's forehead is even passingly relevant to anyone is profoundly disturbing to me.
  - parasubvert 13y ago
    Presidential elections have been a "looks good on TV" contest since the first televised debate in 1960, when Nixon lost. 54 years later, there is no sign of that changing. Humans are humans - the soap opera is more important than the policies.
    - saraid216 13y ago
      Why would you expect it to change? No one is trying to change it.
- cryoshon 13y ago
  The real joke here is equating watching the debates with American democracy. Almost nobody watches the debates, and if they do, it really doesn't matter, because they're constructed to be a mere smokescreen designed to sound good while committing to less than a gust of wind in the autumn. Remember the last however many SOTU addresses where we were promised change and reform to our ever-crumbling empire? Remember all the things that have changed for the better?

pjmorris 13y ago

Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa. Or wheelchair. Imagine jumping out of the Stratos like Felix Baumgartner, from your desk. I wonder whether GoPro is working on a stereo vision headset (with microphones) so extreme athletes can capture what desk jockeys will play back on their Rifts, Walter Mitty style. Edit: Imagine what playing Madden 2016 could be like.

dnr 13y ago
Sorry to nitpick, but when you write "Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa" I have to wonder whether you've actually had an epic ski run. If you had, I think you'd agree that the primary senses that make it so incredibly enjoyable are kinesthetic and touch (feeling and responding to the texture of the snow), not visual or sound or anything that could be captured by a VR device. This isn't to say that a recording like that would have no value, but it would only be a small step above watching a ski movie. And wheelchair users aren't excluded: paraplegics can use sit-skis to experience the real thing.
- pjmorris 13y ago
  I've gone on mediocre ski runs, so I'll accept the nitpick. Here's another; My hunch is that the simulations will involve standing, leaning, hopping, etc, so the runs probably won't happen on a sofa. I've certainly been amazed by the paraplegics I've seen on the slopes. I still think that more people will be able to afford the VR gear than will be able to afford traveling to slopes, buying lift tickets, real gear, $10 sandwiches and $3 apples.

socceroos 13y ago

My goodness all of that sounds so depressing. Exactly what kind of handcuffs are you going for here? Either way, you end up f$&#ed.

wmeredith 13y ago
Oh, whatever. What I really want is a teleporter, this is the next best thing.

interpol_p 13y ago

> Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual space where you can catch up with them. Why do people keep saying stuff like this? It doesn't sound good or exciting at all. It sounds about as exciting as video calls, QR codes, and NFC payments. Which is to say, utterly lacking in creative vision and not of benefit to humanity. VR has a real shot at transforming part of the gaming landscape. That's where the exciting stuff will happen — and it won't even change all of gaming, just a small and focused subset.

badsock 13y ago
Or Zuckerberg's examples: seeing an avatar of your doctor in 3D, or your classmates in a classroom. It's got the whole "imagine a fridge that can tweet you when your milk is about to expire!" smell of having to work far too hard to come up with something interesting-sounding. I think the reason people were excited was that this could have be something transformative - a new sensory conduit into our brains. And I think the disappointment is to have that be replaced by something so mired in the same-old same-old. A stereoscopic rendering of the world as it already is, by a player that's practially a figurehead of lack of innovation (other than in ops management and revenue models).