I'm an old guy at this point. My first PC was an 8088, and I would tie up the phone line to dial into text based services, and later I would tie up the phone line to dial into the Internet and stick around for hours waiting for crappy websites to load.
I inadvertently predicted the explosive potential of smart phones around 2002 when I conceived of a device you could carry around with you and bring the Internet with you, and that if such a thing existed a lot of people who were tethered to a desk would go out and do things since they could just use the Internet as required on the go. The important thing here isn't that I predicted the entirely predictable, it's the reason why I thought such a thing would be a game changer: Smart phones get you away from the computer, away from the land line, and you can go out into the world and participate in life without being tethered do your technology. It would give you the power of the Internet on the go. I ended up being very correct when smart phones came around, providing the full Internet on the go. It was revolutionary and changed society, not entirely for the better.
By contrast, VR by definition tethers you to the device. You end up giving up your vision, your hearing, and you look kind of silly. You won't be playing VR and going for a drive, or going to the store, or riding a bike, or going to the club. You can't quickly flip between having a conversation and being in VR. you can't eat and be in VR. If you're in your VR world, that's all you're doing, and that's why it can't really be the next big thing the way some people imagine.
Now, even though Google gave up on it, I do think there's potential in wearable Augmented Reality technology. Unlike VR which locks you away in an alternate world, wearable AR could let you engage in reality while having some additional connection to the virtual world.
I think the future of revolutionary technologies will be ones that bring people back into the real world instead of drawing them deeper into virtual ones.
I inadvertently predicted the explosive potential of smart phones around 2002 when I conceived of a device you could carry around with you and bring the Internet with you, and that if such a thing existed a lot of people who were tethered to a desk would go out and do things since they could just use the Internet as required on the go. The important thing here isn't that I predicted the entirely predictable, it's the reason why I thought such a thing would be a game changer: Smart phones get you away from the computer, away from the land line, and you can go out into the world and participate in life without being tethered do your technology. It would give you the power of the Internet on the go. I ended up being very correct when smart phones came around, providing the full Internet on the go. It was revolutionary and changed society, not entirely for the better.
By contrast, VR by definition tethers you to the device. You end up giving up your vision, your hearing, and you look kind of silly. You won't be playing VR and going for a drive, or going to the store, or riding a bike, or going to the club. You can't quickly flip between having a conversation and being in VR. you can't eat and be in VR. If you're in your VR world, that's all you're doing, and that's why it can't really be the next big thing the way some people imagine.
Now, even though Google gave up on it, I do think there's potential in wearable Augmented Reality technology. Unlike VR which locks you away in an alternate world, wearable AR could let you engage in reality while having some additional connection to the virtual world.
I think the future of revolutionary technologies will be ones that bring people back into the real world instead of drawing them deeper into virtual ones.
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