
CategoryVirtual Reality


Will Apple’s Vision Pro Be the Next iPhone?
Or end up like Google Glass? With Vision Pro, in order to see anything, including the ordinary world around you, you have to use the multiple mounted cameras(This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog (February 5, 2024) and is reprinted with permission.) Back in June of 2023, Apple announced its Vision Pro, which the Wikipedia article about it calls a “mixed reality” headset. This week, in some parts of the world you can now buy your own Vision Pro—for $3,500. While this will not be an obstacle for wealthy early adopters, the rest of us will probably wait until the beta-version bugs are worked out and the price comes down. In the meantime, we can think about what this means for the future of humanity. That sounds either presumptuous or silly, but there is no question that Read More ›

Dan Mapes and the “Spatial Web”
Is this the next step of the evolving Internet?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 ›

Artificial Intelligence: The Final Stage of Disembodiment?
The Internet invites a disembodied existence. Is AI the next step?
Of AI and Aliens: Two Philosophers Give Their Thoughts
These sound minds are great resources to draw from in the chaos of our times
The Composite
Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part IV.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 ›

Talking Boxes
Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part III.
Moving Pixels
Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part II.
Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence
Appearance and reality in art and artificial intelligence
More Bad News for the Metaverse
Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticismBig 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 ›

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 rapidlyApple’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 ›

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 GoogleIn 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 ›