New World Notes

"VR is for Radical Exploration of the Unknown, Not a Continuation of the Familiar" (Reader Comment of the Day)

Interesting response to the study I cited that people who use SL derive more happiness in Second Life than from real life, from regular reader JohnC:

I HAVE received, now and again, at least as much pleasure in SL as I have in "real" life. NOW AND AGAIN. And if there are people out there who have not, then the problem, IMHO, is more to do with their ability to let go of their beliefs in what constitutes a true feeling experience, as opposed to worrying that this "letting go" and experiencing of the unfamiliar, might constitute a betrayal of their real life.

What SL and VR has offered me is an opportunity to mentally/ emotionally explore subjects and situations that in real life would be far too life changing, and possibly dangerous, to be explored in reality. Far to many people are stuck to their RL personas and when they enter a virtual world, they take these personae with them, so they experience nothing of note and leave. In virtual reality, you reap what you sow. Take for instance one of SL's biggest and longest running communities and money spinners, The Gorean. (Although LL have always been in a kind of silent denial of its existence).

John Carmack & Palmer Luckey Gnomically Respond to My Wired Article on John Carmack & Palmer Luckey

In my Wired article last week, after I quoted Palmer Luckey saying that he'd "absolutely" plug into Robert Nozick's experience machine, and that “Once you’ve perfected VR, you can imagine a world where you don’t need to perfect anything else”, Palmer posted this quote on my Facebook wall:

"What’s the difference between the real world and the virtual one?"

"The quantity of data, that's all." pic.twitter.com/khz3YOT89d

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 20, 2016

I had to dig a bit for the reference, and turns out it's from Sword Art Online, a manga/anime series. So there's that.

I quoted John Carmack, Luckey's CTO at Oculus, as saying, "[S]ome fraction of the desirable experiences of the wealthy can be synthesized and replicated [in VR] for a much broader range of people", and “If people are having a virtually happy life, they are having a happy life. Period.” His response on that:

Top Six New World Notes Posts from Last Week!

• Sims-Like Games Make Second Life Seem More Like Second Life
• Read My Wired Feature Story on the Virtual Reality Industry's Mission to Create "Experience Machines"
• VR Survey: Want to Buy an Oculus Rift or Vive This Year?
• Ten Years Ago Today, Hamlet Au Was Born to Leave Hamlet Linden Behind
• Bitcoin as the Future of Money for the World's Poor - Interesting Idea With Some Obvious Flaws
• Mark Zuckerberg Posts Inadvertantly Dystopian Vision of Virtual Reality on Facebook

Weekend Open Forum: How Will VR Be Like Second Life?

My Wired article on VR ends with a passage describing Second Life as "among the Internet’s most remarkable works of collaborative creation", then notes this troubling report which leads to a final question:

[A] study suggested people derived more happiness within that world than from the real one... No one knows how our social fabric will change once billions begin to use VR on a regular basis. But if an outdated and cumbersome virtual world like Second Life can exert so profound an effect, what will happen when people plug into a fully immersive virtual reality? It isn’t too difficult to imagine a scenario in which our problems are allowed to fester, simply because any democratic will to address them is undercut by a populace that would rather escape to the virtual world than deal with the real one.

That's just scenario, of course.

Flickr of the Day: Epic Remnants of Earth-ers Group Photo

Last year I told you about Remnants of Earth, the impressive user-made MMO in Second Life played by thousands, now let Voidar show some of its dedicated community members:

Click here to embiggen, and get all the cast credits. Love that looks like the ensemble cast of a badass cyberpunk mini-series you wish you could see.  Voidar's Flickr, by the way, is generally and consistently full of epic like this.

Thanks to Caitlin Tobias for the tip!

Sims-Like Games Make Second Life Seem More Like Second Life (If You Know What I Mean)

Aemyth has a really interesting review of two Second Life-based games which used a heads-up display (or HUD) to turn your open-ended Second Life experience into a simulation game. G&S is medieval-themed, which means your avatar will engage in mining, crafting, carpentry, fishing, and raising animals. Life 2, as the name suggests, is pretty much The Sims in Second Life, tracking your basic needs like hunger, thirst, bathroom trips, and so on -- see the HUD above.

Here's Aemyth's final comparison between the two games:

Read My Wired Feature Story on the Virtual Reality Industry's Mission to Create "Experience Machines"

"VR Will Make Life Better—Or Just Be an Opiate for the Masses" is my new feature on Wired featuring interviews with virtual reality luminaries Palmer Luckey, Philip Rosedale, Jaron Lanier, John Carmack, Michael Abrash, along with Ethan Zuckerman of MIT. My core focus is on Luckey and Carmack's idea that virtual reality will be a benefit to the poor:

“Everyone wants to have a happy life,” as Luckey likes to say, “but it’s going to be impossible to give everyone everything they want.” But VR can provide billions of people with virtual versions of everything the wealthy take for granted: touring the Louvre, sailing the sun-dappled coast of California, or simply sitting in a meadow beneath a clear blue sky free of smog and pollution. “Virtual reality can make it so anyone, anywhere can have these experiences,” Luckey says...

“These are devices that you could imagine almost everyone in the world owning,” Carmack says. “This means that some fraction of the desirable experiences of the wealthy can be synthesized and replicated for a much broader range of people.”

Jaron Lanier, basically the godfather of VR who is still working in VR (now for Microsoft), has a decidedly different perspective:

VR Survey: Want to Buy an Oculus Rift or Vive This Year?

Now that HTC Vive has announced pre-order sales for $799, VR fans have a choice between buying that Valve-lead headset, or the Oculus headset from Palmer Luckey, John Carmack and crew. Please choose the option that's closest to your opinion or discuss other options in Comments!

You Really Need to Follow Tumugiuta's Flickr Feed

I mean seriously, we're talking lady ninjas with blades of death:

Like I said last month, every one of her images seem like still shots from a classic anime feature you hope somebody would someday make. I particularly admire her use of vibrant color and innovative camera angles. At one point these images were created in Second Life, but Tumugiuta's since evolved them into something even more special.

Oh, you don't like lady ninjas? OK -- how about a lady riding a giant fish:

Ten Years Ago Today, Hamlet Au Was Born to Leave Hamlet Linden Behind

I was wandering around in virtual Casablanca late last night, when someone named "CuriousAboutSL" (yes) reminded me of an important milestone: My Hamlet Au avatar is exactly 10 years old today. (See screencap above.) Guess I forgot because I actually started using Second Life as a Linden Lab contractor in 2003. But the 10 year milestone seems more meaningful now, because 2006 is when the last hype wave of virtual worlds and virtual reality started, ebbed 2-3 years later, and started building back up again in 2013.

Anyway, transferring everything important (and/or transferable) from my old "Hamlet Linden" to my new account was kind of cool: