VR is not an empathy machine. It is a rhetorical machine. As The Metaverse emerges, there are those who see this technology as means to enforce social change. I oppose this and maintain that VR is a powerful tool for individualism and self-expression. To mirror Dostoevsky, this is the ninth and final chapter in the first part of the blog. There has only been one take on The Metaverse on the web, and it lauds postmodern collectivism and techno-serfdom.
Read MoreAs I helped a friend with an interview, I learned first hand that The Metaverse must be what those who report on it demand it to be. My virtual reality differed much from theirs. It’s not just a new frontier for political agendas. For a moment it was a salon of creative world builders trying to transcend the pitfalls of the real.
Read MoreThe JanusVR team attended Oculus Connect in 2016 hoping to find some opportunity for the company as the coffers were running light. Instead, they got some unwelcomed news, and I watched it all from the comfort of my office.
Read MoreHave you ever heard of Glenn Curtiss? Otto Lilienthal? Probably not. But you have heard of the Wright Brothers. In this remembering of events, I discuss the beginning of the end of the hype machine that was the VR Renaissance. This was the moment that the utility of the tools and their potential weren’t a mark of success, it was their ability to sell their story and welcome broader audiences. The Metaverse slowly sunk from a haven of individualism to centralized control.
Read MoreThe Metaverse shouldn’t just be a mere digital copy of the real world with mediocre concepts like commerce and property. It can be so much more than selling shoes and watches. As with any other art form, it should convey our humanity to others and wrestle with concepts that aren’t easily communicated. In this post, I’d like to share how VR brought me close to someone I would have otherwise never understood.
Read MorePresence in the Metaverse was primarily detected by the puppet-like motions of a hand gliding a mouse on a surface that connected to an avatar’s head. The movements were dancing motions made by quick taps of the keys: W, A, S, and D. However, as consumer HMD’s became more prevalent, we began to feel the intimacy and shared experience that its telepresence brought.
Read MoreIf you want to get the Metaverse, you need a way to “jack in”. That old Z800 ain’t going to cut it. This is a story of the first time I tried an Oculus Rift prototype, and a comment on the state of the art of HMDs at the time with military simulation.
Read MoreThe networked video game Planetside was my release valve for a stressful job in the military. However, opportunities arose as the military decided to capitalize on this budding technology.
Read MoreA story of one of the first non-gaming moments I had in a digital world, a digital world that would come to shape my social life and my future career.
Read More
