^CategoryVirtual Reality

Smart city dot point connect with gradient grid line, connection technology metaverse concept. Night city banner with big data.

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post

Author
News
Date
August 21, 2023

Categorized
Technology, Virtual Reality

Tagged
COSM 2023, Dan Mapes, data, Jay Richards, Technology, Verses technology}

Dan Mapes and the “Spatial Web”

_{Is this the next step of the evolving Internet?} _{News

August 21, 2023

2

Technology, Virtual Reality}

In an interview with philosopher Jay Richards, Dan Mapes, Founder of Verses Technologies, describes what he sees as the next step in the evolution of the Internet: the spatial web. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) “In a way you’re shrink-wrapping the world with data,” said Mapes in describing “digital twinning,” which seeks to compute 3-D spaces to an online world. “You want to be able to navigate to these places just like they were websites.” Mapes noted that users of the “spatial web” could also visit fantasy worlds like Hogwarts, not just real-life places like airports, city blocks, and work offices. He thinks it will have major implications in air travel, directing autonomous drones, etc. You can watch the full, Read More ›

Human hand shakes artificial intelligence robotic hand, concept of union between human being and artificial intelligence, Generative AI

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, BibleGPT, ChatGPT, Christianity Today, Consciousness, Internet addiction, Jacques Ellul on social media addiction, Large Language Models (LLMs), OpenAI, Philosophy, Read Schuchardt, Ryan Kemp, Technological society, Technology, The American Mind, The Hedgehog Review, tv, Wheaton College}

Artificial Intelligence: The Final Stage of Disembodiment?

_{The Internet invites a disembodied existence. Is AI the next step?} _{Peter Biles

August 19, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality}

Dr. Read Schuchardt, professor of communications at Wheaton College (IL), identifies five primary ways digital technology can erode our lives and relationships, or produce what he calls “vices of the virtual life”: Speaking of disembodiment, which he regards as perhaps the primary negative effect of virtual life, Schuchardt writes, On the phone, on the web, on the TV, you are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This creates a mind-body separation that both mimics death and parodies angels, eliminates the possibility of natural law, and allows you to become pure ‘information,’ simply wearing the corporate body as your own. -Read Schuchardt, Media, Journalism, and Communication, p. 56. I’ve found this to be true in my own experience; time online produces an inner Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality

Tagged
AI, Alien, Alien life, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Church, Consciousness, Extraterrestrials (ET), J.P. Moreland, Robert J. Marks, Science fiction, Sean McDowell, Sex, UAPs/UFOs, UFOs, William Lane Craig, Worship}

Of AI and Aliens: Two Philosophers Give Their Thoughts

_{These sound minds are great resources to draw from in the chaos of our times} _{Peter Biles

July 28, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality}

Just when you thought our cultural moment couldn’t get any more outlandish, here comes a congressional hearing in which several high-profile individuals claim U.S. intelligence is in possession of “non-human biologics,” a euphemism for “alien stuff.” In a recent YouTube interview, Sean McDowell of Biola University asked philosophers William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland what they thought of extraterrestrial life and its implications. Craig, a philosopher and theologian, said it would have no bearing on his belief in God’s existence, but emotionally, that it would be remarkably unsettling, and would amount to the greatest discovery in the human history. McDowell pivoted from aliens and addressed the question of artificial intelligence, which Moreland, who specializes in the philosophy of mind, was Read More ›

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post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 9, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
Androids, robotics, Sophia the Robot}

The Composite

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part IV.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 9, 2023

6

Virtual Reality}

This is the last in a series. Read Part I, Part II – “Moving PIxels“, and Part III -“Talking Boxes“. The greatest aspiration of artificial intelligence Frankensteins is stitching together all the sundry parts into a moving, talking, seeing, and interacting android. Today, this composite of technologies is most famously embodied in Sophia. This android from Hanson Robotics is an international “celebrity”, appearing on late night shows and on the exhibit floors of tech conferences. With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein On its marketing page, Sophia’s marketing department puts the following words in its mouth, as though it has a sense of self Read More ›

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post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 8, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
Alexa, Audrey, Cortana, Natural Language Processing, Siri, skeuomorphism, speech recognition software, speech synthesis, voice assistants}

Talking Boxes

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part III.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 8, 2023

4

Virtual Reality}

There will be synthesized versions of gravelly voices, deep baritones, fast talkers, low talkers, high talkers, yada, yada, yada. Amazon has added functions to enable Alexa to whisper, emphasize a word, or mimic local slang. But as our talking boxes run their routines, they understand nothing. Read More ›

Male mannequin covered with slices of a mirror on a black background

^{Type
post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 7, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
computer animation, digital art, gaming (and AI characters), personification, programming, seductive optics}

Moving Pixels

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part II.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 7, 2023

5

Virtual Reality}

Whatever emotions we bring to the movie or to the game ourselves, our digital allies and enemies breathe no breaths, make no sacrifices, feel no lonely deaths. Living, dying, or respawning, they are as dead as a dead pixel. Read More ›

mannequin body parts piled up in a carton box outdoor

^{Type
post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 6, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
appearances, Digital Assistants, hyperrealism, Portraiture, seductive optics, skeuomorphism, Sophia the Robot, Voice recognition software}

Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence

_{Appearance and reality in art and artificial intelligence} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 6, 2023

6

Virtual Reality}

Things are not always as they seem. Artificial intelligence is like that. Art may be visually indistinguishable from a man or woman, passing the art equivalent of a Turing Test, we know they're not in the least the same kind of thing as what they portray. Paint does not suffer. Stone does not breathe. Read More ›

introduction to the metaverse universe. Man wearing augmented reality glasses for future technology. transition to the virtual world.

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
January 25, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
apple, CEO, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, metaverse, Microsoft, Silicon Valley, social media, Technology, Virtual Reality (VR)}

More Bad News for the Metaverse

_{Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticism} _{Peter Biles

January 25, 2023

2

Virtual Reality}

Big tech companies across the spectrum, including Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, are scaling back on virtual reality research and development. The technological demands of the metaverse are more advanced than CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have anticipated, and employees are feeling the impact. Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers, cutting funding from the lab responsible for the production of its mixed-reality “HoloLens.” The army was originally in the works to use the Microsoft lens for aids in combat and training, but the technology has since been labeled as “dangerous and poorly designed.” Meta laid off 11,000 employees last November and continues to struggle to gain interest and traction for its ambitious metaverse project. A report from Insider notes that a combination Read More ›

Metaverse technology future concept. VR virtual digital reality cyber metaverse simulation Innovation connection global blockchain experiences network futuristic. 3d rendering.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 7, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Virtual Reality

Tagged
Audrey de Rancourt-Raymond, Bruce Willis deepfake, Deepcake, Deepfaked news, Maggie Harrison, Meta's Metaverse, Meta's Metaverse panned (2022), Metaverse as concept, Nadia Ismaili, Steven Levy, Twitter vs. Elon Musk}

How’s Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Doing These Days?

_{That’s been quite the flop — but the world of virtual reality and avatars is mainstreaming quite rapidly} _{News

October 7, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Virtual Reality}

Apple’s Tim Cook doesn’t think much of it, apparently. Billions of dollars later, lots of people don’t: As waves of critics pointed out, the design of this “immersive” world is astoundingly underwhelming. In the cursed screenshot, Zuck’s pasty, robotic avatar — the design of which is perhaps a half step above a Wii Mii — is pictured in front of a sparse, sad landscape upon which arbitrarily sized replicas of France’s Eiffel Tower and Spain’s Tibidabo Cathedral are uncomfortably plopped. Maggie Harrison, “Wave of criticism hits Zuckerberg’s Metaverse for looking like crap” at Futurism (August 17, 2021) It turns out, even employees who built it don’t use it. At Forbes, the Money columnist thinks the basic idea is the way Read More ›

Automotive Engineer Use Virtual Reality Headset for Virtual Electric Car 3D Model Design Analysis and Improvement. 3D Graphics Visualization Shows Fully Developed Vehicle Prototype Analysed Optimized

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
August 4, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy, Virtual Reality

Tagged
Adam Goad, Austin Egbert, Big Tech, Big Tech influence, Bitcoin (currency), Blockchain, censorship, Centralization, cloud, cryptocurrencies, decentralization, Edge computing, Ethereum, Facebook, Featured, Jack Dorsey on Web3, metaverse, Metaverse (living in metaverse), Robert J. Marks, Twitter, Virtual Reality, Web3}

Why Don’t Some Tech Moguls Like Web3, the New Internet?

_{Web3 is a decentralized, less controlled version of the internet, as George Gilder predicted in Life After Google} _{News

August 4, 2022

10

Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy, Virtual Reality}

In this week’s podcast, “Web3: The next generation of the internet” (August 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviews graduate student Adam Goad and Dr. Austin Egbert, both in computer engineering at Baylor University, on the coming decentralization of the internet. With developments like the ones they discuss looming, Big Tech may be seeing a waistline trim. This is the Part I of the first of the three discussions. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-198-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 A partial transcript and Additional Resources follow. Dr. Marks began by discussing all the services he gets from Google, confessing that he has not needed to go to a library in over two decades. But… Robert J. Marks: Now, is Google just being nice in giving me Read More ›