[HN Gopher] AR pioneer warns that metaverse could make "reality ...
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AR pioneer warns that metaverse could make "reality disappear"
Author : bonkerbits
Score : 43 points
Date : 2021-11-13 20:48 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (futurism.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (futurism.com)
| seltzered_ wrote:
| Eh, I think of what Jaron Lanier said years ago about how VR is
| more ethical when it's time-limited and kinda clunky:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDRN_dZNJUM&t=1935s
| gfodor wrote:
| Well we are getting _a_ metaverse, just like we are getting _a_
| crypto economy. Our choices are around the form it takes, not if
| it will happen. If good people sit idly by, or dismiss it, we
| will get the worst versions of both.
| wyre wrote:
| I can't help but draw a comparison between metaverse, and meta as
| is used describe an optimal play strategy in competitive games.
| In the latter, the meta is controlled by the company pushing out
| new content. In the former, I imagine the company formerly known
| as Facebook will have control over the metaverse in a similar
| way. The difference being one is an entertaining game and the
| other will have real effects on the real world.
| silvi9 wrote:
| "You have violated the terms of service and your account has been
| suspended. You no longer have access to Reality."
|
| You know you're going in the wrong direction as a species if a
| corporation can have control of your every interaction, and they
| can take that access away if they so wish. They do it today, why
| should it be any different when the metaverse exists?
| ashtonkem wrote:
| It's the company town again, but worse.
| mc32 wrote:
| There's only one town and it only has one company, don't
| waste it.
| version_five wrote:
| I think it's fine if a company can control what I do in their
| property, real or virtual.
|
| The issue (and I wouldn't say this usually) is government.
| There need to be updated monopoly laws so that that companies
| with defacto state-level control over what people do cannot
| exist or are treated as utilities that everyone had a right to.
|
| And government has to stop restricting people from doing stuff
| in real life, so that we're not pushed into on online dystopia.
| Importantly, this includes ready ways for everyone to go about
| their lives and interactions with government without a need for
| a smart phone, digital ID, or anything similar. Maybe if
| governments solve the monopoly problem this can be revisited.
| oceanghost wrote:
| I _strongly_ disagree.
|
| How much of the world do you own that you get to "make the
| rules" for?
|
| If corporations are allowed to "make the rules" for property
| with impunity-- you will find yourself at their mercy for the
| vast majority of your life.
| amelius wrote:
| Yes, companies do not have some kind of right to do
| anything they want because "they worked for it". It's the
| other way around: people grant companies the privilege of
| making money as long as they provide a benefit and thus (of
| course) don't hurt consumers.
|
| Companies are an agglomeration of humans, and we should
| never allow an organized group of people to make life
| miserable for ordinary individuals. If that happens, then
| democracy is lost.
| version_five wrote:
| I'm confused by the strength of your disagreement. You're
| using a website that has rules about what you can do.
| Presumably you only let the people you want to into your
| house? Are you saying you don't agree with property rights?
| I suspect I'm misunderstanding.
| spoonjim wrote:
| If every company in the world said you couldn't buy from
| them, you would die. Does Corporate America get to have that
| power?
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| Isn't that the whole point? We get somewhere to escape the real
| world and Big Company get their own world without existing
| regulation and oversight.
| icedchai wrote:
| It feels like many of us are already living in a dystopian
| nightmare, even without the metaverse. Day-after-day of mentally
| draining video calls, constant slack notifications...
| 908087 wrote:
| Mark Zuckerberg is here to tell you: "We can still make it
| worse"
| klyrs wrote:
| If the people addicted to social media disappear behind VR
| headsets, that will be _so_ nice.
| contravariant wrote:
| I'm not convinced this is any different from the current
| situation where they bury themselves behind their phone
| screens.
| tylermauthe wrote:
| Dystopian maybe, but think of the great ROI.
| ashtonkem wrote:
| The 21st century (so far) distilled down to a single sentence.
| Bravo.
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| That trend had been going on for quite a while now. When you
| consider the amount of time people are spending on TV, gaming,
| movies and social networks it's pretty clear that people are
| already spending a lot of time in virtual reality and prefer it
| that way. And I see that trend continuing.
|
| What's scary is that if this reality is controlled by large
| companies with profit motives. They already manipulate us a lot
| all kinds of media.
| silvi9 wrote:
| I'm already inundated with endless popups, advertisements,
| surveys, and other requests when I browse the web on my mobile
| device.
|
| I don't want to have to do that for everyday living too.
| BeFlatXIII wrote:
| I look forward to my sketchy Billboard blocker that uses my
| spare neural electricity to mine Monero after its developer
| gets hacked.
| reincarnate0x14 wrote:
| Hate sounding like an ad myself but the builtin adblocker on
| Brave is a lifesaver for cleaning up shitty mobile sites (ie,
| almost all of them).
|
| Not looking forward to have to whitelist the programs being
| side-loaded into my VR interface so I don't get giant modal
| popups blocking my entire universe.
| mc32 wrote:
| Somewhat ironic is that lots of people are looking forward to
| virtual worlds where they can explore without reality getting in
| the way.
|
| Slowly at first, in fits and starts, but likely people will get
| ensnared into it and like social media, find it difficult to live
| without.
|
| Then, the company, or whoever controls it will become pretty
| powerful not only in this synthetic realm but also in reality as
| the barrier from one to another is blurred.
| specialist wrote:
| So more of the same.
|
| Lifecycle of medias is immutable. IIRC, the stages are something
| like pioneers, settlers, robber barons, wasteland, rediscovery by
| hipsters, etc.
| BenoitEssiambre wrote:
| It's dystopian, but maybe inevitable? It might be the only way
| for economic growth and standard of livings (or some dystopian
| version of these standards) to continue increasing globally
| without the human ecological footprint becoming even more
| disastrous than it currently is. People's lives becoming more
| virtual may be a (sad) way to use a smaller amount of real world
| resources and stop trampling the planet.
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| It feels like different people have a different understanding
| what the Metaverse is[1]. Is it Microsoft Chat[2] but in 3D and
| VR and Zuck spying on you? Is it reality but with augmented data
| on top of it (I just gave the definition of AR)?
|
| We already have technology modifying reality, like how you can be
| in the middle of Mongolia and still be in constant contact with
| your friends in San Francisco. I've had friends meeting in real
| life and laughing about the funny post someone made on FB (when
| FB was still a thing...).
|
| [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/everyone-pitching-
| the...
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goEqyQgWIe4
| atweiden wrote:
| Rosenberg contends AR will be practically impossible to live
| without [1], and that its most obvious use case is labeling
| persons in your environment -- and labeling them in a way they
| have zero control over, and limited ability to opt out of.
| Rosenberg hints this may exacerbate interpersonal conflict, and
| that removing the shroud of anonymity from public spaces could
| make the metaverse difficult to escape from.
|
| [1]: https://bigthink.com/the-future/metaverse-augmented-
| reality-...
| rackjack wrote:
| Let's all love Lain.
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