Augmented Reality
Nov. 12th, 2021 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis article talks about the dangers of augmented reality.
Augmented reality and the metaverse have the potential to amplify these dangers to incomprehensible levels.
ROTFLMAO!!! There's nothing incomprehensible about it. Science fiction writers have been warning people about this for decades. The whole genre of cyberpunk relies a lot on the reality-distorting effects of technology, augmented reality, and virtual reality. Look at the Matrix. And whole novels have been written about the addictive qualities of virtual worlds.
At its core, augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse are media technologies that aim to present content in the most natural form possible — by seamlessly integrating simulated sights, sounds, and even feelings into our perception of the real world around us.
It's not seamless until they figure out brainjacking. Until then it's just fancy theatrics, which appeal to some people but not everyone. Also, brainjacking is extremely dangerous for both physical and psychological reasons. Neither of which are ... quite ... as well understood as people like to think.
Let me just drop a speck of chaos into their new world order. If a virus can destroy a human brain, imagine the amount of damage that a self-actualized mind could to a helpless virtual economy or government. Souls are stupendously powerful, creative things. And if you upload them by the millions, it's not actually going to take very long before you hit one who knows what to do with that power in that environment.
Hence why computer technology is one of the bottlenecks in Drake's equation.
In an augmented world, simply walking down the street will become a wild amalgamation of the physical and the virtual, merged so convincingly that the boundaries will disappear in our minds.
At the level of technology currently available or likely to develop in the next several decades, it's nothing like seamless. People might have a psychological tendency to conflate layers of reality, but hell, they do that already and always have. Fiction. Religion. Marketing. That sort of thing.
Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don’t actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us.
This happens already with fiction. And every new iteration has had people squalling about how dangerous it is. The early walking-into-manhole stories weren't about cellphones, they were about books. People think money is real, but it only exists because lots of folks behave as if it does. If enough of them stop, it disappears -- *poof* -- leaving behind only relics of paper or metal. Much of society is an ephemeral construct, which is also subject to sudden evaporation if people cease believing in it.
The same skills used to navigate previous layers of reality and egregores can be used to handle new ones.
Now, 30 years later, I am more convinced than ever that augmented reality will become central to all aspects of life, touching everything from how we work and play to how we communicate with each other.
Some factors to consider:
1) IF people choose to use it. They can also choose not to. Some people are already displeased with technology enough to reduce using it through such methods as digital detox, sustainable lifestyle, voluntary simplicity, minimalism, low-tech living, or going off the grid.
2) IF people can use it. A serious problem bedeviling AR and VR is a strong tendency to make XX people very queasy. That's a real product-killer. Don't be surprised if the mostly white-male-rich-straight-etc. pool of developers also fail to realize other population-based limitations until after release.
3) IF people can afford it. I think it's far less likely that AR will take over the world and more likely it will just exacerbate the current and growing wealth gap. There are only so many resources, and the world has a lot more important things to worry about due to climate change. I doubt that humanity has the capacity to make a technological change that major given the rapidly increasing economic burdens.
We find ourselves in a society where countless layers of technology exist between each of us and our daily lives, moderating our access to news and information, mediating our relationships with friends and family, filtering our impressions of products and services, and even influencing our acceptance of basic facts. We now live mediated lives, all of us depending more and more on the corporations that provide and maintain the intervening layers.
While the world has that option and many people use it, others don't. Even users don't use it to the same degree or in the same ways.
Remember the Amish rule: "Before adopting any new technology, first determine if it does more good than harm. If not, don't adopt it."
If you're unhappy with how social media, augmented reality, your politics or religion, etc. is making you feel then you can just drop it. Go outside. Nature will be there no matter what humanity tries to do in attempt to escape it.
Now imagine that third parties can inject their own content, possibly as a paid filter layer that only certain people can see. And they use that layer to tag individuals with bold flashing words like “Alcoholic” or “Immigrant” or “Atheist” or “Racist” or even less charged words like “Democrat” or “Republican.”
All this will do is increase the speed with which history repeats a lesson that zookeepers learned several decades ago: Lack of privacy is lethal. Organisms that have nowhere to escape prying eyes will experience greater stress, which impedes eating, mating, and eventually survival. That's why modern zoos provide hiding places for animals even though it's boring for visitors. We're already seeing society coming apart at the seams because people have built cultures and environments terrible at meeting human needs. AR is just a bigger example of a mistake people are already making. It's disturbing, but not really new.
And of course, you can break that tactic with a wide variety of tools, such as radical acceptance and universal love. It really pisses off the powermongers.
The metaverse could make reality disappear
No, it really can't. Weather, climate, crops, fires, earthquakes -- those are all real. You deal with them or you die.
And in fact, VR addiction can be a killer in advanced societies if people can jack in far enough that they forget to eat and drink, until they die. Evolution in action.
With the rise of AR, this last bastion of reliable reality could completely disappear. And when that happens, it will only exacerbate the social divisions that threaten us.
I don't think we're anywhere near the level of projective technology required to force AR on people who haven't purchased a connecting device.
After all, the shared experience we call “civilized society” is quickly eroding, largely because we each live in our own data bubble, everyone being fed custom news and information (and even lies) tailored to their own personal beliefs.
No shit. So you have to ask whether that crumbling monstrosity is in fact capable of supporting another major transition in technology or society. I'm dubious. It might. But there's a high risk it could just crash and burn in the attempt.
Consider the tragedy of homelessness. There will be those who choose not to see this problem for political reasons, their AR headsets generating virtual blinders, hiding soup kitchens and homeless shelters behind virtual walls, much like construction sites are hidden in today’s world. There will be others who choose not to see fertility clinics or gun stores or whatever else the prevailing political forces encourage them to “reality block.”
This makes a fabulous boon for muggers, rapists, and other violent criminals. People already have poor situational awareness due to headphones, cellphones, etc. AR with reality blocking would make magnificent opportunities. Just identify the most-blocked objects and use them to ambush people. You don't even need to hack a blinder onto your victims if they have willingly blinded themselves.
At the same time, consider the impact on the poorest members of society. If a family cannot afford AR hardware, they will live in a world where critical content is completely invisible to them. Talk about disenfranchisement.
Now consider that the poor always greatly outnumber the rich. Therefore, the number of people using AR will grow slowly, limited by its own expense.
You can’t ever leave the metaverse
And no, you won’t just take off your AR glasses or pop out your contacts to avoid these problems. Why not? Because faster than any of us can imagine, we will become thoroughly dependent on the virtual layers of information projected all around us. It will feel no more optional than internet access feels optional today.
Yes, you CAN. It has disadvantages, but you can choose to deal with those if the harm done by technology is worse. Don't think like an addict. You have choices. Use them. I have a desktop computer because it is useful to me. I don't have a tablet or a smartphone because they are useless and/or repugnant.
Computers and cellphones are popular in wealthy, connected areas. They are nowhere near universal. I'm 10 minutes from Amish territory. If I ever need a break from modern life, I can go up there. They certainly aren't going to buy into AR, they damn well know how dangerous technology can be.
Remember that whatever society humans make, they can remake or even unmake. It is only what you bring into it.
Augmented reality and the metaverse have the potential to amplify these dangers to incomprehensible levels.
ROTFLMAO!!! There's nothing incomprehensible about it. Science fiction writers have been warning people about this for decades. The whole genre of cyberpunk relies a lot on the reality-distorting effects of technology, augmented reality, and virtual reality. Look at the Matrix. And whole novels have been written about the addictive qualities of virtual worlds.
At its core, augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse are media technologies that aim to present content in the most natural form possible — by seamlessly integrating simulated sights, sounds, and even feelings into our perception of the real world around us.
It's not seamless until they figure out brainjacking. Until then it's just fancy theatrics, which appeal to some people but not everyone. Also, brainjacking is extremely dangerous for both physical and psychological reasons. Neither of which are ... quite ... as well understood as people like to think.
Let me just drop a speck of chaos into their new world order. If a virus can destroy a human brain, imagine the amount of damage that a self-actualized mind could to a helpless virtual economy or government. Souls are stupendously powerful, creative things. And if you upload them by the millions, it's not actually going to take very long before you hit one who knows what to do with that power in that environment.
Hence why computer technology is one of the bottlenecks in Drake's equation.
In an augmented world, simply walking down the street will become a wild amalgamation of the physical and the virtual, merged so convincingly that the boundaries will disappear in our minds.
At the level of technology currently available or likely to develop in the next several decades, it's nothing like seamless. People might have a psychological tendency to conflate layers of reality, but hell, they do that already and always have. Fiction. Religion. Marketing. That sort of thing.
Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don’t actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us.
This happens already with fiction. And every new iteration has had people squalling about how dangerous it is. The early walking-into-manhole stories weren't about cellphones, they were about books. People think money is real, but it only exists because lots of folks behave as if it does. If enough of them stop, it disappears -- *poof* -- leaving behind only relics of paper or metal. Much of society is an ephemeral construct, which is also subject to sudden evaporation if people cease believing in it.
The same skills used to navigate previous layers of reality and egregores can be used to handle new ones.
Now, 30 years later, I am more convinced than ever that augmented reality will become central to all aspects of life, touching everything from how we work and play to how we communicate with each other.
Some factors to consider:
1) IF people choose to use it. They can also choose not to. Some people are already displeased with technology enough to reduce using it through such methods as digital detox, sustainable lifestyle, voluntary simplicity, minimalism, low-tech living, or going off the grid.
2) IF people can use it. A serious problem bedeviling AR and VR is a strong tendency to make XX people very queasy. That's a real product-killer. Don't be surprised if the mostly white-male-rich-straight-etc. pool of developers also fail to realize other population-based limitations until after release.
3) IF people can afford it. I think it's far less likely that AR will take over the world and more likely it will just exacerbate the current and growing wealth gap. There are only so many resources, and the world has a lot more important things to worry about due to climate change. I doubt that humanity has the capacity to make a technological change that major given the rapidly increasing economic burdens.
We find ourselves in a society where countless layers of technology exist between each of us and our daily lives, moderating our access to news and information, mediating our relationships with friends and family, filtering our impressions of products and services, and even influencing our acceptance of basic facts. We now live mediated lives, all of us depending more and more on the corporations that provide and maintain the intervening layers.
While the world has that option and many people use it, others don't. Even users don't use it to the same degree or in the same ways.
Remember the Amish rule: "Before adopting any new technology, first determine if it does more good than harm. If not, don't adopt it."
If you're unhappy with how social media, augmented reality, your politics or religion, etc. is making you feel then you can just drop it. Go outside. Nature will be there no matter what humanity tries to do in attempt to escape it.
Now imagine that third parties can inject their own content, possibly as a paid filter layer that only certain people can see. And they use that layer to tag individuals with bold flashing words like “Alcoholic” or “Immigrant” or “Atheist” or “Racist” or even less charged words like “Democrat” or “Republican.”
All this will do is increase the speed with which history repeats a lesson that zookeepers learned several decades ago: Lack of privacy is lethal. Organisms that have nowhere to escape prying eyes will experience greater stress, which impedes eating, mating, and eventually survival. That's why modern zoos provide hiding places for animals even though it's boring for visitors. We're already seeing society coming apart at the seams because people have built cultures and environments terrible at meeting human needs. AR is just a bigger example of a mistake people are already making. It's disturbing, but not really new.
And of course, you can break that tactic with a wide variety of tools, such as radical acceptance and universal love. It really pisses off the powermongers.
The metaverse could make reality disappear
No, it really can't. Weather, climate, crops, fires, earthquakes -- those are all real. You deal with them or you die.
And in fact, VR addiction can be a killer in advanced societies if people can jack in far enough that they forget to eat and drink, until they die. Evolution in action.
With the rise of AR, this last bastion of reliable reality could completely disappear. And when that happens, it will only exacerbate the social divisions that threaten us.
I don't think we're anywhere near the level of projective technology required to force AR on people who haven't purchased a connecting device.
After all, the shared experience we call “civilized society” is quickly eroding, largely because we each live in our own data bubble, everyone being fed custom news and information (and even lies) tailored to their own personal beliefs.
No shit. So you have to ask whether that crumbling monstrosity is in fact capable of supporting another major transition in technology or society. I'm dubious. It might. But there's a high risk it could just crash and burn in the attempt.
Consider the tragedy of homelessness. There will be those who choose not to see this problem for political reasons, their AR headsets generating virtual blinders, hiding soup kitchens and homeless shelters behind virtual walls, much like construction sites are hidden in today’s world. There will be others who choose not to see fertility clinics or gun stores or whatever else the prevailing political forces encourage them to “reality block.”
This makes a fabulous boon for muggers, rapists, and other violent criminals. People already have poor situational awareness due to headphones, cellphones, etc. AR with reality blocking would make magnificent opportunities. Just identify the most-blocked objects and use them to ambush people. You don't even need to hack a blinder onto your victims if they have willingly blinded themselves.
At the same time, consider the impact on the poorest members of society. If a family cannot afford AR hardware, they will live in a world where critical content is completely invisible to them. Talk about disenfranchisement.
Now consider that the poor always greatly outnumber the rich. Therefore, the number of people using AR will grow slowly, limited by its own expense.
You can’t ever leave the metaverse
And no, you won’t just take off your AR glasses or pop out your contacts to avoid these problems. Why not? Because faster than any of us can imagine, we will become thoroughly dependent on the virtual layers of information projected all around us. It will feel no more optional than internet access feels optional today.
Yes, you CAN. It has disadvantages, but you can choose to deal with those if the harm done by technology is worse. Don't think like an addict. You have choices. Use them. I have a desktop computer because it is useful to me. I don't have a tablet or a smartphone because they are useless and/or repugnant.
Computers and cellphones are popular in wealthy, connected areas. They are nowhere near universal. I'm 10 minutes from Amish territory. If I ever need a break from modern life, I can go up there. They certainly aren't going to buy into AR, they damn well know how dangerous technology can be.
Remember that whatever society humans make, they can remake or even unmake. It is only what you bring into it.
Yes ...
Date: 2021-11-13 07:26 am (UTC)It's also highly useful to people who can't identify emotions easily.
The problem is, other people often object to facial recognition or computer analysis; it creates a ton of consent and privacy issues which modern culture is ignoring.
Another issue is that all that stuff is designed for white men, and consequently, makes embarrassing mistakes like identifying black people as monkeys. So the accuracy is bad. That will cause problems if people rely on it.
In general, some types of labeling would be useful. For instance, a store could project sales, a restaurant could project menus, etc. This would be maddening if unavoidable, but convenient if you could select it: "I'm hungry. Show me menus on this block."
>> While this would allow somewhat seamless AR, it would look pretty crappy and, more importantly, wouldn't line up perfectly with touch or proprioception and thus would be at least mildly disorienting, so I expect some people will use it for limited purposes, I doubt it will ever see widespread use.<<
Disorientation is already a problem, so I suspect that would just make it worse. Many people would find it unbearable to have text and images floating in the air everywhere.
So that creates an accessibility issue. Anyone with visual, mental, or other factors making them intolerant to AR visual clutter would either be forced out of public space or harmed by going there.
Also, I think normal people grossly underestimate how much damage they're taking from environmental hazards. Most of them are unhealthy, and they know that, but they don't know why. They don't connect it to the fact that they've built a society which is terrible at meeting human needs.