Is Oculus Rift the end of humanity as we know it?

First bit, wrong, second bit, definitely right, i'm hoping as soon as 2016 - A mean lean new Google Glass, wireless data link with mobile phone, phone ideally able to be used as input put through a pocket (Might involve some kinda l-circuit implant in an index finger for the intrepid in ye olden technology, i'd imagine there's something fancier less invasive as an option now)

I've been giving a lot of thought to AR lately, anticipating developing for it and it becoming absolutely intrinsic to modern society quickly - quick to baulk and do the ole 'people wear glasses? thats preposterous!' kneejerk but from today's ranting at loved ones, i considered simply being able to add information relating to other peoples considerations to your visual filters (i'd imagine these would be very small familiar icons) on a kind of council/medical institution level would mean being able to recognise and consider people with sight, hearing or other impairments and and anticipate their needs, this could easily extend to a host of information that would make the technology a great force for social responsibility - Furthermore while i'm deeply against publishing details of criminals such as sex offenders' addresses for public digestion as mistakes and sometimes brutal ones do happen, being able to be discretely informed (by filter, naturally) if you should be cautious in regard to someone via an official agency could avoid a great deal of crime, i'd hope to think that it could mean a really significant reduction sexual assault cases and even steer drunken revellers away from situations they aren't prepared for

Those are the plain common sense reasons AR could be invaluable and rather than isolate people, actually make them more considerate of each other in a public, social sense.

But that's all a bit serious isn't it? if you want the reason AR will without a shadow of a doubt be adopted en masse even before Google bring out the big guns and start reshaping reality - The OkCupid app is going to guarantee only the most hopeless of people will ever go without sex again and for the more intrepid the real world will become as possibility laden as second life could ever hope to be, cept it's actually there. Of course when some developments become refined and robust enough, things can be there and at the same time look entirely more in line with what you want them to look like, in which case Second Life style things would only pose as attractive because you cant die in that

VR itself, like as a medium for consuming information will only really take hold in the mainstream AFTER AR has taken the tech and the momentum into the easily digestible lifestyle must-have, VR then being the same hardware showing something that entirely doesn't exist until real life comes calling again

 

At least you can't make babies that way...

 

This can't be serious. You have to be in the deepest, most isolated basement if you are going to be doing something like that. I did laugh lol but seriously..... I hope this doesnt become a trend

 

Well it doesn't seem to be turning on John Romero - http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/07/doom-co-creator-john-romero-skeptical-of-virtual-reality-fad/

 

So we all have to do is give out free vr to the third world and rest will solve overpopulation. The reason the birth rates down is because of the social engineers and they have been rearranging society screwing it up, but I won't get into that.

 

Something will go wrong, it always does... as humans, we have a way of retreating to huts and reverting to a primitive state while we kind of work through things. Look at any country after a war, things take a while but they restart. Our brains are plastic, our bodies are resilient and adaptive. We're not machines that can learn, we're learning machines... everything about us constantly adapts. Psychologically, physiologically, emotionally.

What I fear is not smart computers, but exceptionally dumb people.

 

I think you're seeing the seeds of this sown already. We (US) are going into countries now and not wiping them out, but reorganizing them. Virtual/augmented reality is the cornerstone of global control and one-world governance.

 

I can discredit anything John Romero says with one word: Daikatana.

 

Yesterday's OMGWTFPANCAKES is tomorrow's ordinary.

 

Maybe you don't get how the internet has allowed people from different backgrounds to communicate and share ideas. Something that VR is only going to improve upon. Imagine engineers or just people in a Virtual space being able to discuss their problems, engineers could design solutions, doctors and nurses review patients from anywhere in the world.
But VR is just like every other technology that we have made, we can use it for good or evil. The technology itself is just a tool, it's how we use the tool that counts.

 

After watching Sword Art Online season 1.. i can believe that if you ever do find someone you like in a mmo or something then you could always have some time to be together. VR will never have the same effect you get when you are together with the person you love. As for brith rates, not everyone plays games and those who do know that they can't spend the whole day paying games have more important things to do like making babies. Games will always be here.. so will distractions, plague, "accidents", crime, life. So whatever happens, we are gonna have to adapt to it.