Impact on society

[Rosenklotz]

Imagine you live in place like these http://imgur.com/a/8IrJ4

Who cares, as long as you got an Oculus Rift and a PC and electricity (and some Pizza, Coke, Beer, Pot, Candy...). What effects on society and vulnerable subjects will OR have in a long term? Don´t you think, it will make withdrawal from society even more attractive / easier?

On the one hand it`s a wonderful thing to beam yourself to great places instantly, it can defintly brighten up your life. But I´m pretty sure from the second the consumer version is released there will be a lot of people who will live for the Rift only. Eat, sleep, eventually work (if unavoidable)...go riftin`...no need to step out. No need for friends. No sports, no sunshine, no outside. Hey, this phenomenon is already there , but OR will increase the problem.

What do you think?

[3Jane]

How will it change society?


We can finally travel long distances and expand throughout space using robotic android avatars that would be controlled by humans on earth. Yes, just like James Cameron thought up. That actually will be a reality someday.

[Vin]

"3Jane" wrote:
How will it change society?


We can finally travel long distances and expand throughout space using robotic android avatars that would be controlled by humans on earth. Yes, just like James Cameron thought up. That actually will be a reality someday.

We uh... Did that already. On Mars. For decades now.

[Jose]

"vin" wrote:

"3Jane" wrote:
How will it change society?


We can finally travel long distances and expand throughout space using robotic android avatars that would be controlled by humans on earth. Yes, just like James Cameron thought up. That actually will be a reality someday.

We uh... Did that already. On Mars. For decades now.

Yes there have been remote controlled rovers sent to Mars.

But they haven't been controlled by or accessible through what we would call virtual reality.

And these rovers and drones aren't what we would call "robotic android avatars" which is what the post you are quoting is referring to.

An "android" is a robot with a human-like appearance.

[Vin]

We're not going to have HMD controlled androids on Mars you control from Earth ever, what with the speed of light introducing a nice ten minute latency into all the communications. Going out any further just gets completely worse. We're not going to usher in a new era of Avatar or Surrogates with a cheap HMD.

Edit: spelling

[KBK]

"vin" wrote:
There's no way the consumer version of the Oculus Rift will replace people's lives, unless they're suffering from unfortunate mental defects that allow them to be consumed by any form of fiction.

Stop talking about the bulk of humanity and their self reflected weaknesses so eloquently. Be nice. 😛

[Vin]

"KBK" wrote:

"vin" wrote:
There's no way the consumer version of the Oculus Rift will replace people's lives, unless they're suffering from unfortunate mental defects that allow them to be consumed by any form of fiction.

Stop talking about the bulk of humanity and their self reflected weaknesses so eloquently. Be nice. 😛

This conversation appears on the forums a few times a week, with people expecting the Rift to come out in a fanfare of Science Fiction quality, and expecting things from it that it cannot do. That it will not do. There are lines of speculation that do need to be discussed, but we rarely get those, instead favoring discussions about how the Rift is going to be like some anime, movie, holodeck, or other form of fiction that the Rift isn't going to be, and won't be for the foreseeable future. I'd love for these conversations to be far more grounded in reality, but they aren't.

The idea that people will put on the Rift and then be unable to differentiate between reality and fiction should be reserved for the psychotic and the schizophrenic.

[KBK]

"vin" wrote:
We're not going to have HMD controlled androids on Mars you control from Earth ever, what with the speed of light introducing a nice ten minute latency into all the communications. Going out any further just gets completely worse. We're not going to usher in a new eea of Avatar or Surrogates with a cheap HMD.

The 'speed of light' was defeated in many different experiments across many decades. Ie, many times over the past century. dig harder. Nooks and crannies, odd places, leftover information that was not fully 'washed/bleached for public consumption.'

However, that information tends to shift entire planets worth of 'human thought and base orientation about what is what and who is who', so it tends to be hidden. For as long as possible.

Yah dig?

(I remember, in the 80's, looking in libraries for data on Einstein's unified field theory. I found scant mentioning for the formulations of a so called 'failed' works by one of the most prominent men in science. Even Mozart's sucky works are really good..and van goh's worst works sell for 10's of millions, yet you can't find the mathematical 'mutterings' of one of the world's most renowned theorists? for study and posterity? How could that be? then I watched even those books disappear from the libraries.)

Yah dig?

[Vin]

Let's take that at face value, then. There's a way to communicate faster than the speed of light without hitting the obvious paradoxes, and it's being kept from us.

Still ends in no HMD controlled robots on Mars. Plus, it's easier and better to simulate Mars in VR. There's even a thread about it here. It's a great idea, but we're talking about scifi instead.

[geekmaster]

"vin" wrote:
We're not going to have HMD controlled androids on Mars you control from Earth ever, what with the speed of light introducing a nice ten minute latency into all the communications. Going out any further just gets completely worse. We're not going to usher in a new eea of Avatar or Surrogates with a cheap HMD.

Never say "never", you know? Words like "never" and "impossible" are rarely used by people who "think big". We do not like to impose such artificial limits on our own personal reality. There is MUCH that we do not yet know. The limit between possible and impossible keeps getting extended as we learn more. The "laws" of physics are subject to change, especially in the realms of quantum physics.

Regarding your "never" claim, research and development of quantum entanglement communications (i.e. quantum teleportation) keeps increasing the range of successful FTL communications.

The most recent distance of successful quantum entanglement information exchange that I am aware of was 147 km (previously 90 km by a different team).

Quantum light storage:

"

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The downside of using quantum communications is that we need a storage pool of quantum entangled ph...

[KBK]

And that is just the public stuff that has snuck out.

things that could not be blocked.

Dig dig dig away boys, dig away. before those ever smaller holes get closed up.