What you can be
Watched READY PLAYER ONE with my family last weekend, highly recommended — very entertaining. There are also philosophical questions for hardcore Sci-Fi fans.
People come to OASIS for the all the things they can do. They stay for all the things they can be.
Think longer
Even the VR hype has been cooling down a lot. Techcrunch even argue it’s dead. I bet otherwise for a longer run. It significantly augments the Computer-Human Interface experience. A simple test is to ask kids’ 1st hand feedback. Obviously, they are not going to attach to 2D screens as we do now anymore.
What’s new
For seasoned persons, our instinct may be misleading to that won’t work too soon because of all the lessons learnt. It works most of time, but it can also be costly to miss rare opportunities. So, do ask what’s new this time.
A few fundamental boosts in fact:
- Advances of computing, networking and VR technologies lead VR UX is significant better than previous generations.
- Leverage of the mass mobile device value chain & distribution. Today, VR HW/SW reuse many tech. from mobile to be much cheaper (by the economic of scale) and iterate much faster.
- Leverage of app ecosystem, content creation, deliver & social platform, such app stores, Youtube & Facebook.
- Gaming and niche markets are driving the high ends, where people willing to pay the premium. Those then feed into the ecosystem and trick down lower tiers for more adoption later. Which will keep the positive feedback loop going.
A blurring line
As a fact today, constantly connected is a norm already. People could not find something better to do. Tomorrow with accelerating growth of networking & computing powers, it’s not a mirage as the VR experience will be better than reality and breaking Space-Time boundary soon. By then, it won’t be a surprise that someone chooses the virtual world. Cypher: “ignorance is bliss” & who are we to judge?
BTW a fun question in The Grand Design, it’s cruel to keep fishes in curved bowls. But, how do you know your reality is not distorted to a certain extent?
Zhuangzi: Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man
Be Optimistic
I’m less worry about to be a human battery soon. There are way more practical/efficient way than that. Checks out how Kyle Hill does the math.
Nevertheless, companies do need to monetize that somehow. Laying done landmine in VR world does not make sense because a program can do it quicker and better. I can only hope someone will come up innovative mechanisms to leverage human creativity in the VR world, e.g. some sort of CAPTCHA helping digitize books, Proof of Work, Crowdsourcing…
Guess what
A fun speculation, who is the one building OASIS? F seems to be very ambitious & leading ;p
Disclaimer
The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my company. Furthermore, considering them are thought experiments because the reality is more complicated & has more factors to be considered.
