new virtual reality technology

Good points happycase, totally agree. It will be akin to psychedelics.

what makes us so sure where not already plugged in???

=0

Thats an entirely different subject, but that is possible. Things like the double slit experiment says to me that consciousness affects matter so therefore there is a link between our conscious perpectives and physical reality, which could suggest a simulated reality in a computer... but its impossible to take it that far and conclude.

  On 1/16/2013 at 10:05 PM, happycase said:

Parents could infiltrate their kids' worlds while they're getting high on V.R. and scramble their world up and make it into a math puzzle and they can't leave VR until they've solved the math. You know, crazy shit.

I am so doing this to my children someday

I would be interested to see someone do some kind of augmented reality that imitates a psychedelic experience.

Also, this would be really good for teaching, because you could do 3D field trips and never leave the classroom, or show kids in a chemistry class things that wouldn't be safe to perform normally. How about giving disabled people the ability to go on a vacation or use it for advanced training for surgeons?

But in all seriousness when do I get to start VR banging celebrities while simultaneously using a synchronized robotic fleshlight?

  On 1/16/2013 at 10:31 PM, compson said:

Thats an entirely different subject, but that is possible. Things like the double slit experiment says to me that consciousness affects matter so therefore there is a link between our conscious perpectives and physical reality, which could suggest a simulated reality in a computer... but its impossible to take it that far and conclude.

[youtubehd]D1ezNvpFcJU[/youtubehd]

lol

what i was trying to say is that, if we're going to start using VR for some things now, next time we notice it we'll be totally in touch with it so scenarios like the matrix hive are totally plausible...

i imagine people achieving a sense of security inside a VR world, i don't know, it's just safer, you don't put yourself trough physical danger so, probably they'll prefer it to the real world...

some guy on Reddit mentioned the idea of being Spiderman and swinging around in a huge city, or flying around like Superman

the possibilities are amazing, anyone can see that. I do think it would be nice to be properly prepared for the negative side effects though

but whatever, crash and burn baby, how we do

could just end up being a huge gimmick and people get sick of it in like a month, and just go back to using a normal TV without a huge ass heavy thing on their head.

I bet VR could be used for implanting false memories and motivating people to do things based on events that never happened.

Not to mention the new CHATMM-VR. Will give a whole new meaning to biscuit circles.

I want to use vr and motion tracking to have 'visual jazz' battles where people take turns trying to one up eachother by improvising synaesthetic moving-picture-sounds in virtual space...it could be the fuel for a new subculture of cyberdelians...

Got to say, the reviews this thing has been getting are really exciting me.

@happycase lots of good points. Just so happens that a couple of people that tried this at CES said it was very similiar to tripping in some ways (they had both tripped in the past).

Anyway, we are all going to know a shitload more as soon as the SDK's arrive in a couple of months. Then we'll hear what it's like to wear for an hour at a time etc. The two main questions would be is it comfortable to wear for at least an hour and does it make people dizzy/sick?

I want to put a cheap webcam camera in front of that VR unit that feeds into it, so I can now exist in this weird low-res universe of mine. Except when I shower!

  On 1/17/2013 at 5:28 AM, Philip Glass said:

I want to put a cheap webcam camera in front of that VR unit that feeds into it, so I can now exist in this weird low-res universe of mine. Except when I shower!

seeing through the eyes of quickcam

  On 1/16/2013 at 9:26 AM, vamos scorcho said:

this shit is going to cause some fucked up brain mutations

this. very sceptical. i don't think it will be a good thing regardless of how cool it would be to try it out. why not get our brains out and in the tank then? is there no difference between a real event and a simulated one? philosophically you can't answer that for sure, but from my belief (and i'm not christian or anything, but everyone has a belief) a real event is way more than a simulated, even if it feels totally the same. my 2 cents.

Aren't you temporarily substituting your reality for other realities when you watch TV or play a videogame? This is just an attempt to create more immersive experiences. Obviously virtual experiences wont span the complete range of human experience in our lifetime, nor do they have to. Virtual realities have other qualities like not being grounded to the physical limits of of our world and perception. Or being able to guide an experience in a system of rules and interactions. "Videogames" is a word with a very negative connotation because most games are expansive reward machines. But some games have shown us glimpses that virtual interactive experiences can be much more and are only in their infancy.

I look forward to having virtual raves from the comfort of my living room. Not as a substitute but as a supplement.

@tokn: Yes, but just having different experiences isn't bad for the brain! If anything, I imagine the brain will just learn to deal with motor/movement in new ways.

Though playing portal on one of these things may goof up your ability to treat walls appropriately in day to day life. I see the danger there. Don't be a dumbass out of the Rift.

Example of why this won't cause dangerous mutations (aside from biological and social argument that people whos brains mutate from excessively living in a VR world probably aren't the most likely candidates to achieve widespread procreation in their lifetime...): think of driving a car. That is not an experience your grandparents' brains were used to. Moving without moving, using your feet to guide the movement, being able to move at cheetah speed but not being able to move your body much while doing it, etc. Yes there were carriages and so forth to get them ready for this experience, just as there are computers and so forth that have been prepping our minds to deal with virtual realities. Driving probably seemed like a strange shock to the first generation of car owners, just as it would be difficult to get used to driving for people in countries without many cars now. But the point is, using the technology and learning to deal with the new environment (staring straight ahead while maintaining focus on a moving environment, changing momentum and acceleration with tiny movements in their hands and feet, needing to look behind oneself while traveling at 60 mph, etc) did not cause fucked up brain mutations. It just allowed them to deal with a new kind of activity. I think if VR gets popular (despite Limpy's sarcastic implication that VR will never be popular!), a similar 'dawn of the technology adaptation phase' will happen. It probably won't be harmful enough to cause seriously fucked up brain mutations. I say bring it on.

waiting for this getup, as promised by early 80s sci-fi:

yeah but driving was probably one of the main reasons for global warming, no?

and all the people who were skeptical of "new technology" just got laughed off for being conservative

I used the analogy to discuss the potential for brain damage due to a new way of moving about in the world, not to draw a comparison between energy use...

VR like this as being what all these damn internet nerds have been waiting for, I/we/they've already spent innumerable hours staring into my computer screen, essentially inhabiting a virtual world, technology like this will let me finally step right into it. What I hope is that some of those utopian ideas that were not really possible back in the days of cyberdelia can come to fruition and stuff like this could actually change our ideas of reality. Or at least we could have some really freaky parties with it.

I also have been seeing some old footage of MS-DOS games where they use full motion video projected in the environment, it looks fascinating and it's a technology I think they should take up again now, with the superior technology.

Combining that with VR could lead to fascinating fascinations. And therefor, Virtual Reality is Awesome.

  On 1/17/2013 at 8:03 PM, luke viia said:

I used the analogy to discuss the potential for brain damage due to a new way of moving about in the world, not to draw a comparison between energy use...

I was broadening the spectrum toward "NEW TECHNOLOGY" and the myth of "PROGRESS" as well as "UNFORSEEN CONSEQUENCES"

lol virtual boys, they were great in their own dumbass way -- no head strap & a blinding red on black scheme that would burn anyone's retinas in the time it took to hold your fucking head to it and finish a level, if you didn't give up from kinks in your neck first. happy memories.

  On 1/17/2013 at 9:50 PM, vamos scorcho said:

  On 1/17/2013 at 8:03 PM, luke viia said:

I used the analogy to discuss the potential for brain damage due to a new way of moving about in the world, not to draw a comparison between energy use...

 

I was broadening the spectrum toward "NEW TECHNOLOGY" and the myth of "PROGRESS" as well as "UNFORSEEN CONSEQUENCES"

word, I can understand that. Not sure how we'd ever figure out the unforeseen consequences before a technology is unleashed though.