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Category: Me Myself&I
Lex says:
It just takes you to another world, and when you’re not in that world, you miss not being there… And then you kind of want to stay there forever cuz life’s… Shitty.
John answers by saying:
VR should be better inside the headset than outside; it’s the world as you want it.
While I understand his point of view, I dislike this take so much because it alleviates our accountability about life in the real world.
It makes it as if life was this static thing, that is shitty and can’t only be shitty, and that you’d better immerse yourself into a fictional 3D world rather than use your accountability, your presence to change the real world.
People will argue that you can do both, to which I’d answer that looking at our current metaverses —social media for the past ten years, the answer is no, we can’t do both at all: our brains will prioritize the version of our environment that is easier aka, the digital one (no accountability, baby!). And that’s when things (in the physical world) go wrong, unnoticed and unwanted.
John goes on examples:
There’s plenty of things that we just can’t do for everyone in the real world; everybody can’t have Richard Branson’s private island but everyone can get a private VR island.
John, it’s a fallacy to think owning things is the ultimate goal. It varies. Owning your toothbrush, sure. Your house, not that necessary. Your private island? Fuck no. No one needs that. Besides, everyone owning expensive shit knows that it’s stressful; therefore, why would you think a virtual version of that would be interesting? It’s not. It’s empty value. We’ve seen that countless of times since Second Life, Habbo Hotel or Roblox.
But the bigger argument to me, is Time. It’s the real currency here. If you spend 1,000 hours in VR and virtual worlds, it’s 1,000 hours you do not invest in the gravity-based world. It will backfire in a myriad of ways that we don’t know.
It is thanks to thousands of people waiting for hours and hours to vote in Georgia that we avoided some stuff, recently. All the close calls on polls and elections. Kansas showed up more than virtually and that was effective. Yeah.
It’s fair to say that the not so subtle rise of fascism and authoritarian stuff these days comes also from the fact that people are distracted in online worlds, 24/7. Twitter, fantasy football, Tinder, Elden Ring, whatever. The time invested there, is not invested over here.
One perfect example of weird disconnect between people and high tech, is housing. In terms of engineering, it’s a done deal! We know how to make the most efficient, clean and healthy housing possible, under every climates. But instead of having engineers and designers work out the details of scaling this up to the world to solve a real, worldwide issue, homelessness, engineers want us to go to freaking Mars or live in virtual worlds to spend virtual money.
No. I do not want that. Focus on the physical world and healthy human needs, please.
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Design points
Obviously a gorgeous house. What people don’t understand is how isolated you are living on top of a Hollywood hill. It’s crazy isolating because you have tiny winding roads where you have to drive carefully. That is, no one but those isolated home owners use them.
Oh, and the cold Californian wind is always blowing up there. Always.
You want to host a party and it’s a nightmare of logistics and going up and down those hills. I don’t know, man. The killer feature for a place like this would be an outstanding pantry, that would allow stocking many things for months.
The Stahl house which is the main inspiration here, has perfect dimensions for human beings. This one feels quite too big. It’s more of a resort than a home. Ostentatious, just a smidge.
This one is in Oregon. Floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding doors and clerestory windows never get old. However, what’s the deal with black accents, Batman-looking ass, Gotham City vibes in what could be such a warm house? I love my blackness and yours or whatever, but black frames in a house make it look like it’s a damn office. It’s SAD.
Why would you want to live in SAD all day long? Architecture influences how we are. I make all those black lines a pretty non-shiny cherry wood, replace the black furniture and this place becomes warmer than your pets napping around you. And now you’re not feeling superior, you are just content.
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Meanwhile with cov’-19
My boss and my sister, 10,000 miles away from each other, got covid-19 and it looks like the vibe these days is “yup still positive but I feel good, just tired! *coughs* I should be good soon though, probably tomorrow or next week I don’t know, I feel strange. *coughs* My throat hurts a bit. But I still have my smell! Just feverish, a bit. I’m okay!”
Sure. Please don’t listen to the CDC and stay cautious. Don’t get into the habit of not wearing a mask when we’re about to transition to fall/winter. You already know.
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Monkeypox
I’m driving more these days and traffic can be horrendous, and it’s exclusively because of technology.
People indeed can’t stop being on their devices while driving. I am not doing that, as I love to be in control of my vehicle and be aware of my surroundings, while I listen to music.
Congestion is one thing, but losing someone because of a text message or a TikTok video must be some special hell.
I vote for $5,000 fines and license’s suspension for 3 months. Traffic would get better, instantly.
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Tree >>
I’m always fascinated at how nature adapts to us, unbothered.
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BG
So Brittney Griner, a WNBA star is in jail for some hash oil bogus charges. Sentenced to 9 fucking years.
Roe vs. Wade has been overturned. For like, no reason.
This WNBA season is so great. I’ve seen some of the best position-less basketball I’ve ever seen. They play so hard.
The highest paid players make $200K. One dude on the Lakers is getting paid $47M for this new upcoming season, after getting paid $44M last year, absolutely not playing the best basketball ever.
I guess I’ll never understand why we treat half of the planet with such disdain. It needs to change though. It seems obvious and overdue.
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The PC always win
I know how it sounds -unethical but, I think at some point we will be able to play a Zelda game on Windows using PS5/XB gamepads, Wii Remotes and whatnot.
Interoperability is necessary in our climate changed world; we need to reuse and be smarter.
Thankfully with tech, it’s pretty easy. And for us consumers, the possibility to plug and play anything is a great deal compared to how silo’d things currently are.
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What I’ve learned living in America
is that no one likes to be stuck behind a Navigator. Not even Navigators.