Hacker News Reader

Comment by farias0 | Hacker News Reader

The same was said about "classic" social networks (like Facebook and Instagram) when they first appeared. What happened is that they didn't replace IRL interactions -- instead, they invented new ways of interacting, new social dynamics. Why can't this be the case for VR? To be neither real-life nor classic social media, but something else entirely.

View on HN

the difference is that VR requires you to literally isolate yourself.

instagram, facebook, text messages, phone calls. you can do all of those things and share them with real people in real life. you cannot do so with VR. it's literally and inherently isolating.

just the other day I was at a restaurant and a group of people were typically all on their phones while waiting for their food. eventually one of them found something amusing and put their phone on the table propped up by a salt dispenser and they watched some video together.

that's the difference.

Sure, this is something you can do with smartphones, but people used Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, etc. before this was a thing. In other words, the fact that they can show their memes around the table isn't the reason they use this apps.

we'll have to agree to disagree. I think people being able to enjoy things together in-person is exactly the point.

Multiple people will be able to use vr in the same room and see what each other are doing/join in. They will also be able to see each other's IRL bodies through depth cameras or camera reconstructions, and dynamically replace the hmd in the depth capture with face and eye capture data. Video of the eyes/face can be passed through to people outside with parallax/Pepper's Ghost making it look lined up close to their real face.

If you're not physically together, which you aren't for the majority of the time, you're isolated anyways.

The solution, of course, is to give our virtual avatars virtual smartphones that they carry around in their virtual pocket, running virtual versions of Insta, FB, their text message apps, and even their calling app. You could do all of those things from within VR, no more isolated than before. Arguably less isolated, in fact.

Does the waitstaff at the restaurant have to be in VR too?

I think you spelled "AI Agents by DoorDash" incorrectly.

In what way is socializing with others in VR "isolated"? Real people interacting in social VR applications with other real people are not isolated. In fact, I would argue that they're less isolated than people who can't interact with humans from all over the world, and are only exposed to the same group day in and day out. P.S. are blind and deaf people "isolated" in ways you think make them unable to enjoy social interaction? That's a very narrow approach.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com