If you've watched Netflix's new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem (and you should, it's excellent!) based on the novel by Liu Cixin, you probably wondered about the amazing virtual world that's a key part of the story. Without spoiling anything, a mysterious alien species communicates with humanity through a multi-user virtual experience with seemingly sentient NPCs and a constantly changing world, conveyed in full sensory VR. (Watch a preview clip above.)
But when can us humans make something like that? I asked a number of top virtual world/VR experts, including Philip Rosedale, Raph Koster, VR pioneer Nonny de la Peña, and Sine Wave CTO Adam Frisby. Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think!
"I think we aren't too far from sentient beings in virtual worlds," Philip Rosedale tells me. "AIs that are very interesting to interact with and living in virtual worlds will happen very soon... next few years. We have a lot of compute coming available, and that is the only thing blocking."
However, he's skeptical we're close to full sensory VR technology:
"I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery."
And no, he doesn't think something like Elon Musk's Neuralink is necessarily a first step to that:
Why Tilt Five May Be a More Attractive Model of Spatial Computing Over Apple Vision Pro
Good points from Martin K. on my thought that Jeri Ellsworth's low-ish cost Tilt Five AR device could be a viable Spatial Computing competitor against Apple Vision Pro:
That's part of what I mean, but my core premise is that Apple's vision for the Vision Pro is fundamentally flawed: I think it's very unlikely many people actually always want to be in a Spatial Computing environment all the time, especially if it's just to interact with content that's fundamentally 2D. And instead, that more people will prefer only wearing an AR headset when they very specifically need/want to interact with 3D content. (Think design, prototyping, planning etc. in a shared 3D space, along with social gaming/chatting/etc.)
If that's right, then something like the Tilt Five will be more broadly appealing, especially at one-tenth the price -- and for a lightweight headset they're not expected to hear for eight-plus hours a day.
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 09:46 AM in Comment of the Week, New World Tech | Permalink | Comments (2)
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