Ep. 2 - Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) is Humanity’s Next Great Technological Leap Forward

VU Dream - VR/AR Podcast

Technology is a neutral tool that extends humanity’s agency and will in the world. Technology can’t destroy the world. People can destroy the world. “Writing will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.” - Socrates If the great philosopher Socrates was against the technology of writing…it’s safe to assume the latest and greatest LinkedIn influencer calling out VR, AI, IoT as a bad technology is just wrong. Social media isn’t destroying children. Social media is an extension of who we are and a reflection/multiplier of the inner plumbings in the world. People blaming technology on everything is not good, because it allows us to escape the ills of our own fault. I’m here to shed some light on an amazing new technology that will change how we exist as humans and possibly something more. “Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming …” - Mark Zuckerberg What comes to mind when you think of VR and AR? You might think of a goofy looking guy at the mall losing balance in front of his friends. Or, if its augmented reality you might think of the mysterious Google Glass that we never really saw. In today’s world, VR/AR might look like weird gimmicky prototypes with no real applications, but this is far from the truth. The reality behind virtual and augmented reality is unforeseen to the public eye today, however, these technologies will disrupt everything about our lives in ways we can’t imagine today. It doesn’t matter if you’re an accountant, teacher, or construction worker…the mixed reality revolution will completely change the way every human on the planet lives life. If you thought the 90’s Silicon Valley internet and computer revolution was huge, that was nothing compared to the upcoming virtual metaverse or “Oasis” (Ready Player One, Steven Speilberg). Virtual Reality Now vs. Future According to Markets and Markets the VR market was valued at $5.1 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $34 billion by 2023. Also, the AR market was valued at $4.2 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $60.55 billion by 2023. Although virtual reality is primarily being used to play immersive games at the moment, it still has dozens of other innovative use cases. I’m most interested in helpful applications like VR Treats Pain More Effectively Than Painkillers and MindCotine: First-Ever VR Program to Beat Nicotine Addiction. After CES 2018, we saw an explosion of VR headsets from different companies around the world. Over time these devices will decrease in size, have more features and become affordable and offer more realistic mind-blowing experiences. It’s likely most of will wear a device that uses augmented and virtual reality in the future. “I have a feeling virtual reality will further expose the conceit that ‘reality’ is a fact. It will provide another reminder of the seamless continuity between the world outside and the world within, delivering another major hit to the old fraud of objectivity. ‘Real’, As Kevin Kelly put it, ’Is going to be on of the most relative words we’ll have.” – JohnPerry Barlow Here’s the reality of the virtuality. Just like the end means of a windmill, generator, or solar panel is to produce energy. VR’s end means is to ultimately replace the user’s reality with a simulated reality under conscious control. Step back a bit and think about what this actually means. Imagine if a bunch of sophisticated chimps with shoes create a device to completely change what they see when they open their eyes. To me, this signals a completely different new era of humanity. An era that isn’t about war, drought, or disease. This is about humanity uploading mind into the universe, which is really whatever it can think. I believe virtual reality is about humanity examining the world and making reality itself irrelevant in the way it’s presented to us. In physical reality, there are many complications and limitations humans will not be able to overcome. So…what is virtual reality going to look like 10-15 years in the future? Nobody knows…but, I have some guesses. Virtual Reality Will Remove all Previous Limits I could talk to you all day about VR’s impact on healthcare, gaming, and a thousand other industries. But, what’s the most significant factor in all these cases? Overcoming the physical limitations in reality that prevent the everyday person from living their lives in the way they wish. Now, I’m not saying everything would be better in the real world if it was easy..in fact, it’s a requirement to work hard if you want to achieve anything in life. But just imagine being able to compute and bring the hypothetical dreams you have to live in a world that is indistinguishable from the one you are living in now. “We’re post-geographical beings, attentional proximity has been decoupled from physical proximity, collapsing geography.” – Jason Silva These technologies are slowly transforming what it means to be a human. Your mind no longer has to be engaging where you physically are at. In the future, we’re not going to watch movies on a piece of plastic and glass that emits different colored lights in a theater. We are going to be connecting our minds and entering a new world where we don’t watch the characters fight dragons. We will be the characters fighting dragons. Augmented Reality will Enhance Reality “From the moment we started to create architecture, to put objects in the world, to make art, to carve tools, we’ve been augmenting reality.” - Jason Silva Augmented reality will be used in tandem with its sister virtual reality. I believe the majority of people will be using AR throughout the day, much more than virtual reality. Until we are living in the matrix, most of us will choose to utilize the positive benefits of the digital world in our physical world. I interviewed legendary entrepreneur, Jay Samit on my podcast and he explained augmented reality to me in the best way. Your glasses only have one app, and that’s focus. Imagine if you had multiple apps that blended virtual elements with the real world to show you a seamlessly mixed reality. Another AR app could be to instantly translate a foreign language to your language like a street sign in Paris. Or a diabetic person going to a grocery store and using a health food app to modify the environment to show him or her the foods they can eat, while highlighting the foods they can’t in red. Just imagine if you had all of humanity’s knowledge, but instead of at your fingertips now, it’s literally right in front of you. Here’s where things get interesting. As neuroscience tells us, each of our realities is expressed to us based on our perception. Objective reality doesn’t exist. We see the world based on our linguistic operating system that is language and cultural reality tunnel. Music can change how we process a scene, a moment can seem truthful, or dishonest, depending on the tone, depending on whether it’s cloudy or sunny, and depending on your location as well. Perception can be manipulated, which is what reality is tightly coupled to. Augmented reality will allow us to put a technological skin over our biological perceptual apparatus. We will be able to inject the world with intelligence, purpose, and signification. Think of fully immersive whitespace environments like the matrix inside of your enhanced reality device. Don’t want to be taken out of the world to experience a virtual one? Well…don’t, nobody is forcing you. At the end of the day, VR and AR will only be relevant to us if the technology is good enough With virtual reality, you can see something from someone’s point of view. It’s not an upgrade up from TV, VR shows you a piece of someone’s life. It’s making us able to experience inter-subjectivity. It’s not an upgrade to TV it’s something entirely different. VR is NOT about using your own senses, rather a portal into a constructed world of imagination. "The future of Humanity is us moving into the imagination and to fully turn our minds inside out and inhabit spaces that are linguistic constructs. Spaces built and shaped by mind, thought, and intentionality. These are not virtual realities, these are the realities of the virtual.” - Jason Silva Please contact us if you have comments, suggestions and guest inquiries - [e-mail] VU Dream - http://www.vudream.com/ VU Dream's FB - https://www.facebook.com/VUDreamOfficial/ VU Dream's Twitter - https://twitter.com/VUDreamOfficial VU Dream's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vudreamofficial/