> Man riding a bicycle was twice as [efficient] as the condor - way off the end of list [compared to all other animals]. And what it really illustrated was mans ability as a toolmaker, to fashion a tool that can amplify an inherent ability that he has.
> That's exactly what we think we're doing here – we think we're basically fashioning a 21st century bicycle here, which can amplify an inherent intellectual ability that man has and really take care of a lot of drudgery to free people to do much more creative work.
My takeaway of this perspective really illuminates the value of augmented reality (AR) over virtual reality (VR). The escapism of VR is fine for entertainment, but amplifying our understanding of the real-time real world with AR is very exciting as a species.
I think VR will be much more important than AR in the long run. The technology isn't there yet, obviously, but in the long run. I think viewing VR as an escapism entertainment medium is far too close minded. Sufficiently advanced VR would be able to simulate your actual environment* and anything else AR could simulate.
There are also many more functional applications of VR than AR. Random examples to illustrate my point:
* Can train on the "real thing" instead of watching videos, doing exercises/drills, or reading books (e.g. military, pilots, surgeons, construction workers).
* You and your coworkers could all go to an "in office" meeting without being in the same hemisphere (i.e. it would look like you were all sitting in an office together)
* Students wouldn't have to sit through another boring lecture to learn, they could go there and watch it unfold for themselves (even if the lecture content takes place over a large period of time!)
*by this I mean within the scope and context of whatever you're doing and not that the VR simulation would be created perfectly down to the last atom
So much of our reasoning is abstract and removed from immediate physical reality, and VR alone may very well prove to be a powerful tool for understanding, reasoning, and conceptualizing these things. Even when I'm designing physical things there often isn't a real-world context to relate them to, yet. That is-- the jury is out on how much augmented reality is necessary to be "useful" versus immersion/"escapism".
And even seemingly escapist things can be great for increasing intuition or our strengths in reasoning about things... witness Kerbal Space Program or Poly Bridge.
I really like your argument concerning reasoning – especially considering how we can experiment with the "shadows" of four dimensional shapes in VR. Science, research, reasoning – all very likely to be revolutionized with VR.
But in daily life – always on – I believe AR will be as common as putting on shoes to protect our soft feet.
> That's exactly what we think we're doing here – we think we're basically fashioning a 21st century bicycle here, which can amplify an inherent intellectual ability that man has and really take care of a lot of drudgery to free people to do much more creative work.
My takeaway of this perspective really illuminates the value of augmented reality (AR) over virtual reality (VR). The escapism of VR is fine for entertainment, but amplifying our understanding of the real-time real world with AR is very exciting as a species.