David had another thought provoking lesson today that I really enjoyed. Half because the material was interesting but also because it was very interactive. A lot of the material provoked conversation and I always love discussing these things with my classmates. It’s really interesting to hear perspectives from people with AND without experience. I love to observe opinions about these topics and more specifically, how peoples experiences influenced them. A couple things that stood out to me from this lesson were:
- Thomas A. Furness – I love to research the founders of VR to learn about their original vision for VR. Every time I have done this I find that their original vision offers a refreshing look at what the software could be used for. From what I’ve found, a lot of them would be disappointed with the current state/focus of VR. Terrance Mckenna, an American ethnobotanist, even said in an interview about VR that “ The moment is now come to bring in the playwrights, the artists, the designers, the architects have already been involved, but people in the arts need both to be informed that this is going on and they have to bring their insights into this community. Otherwise, as one of the other speakers said tonight, we’re in danger of seeing it just turn into 3 dimensional computer games.” This interview took place in 1991 at Cyberthon. (I think so at least, it was actually quite hard to find this info)
- Mel Slater – I found this guy interesting because he has done a lot of extensive research into what actually makes VR work. I think some of his findings could be very important to keep in mind when I want to create something immersive
- McKayla the AI influencer – This was interesting because it made me wonder if there will be a point where there are AI OnlyFans accounts. Then of course I started wondering about AI pornstars. I wonder if the future will host services where you pay for a subscription that allows you to generate your own porn. This would open a real can of worms. I hope this doesn’t catch on.
- Proprioception (6th sense) – This was quite interesting and I don’t fully understand the concept yet. From what I took away from it, proprioception is the ability to know where your limbs are without actually seeing them. For instance, you know where your hands are when you are in complete darkness. I think it also ties into how you can navigate your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night as you are familiar with the space. David also mentioned a good point which is that it is easier to navigate your room when you are in complete darkness than when you are in virtual reality. I wonder if this is solely due to the fact that in VR you are distracted by visual things when in darkness you can focus completely. Not sure, either way it seems interesting to explore. I also think there is potential here to use it to my advantage when creating something immersive.