T.E. Lawrence: So long as Americans play PokymonGo, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.
Venture capitalist Chris Dixon has a line I like.
"The next big thing will start out looking like a toy," he says. Welp, Pokémon Go looks like a toy. Hell, it is a toy. But it’s also the first widespread, massive use case for augmented reality — even though it’s operating on smartphones that aren’t designed for AR. So what’s going to happen as the hardware improves, the software improves, and the architects learn to use these more immersive environments to addict us more fully?Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 16, 2016 2:01 PMAbout a year ago, I tried the Oculus VR, and it blew my mind. I had thought we were a long way from inventing virtual reality. But as I stood in a flat, bare room, only to have the headset flicker on and convince my body and brain I was teetering on the edge of a skyscraper, I learned I was wrong. As I jumped back, I realized we’d already invented VR. Now we’re just perfecting it, making it cheaper, better, more addictive.
How far are we until your VR life is far more interesting, far more pleasurable, than your real life? Not that far, I bet. Maybe 10 years. How far are we until your walk to work is better with augmented reality than without it? Well, Pokémon Go suggests we’re already there. I’m not much for sci-fi dystopias — I don’t think the robots will kill us all — but the world of Ready Player One, in which the future has devolved (or evolved) into people escaping a grim existence by living inside their VR consoles, seems perfectly plausible to me.Pokémon Go isn’t a fad. It’s a beginning.
America has its hysterias. Some are harmless, some are brutally corrosive. It is my belief that the velocity of these are accelerating. Including the diminishing period between inception and monetization and politicalization. And intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic are watching and drawing their plans against us. We have a surfeit of people and not enough useful things for them to do. In ages past a surfeit was a prelude to famine and war. Now, there's food and housing for everyone, but there's no work. The response to come will be both traditional, and surprisingly original.
Posted by: John A. Fleming at July 16, 2016 4:53 PMMiranda...
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at July 16, 2016 5:12 PMHow long before some bad actor figures out how to lure the feckless with this?
My bet? Not long.
I think Kingsman was prescient It will not be long before internet is free, phones are free and all calls free.. Only cost is your personal liberty..
Posted by: Bill Henry at July 16, 2016 9:11 PM"The majority of the stupid is invincible, and will be with us always."
- Albert Einstein
Posted by: Rob De Witt at July 17, 2016 6:30 AMThat must be the first time running in years for some of those kids.
Posted by: Brett_McS at July 17, 2016 7:37 AMPokemon Go is a device for self-selected extinction.
Posted by: ahem at July 17, 2016 11:13 AMAnd yet, how many of them say “I just don’t have time to go to the gym”.
Posted by: tim at July 18, 2016 7:17 AMThis is going to be great for us old timers as well. Watching all the virtual reality addicts walk into walls and off cliffs may be the next next big thing.
Posted by: f1guyus at July 18, 2016 7:58 AMHey, they got time to go to the gym! The Poke-gym!
Posted by: blake at July 18, 2016 9:35 AM
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