Palmer Luckey’s Mexican-American Virtual Reality Mentor “Dismayed” by His Support for Pro-Trump Group

Last weekend, virtual reality pioneer Nonny de la Peña posted a strongly-worded public statement saying how “dismayed” she was to learn that Palmer Luckey has been secretly supporting a pro-Trump advocacy group. This was not surprising, given that Nonny is Mexican-American and has personally experienced the kind of anti-Latina racism Trump regularly trades in. What is surprising but less well-known is this irony: Palmer Luckey may well owe some of his very success in VR to Nonny de la Peña.

Consider:

• Palmer Luckey was de la Peña’s intern at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, learning and honing much of his VR abilities under her guidance.
• Working with de la Peña in 2012, Palmer Luckey originally built what would become a prototype for the Oculus Rift (nearly a year before his famous Kickstarter) for her acclaimed “Hunger LA” VR experience at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Due to their history together, it's safe to say Nonny de la Peña will probably end up testifying in Zenimax’s lawsuit against Oculus VR, which asserts that Luckey “lacked the training, expertise, resources” to actually build the Rift prototype. Since Nonny de la Peña gave Palmer Luckey much of that very training, expertise, and resources, she is likely the very best witness to protect Palmer Luckey’s credit for creating the Rift.

I just got a chance to talk with Nonny (I’ve known her since she was developing VR projects in Second Life) and she tells me she stands by her Facebook statement. What’s more, she added, she’s hardly the only Latinx offended by the Luckey/Trump revelation:

Nonny de la Peña discussing her role at the start of Palmer Luckey’s career (2015)

Immediately after the Luckey/Trump news broke, she was inundated with questions by many other Latino and Latina members of the industry, who were worried about what this meant for their careers in VR. “There’s a lot of people that have pinged me, that’s all I can say,” she told me.

This matches what Buzzfeed has just reported, of minorities seriously reconsidering their commitment to VR, or at least Oculus’ platform. Because while some in the business say the question of Luckey’s Trump support simply falls in the “causes that matter to them” category, people who are actively being targeted by those causes may not agree.

Please share this post:

Tweet

 

Comments

[Bettina Tizzy]

This blows a massive hole in my admiration and willingness to spend $ on the Oculus Rift.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

@bettina: it didn't blow a hole for mine. What it DID do, however, was put one last nail in the coffin. Oculus' regression from its early promise into a more expensive, more useless, and less open standard is well-documented ever since its sale to Facebook.

I still have no plans to get into VR at any scale atm. But just as I rely on OpenGL to render most of my workload and Second Life (my modern games are sadly primarily DirectX) , I suspect whatever system I adopt inevitably will be one that embraces a negotiated surrender to OpenVR support in both directions of the interface.

What I really don't hope for, at this point, is a mass exodus of Latino developers from VR. There are other systems for VR that are developed or run by decent people who either believe in the same open minds VR should promise, or who are circumspect about their personal ethics and not letting them impact on their product. Every bit of diversity lost means potentially a less diverse content range for VR in the future.

Just my five ellz.

[Adeon Writer]

At 24 I was young and stupid.

I don't think being inasnely rich helps make a 24 year old not-stupid.

[Han Held]

There's stupid, and then there's financing groups which trade in racist propaganda.

From where I sit, there's a wide gulf between the two.

[Mehwish 691]

i think no one makes a 24 year old not stupid
m not agreed
what will u say about these
https://www.epikta.com

custom logo design,
los angeles logo design,
los angeles logo design company,
los angeles web design services,
mobile app design,

[melponeme_k]

Why the hell is it anyone's business what Luckey's political persuasions are or who he plans to vote for in the coming election?

I'm not a Luckey fan, especially after his Kickstarter shenanigans.

BUT this is a witch hunt deliberately set off by people with an agenda.

Are you their barking dog or what?

[jorq]

melponne must be 70 years old or something.

Only an old,white fart talks like that.

[melponeme_k]

@Jorq

I'm not old nor am I white. I just don't eat the propaganda that has taken hold in this country.

Read foreign news if you want to know what is truly going on. That people here side with ALIENS over a citizen of this country disgusts me. Disgusting.

To think that I would be the one to stand up for Palmer Luckey, amazes me. Only a few years ago, y'all kissed the ground he walked on and NOW. Palmer has done nothing wrong except use his citizen's right to freedom of speech and exercise his political choice.

[metacam oh]

he can do what he wants, and so can people by not buying his product. Reporting on what the guy has funded is not propaganda.

[melponeme_k]

@metacam

Yes, it is propaganda. It is direct attack on him for propaganda reasons. Free Trade, illegal aliens and H1B Visa bonanzas. Trump has indicated he would control all of this. Our elites make their money on it.

But why Luckey? Because he has money. Money is influence. And they won't stand for rich people who don't fall in with their team. So they will slander him. Bankrupt him. If he still won't be stopped, he'll be killed.

Everyone better wake up because Luckey is one of many canaries in the coal mine.

Why are you ok that this Nony character gets to slander? Hmmm? They call her a VR pioneer. BS. Immersive journalism. Where? In SL, the ONLY VR WORTH THE NAME? I never heard of her. Not once in the 10 years I've been in world. Only now, that she is trying to headhunt Luckey do I know who the hell she is.

[metacam oh]

sounds like you don't understand the words propaganda, and slander.

[melponeme_k]

@Metacam

No, you are the one displaying ignorance.

Nutty decided to slander and destroy Luckey Palmer like a Madame Maoist butt licker. And NO ONE QUESTIONS IT.

So are you okay with someone you know, calling your political opinions out on Facebook, youtube, twitter and getting a mob out for your head? It would be ok with you, that for supporting Trump (like Luckey), you would be fired from your job, bankrupted and slandered for just having a political opinion that someone like Nutty de la Nut doesn't like?

Wow. WOW. You are in a totalitarian culture and don't even know it. Apparently you take the self styled Nutty's word. Someone who is outright lying about being a VR pioneer. AGAIN WHERE? IN HER DREAMS? I've been in SL for 10 years. I researched all the pundits because the technology fascinated me. I followed Dusan Writer, this news site and many more bloggers. NEVER have I heard of Nutty. If she was anyone, I would have found her. Believe me.

Do a search on her name on this very site of her name compare to Dusan Writer. She has NOTHING before 2015. Hmmmmm. SL has been the only successful, still in existence, since it was established VR before 06. 2003 vs 2015. A VR Pioneer that never caught Hamlet's attention? COME ON. COME ON PEOPLE! THINK!

[Adeon Writer]

"Why the hell is it anyone's business what Luckey's political persuasions are or who he plans to vote for in the coming election?"

It absolutely is not.

Once it's public though, you are free to (and should) react/boycott/support accordingly.

[Han Held]

Is there some dispute or question that this guy poured thousands of dollars into sites that engaged in harassment campaigns?

Or are we saying that funding groups that specialize in creating racist/Islamophobic/etc propaganda is OK?

Can someone please catch me up to speed here? Thanks.