tough crowd
yeah maybe that was in poor taste. We tease because we 
you Kr.
I think it will be very difficult for people to accept a fully integrated VR experience because of how creepy it would be to surrender brain functions to a machine. In any case, this sort of technology would be quite far in the future. For the moment, humanity’s best engineers seem happy with thinking of new ways to shove ads in your face.
In the mean time, some form of subtle physical communication will surely atrophy as kids spend more time interacting digitally. Whether those traits are crucial or if they will become vestigial over time is undetermined.
It also occurs to me that by the time humans achieve VR that is indistinguishable from real life, we will probably also have AI that is indistinguishable from humans. In fact, the AI will probably be better at convincing you that it is a human, compared to actual humans (think of how Charlie Chaplin might lose a Charlie Chaplin impersonation competition). Furthermore, a perfect AI would be able to perform most intellectual human jobs functions. So, there will be no need to talk to any humans at all. In fact, maybe there will be no need for humans…
You really need to watch the Black Mirror episode San Junipero.
…I’ve heard good things about that show. Worth it?
Absolutely. Top 3 show on Netflix. Each episode stands on its own so you don’t have to watch them in order either. San Junipero is the least messed up of the all. It’s actually kind of sweet. The other ones are…awesomely discomforting.
Done. I’ll get started on it tonight. It’s just one season, right?
What are your other two?
Face to face is what I consider “personal” interaction. No virtual substitute will ever be the same.
What if I can feel the touch via VR? What if we don’t waste the energy and talent on reinventing the wheel? And rather direct it on making this world a little less violent? Or making lives of poor people from developing countries a little easier?
But this is not as scientifically exciting as VR, now is it?
It’s not reinventing the wheel… in fact, this would be the most significant change ever in human experience. In fact, in a world with “perfect” VR, those other problems you mentioned - poverty, hunger, resource limits, and others - will no longer be relevant to human existence.
Link was my go-to. Also the characters from Fire Emblem. Ike and Marth. Swords are cool.
It’s three seasons but they only have something like 3-6 episodes a season.
Hard to say what my other top shows on Netflix are. I mean, are we just talking about Netflix produced (or acquired) shows? Then probably Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, and House of Cards. If we open it up to all the shows available…just depends on my mood. I just finished rewatching all 7 seasons of Sons of Anarchy. That’s a good one. Lost, Archer, Breaking Bad, and a ton of others are all worthy of binge watching.
It is reinventing the wheel in a sense that human touch is already available experience! Why create a machine to stimulate your brain and artificially replicate that?? For fun? Cause it’s something complicated and will feel as a great achievement?
And to your second point, are we trying to solve world problems by isolating everyone?
look at the internet right now. Look at the interaction we are having on this forum. A group of people who probably would have never met except for in passing at a CFA exam or a chance work interaction perhaps. People are more interconnected intellectually than any time in human history we are just more and more isolated physically. Both come with positives and negatives. You could always go join an Amish or Mennonite colony if you dislike it.
By your rationale we would never advance unless it was in the name of social progress. Why don’t we still have black & white TVs? Do we really need color, HD, and 4k? More on topic, should we have stopped making video games after Nintendo knocked it out of the park in 1985? VR is just the next evolution but with applications way beyond gaming.
And just wait until what comes after VR. Actual neuro-stimulates. VR but you actually feel what’s going on. You - being a woman - could experience what it’s like to have sex as a man, for example. That’s the tamest example I could think of. But, essentially every sexual taboo becomes available. And that’s ultimately what VR is all about. It’s not about first person shooters or flight simulators. It’s about having sex without having to actually talk to anyone.
One could say the whole human experience is not real. Everything is just a bunch of electrons, and you have a brain that is configured to interpret arbitrary signals in different ways. If the source of your reality is a different arrangement of electrons that produces the same result, does that necessarily mean your life is less real?
You’re wrong that such an experience would isolate people. If you can communicate and share experiences with people with the same emotional depth and clarity though manufactured means, that would be an integrative, not isolating experience. In fact, differences that do isolate people, like race, age, distance, or time, might not be relevant in an AI world.
Buffalo said it well. I don’t think there is a bright line separating these modes of communications. I used to think so before forming friendships digitally that have similar characteristics to my old school friendships. The more I think about it, the less clear the difference is. Surely there is some difference, but as technology improves it seems this difference is fading.
Come on, no Stranger Things? Yea, I’ve obviously heard rave reviews on HoC, another one on my need-to-watch list.
I hear you. But all these interactions are secondary, and only in addition to the normal human relationships that we all (I hope) have in our real lives.
I am not proposing to go back to Amish or whatever, but migrating to strictly virtual interactions is quite scary. And that’s what I associate VR with.
But those can never be the same unless you meet in person! And that is why we have AF meet ups here too 
We are social creatures after all
Yeah man, where else would I meet and have regular conversations with sink peeing accountants in Texas. Truly my world has been opened to a whole new level.