We tend to think of virtual and augmented realities in terms of the power we can get by seeing things that are not really there. In the VR community there has been lots of buzz about all the exotic new objects, creatures and worlds we will soon be able to interact with.
Yet much of the power of our technologically enabled world comes from things we do not see — and that we do not wish to see: The electrical wires in the walls of our houses, the air conditioning ducts running between floors in our office buildings, the miles and miles of plumbing that allow us to magically turn on a kitchen tap and get running water.
We have come to expect so many things to be there for us: The gasoline in our service stations, the package from Amazon, the magazine on the rack at our local newsstand. For the most part the means of delivery for these things remain hidden from our sight.
Our everyday lives in the future, after we have transitioned to living in a visually virtualized world, will contain many more such invisible mechanisms. We won’t think about those mechanisms because we won’t ever see them, even if they are right there in the room with us.
Of course, anybody looking around that room with their naked eyes would see all sorts of odd machines running about, busily creating the world that most people will take for granted: The objects that float through the air into your hand when you gesture for them, the food that mysteriously materializes when you are hungry, and vanishes again when you no longer want it.
On the other hand, eventually it will probably become illegal for unauthorized individuals to walk around seeing the world with their naked eyes. Most people will probably wonder why anybody would ever want to.
This is one point where I have to strongly disagree. What happens if these mechanisms break down, especially if they’re in your way? Who decides what is and is not “authorized” to be seen? What decides whether or not you are hungry enough to have food appear to you? What if there’s a bug or a malicious hacker interfering with your virtual sight?
Personally, I think that if we ever do get to the point where AR is ubiquitous enough to be considered to be a part of the “real world”, to the point where it starts strongly mediating between us and our physical reality, it should always come with an emergency off switch. At very least in emergency situations, you’ll always need a way to see through this virtual environment to the world you’re physically interacting with.
These are valid questions. Also valid questions: What happens when the electricity stops, when the wireless network breaks down, when your bank account gets hacked, when the landing gear malfunctions?
In cases where it really matters — such as the emergency room of a hospital — we create back-up systems. We take extra care when lives are at stake. In other situations, we just grin and bear it, and end up with great stories to tell our kids one day.
frankly, for the most part I think we entered virtual reality a long time ago, between cars, phones, shoes, air conditioning, jet planes, books, computers and a host of other innovatoins. Yet every time we invent some new magical way of living, we promptly forget how artificial it really is.
Actually, any time I work on the house I’d love to have VR goggles see through the drywall and show me where studs, electrical conduit, pipes, etc. are. Perhaps in the future, contractors will take spherical photos before covering the walls, so future repairmen can see inside.
Off topic: Have you seen this? An unfortunate side effect of Oculus’s new owner: http://gizmodo.com/there-are-some-super-shady-things-in-oculus-rifts-terms-1768678169
Is there a parallel we can made with existing technologies ? For most technologies nowadays one can still decide not to use it – on its own private level – and still be a working part of the society; even considering cars, phones or the internet for an individual from a developed country.
Apart from our language, which is quite an amazing non innate feature of our daily lives, I don’t see many techs that mandatory in today’s world (neither saying not using them being an easy choice).
Good point.
There are older technologies that we often forget are technologies, such as the technologies of printed money and credit cards. You wouldn’t last very long in most modern cities if you were to opt not to use some form of that technology.
And I doubt that anyone who grew up wearing shoes would have an easy time walking the streets of Manhattan without them.