Maybe You Can Stop Reality From Being Real: Augmented, Artificial, and Virtual Reality
August 25, 2009 :: Joe LoongA philosopher once said, “You can’t stop reality from being real.” Actually, it was Flavor Flav, way before he embarked on his reality TV career (which I guess is an ironic twist, since there is nothing less real than reality TV). I’m not sure if it means something, or if it’s one of those statements that’s only superficially deep, but a couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet from CK Sample that’s also had me percolating on the nature of reality:
Is it just me or are most implementations of so-called “augmented reality” actually reality-augmented virtual spaces?
After thinking it over, I have to agree with CK’s premise. Here’s how I look at it:
In its purist, truest form, you get augmented reality when a person directly perceives the physical world, with additional information layered on top of it. The standard bearer for this is the heads-up display, projected on a transparent surface like a windshield, helmet visor, or eyepiece.
(An audio application of augmented reality might include getting fed information via an earpiece — an updated version of having a personal aide whispering in your ear to feed you the names of people).
This is an admittedly old-fashioned, human-centric viewpoint, and I may be splitting hairs, but I think that augmented reality crosses the line into virtual reality the moment the person isn’t directly perceiving the real world.
So the iPhone 3GS augmented reality subway map that set chins wagging last month is actually a VR application, because you’re not viewing the real world — you’re viewing a representation of the real world, with extra stuff added in, on the screen of your iPhone. And “reality” becomes just another component of the virtual representation of the virtual world you’re looking at.
I realize that this is venturing into philosophical territory, which I’m not really equipped for, other than to say it’s kind of a “this is not a pipe” moment.
What does this have to do with social media? Not too much at the moment: I’ll probably be doing some followups, since there are so many potential aspects and impacts of augmented reality onto social interaction. For now, I’ll just stick with my stump speech about our reliance, and then dependence, on the networked, distributed brain — the hive mind.
I’ll also throw in some moaning about the distressing trend where we expect real-world events to behave like TV. At live events, we find ourselves drawn to the live action on the Jumbotron instead of watching with our own eyes. Or worse, we’re watching the Jumbotron from behind the small screens of our digital cameras and video recorders, which is doubly perverse.
Like I said, I’m just queuing up some possible future topics. Maybe I’m too hung up on this reality thing. After all, when you look at it, the Internet isn’t “real.” But it’s real-ish — real enough to work, mostly. The same thing might be said for our technologically-enabled social interactions.
Anyway, if you can find anything here to comment on, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Comments are moderated and will appear shortly. See terms.
