Is it okay to not have the ‘thing’?

XR is a technology that has caught the attention of utopians eager to usher in global change. Change to what, precisely? That’s a topic for a broader conversation. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume they are well intentioned. Being a technology that can tap into the imagination of human perception, and being technology that enables collective experiencing of that imagination, it is easy to see that XR is the tool of choice, among many, to use in re-imaging the future of many things to come.? Many also see the use of XR as a “space-saving” solution to burgeoning urban populations living in smaller parcels. They also see it as a replacement for travel–a means to do away with lost time ferrying to business meetings whilst reducing the burning of fuel. You can see that XR fits like a facet along other concepts such as smart cities, green solutions, remote work, etc. XR, for all its wonder is a managed illusion. Vision is a large portion of our total sensation. Visual stimulus is often processed by our more primal portions of our brains before it reaches the more refined and nuanced portions of our minds. So, don’t feel bad about flinching at things that shouldn’t startle you like memes ending in baseballs flying at you or spiders jumping–your brain is just looking out for you. The sensations from XR tap into these anatomical truths. Falling from a height in Boneworks still gives my stomach butterflies, even though my prefrontal cortex knows I’m merely standing blind in my guest bedroom.

I came across an excerpt from George Orwell’s lesser known works: The Road to Wigan Pier. I’ll admit I haven’t the heart to read it, as 1984 is just too prescient in our day. In this excerpt, Orwell posits that there is a cheapening of things as modernity progresses. I’ve seen this myself. Cadbury Eggs were much larger when I was a child–they’ve been shrinking every Easter! The term: “they don’t make them like they used to” rings true as I age. What does this have to do with XR? Fish and chips, I say. Please read a few paragraphs from The Road to Wigan Pier.

When I first was hooked on VR, it was the promise of more. My video games would not be constrained to a tiny CRT monitor, but all around me. There was a promise to move my body and not slowly melt into my desk chair. There was a promise to shrink the distances between my friends and family. There was also the potential to learn and know more–to cogitate at a higher bandwidth, as stepping into a third dimension would afford better understanding of difficult concepts or tangled data.? How are we doing in the XR industry on delivering on this potential? I have experienced examples where it has been delivered in full. I’d like to think my own work strives in that category. But, I’ve also been sold a lot of bread and circuses along the way.

First, virtual real estate. What I’ve seen so far is that it is a source of speculation, where the last one holding the hot potato gets stuck with the bill. Scale means nothing in VR, except for floating point origin errors. For most applications, you can simply add or subtract zeros. If anything is to be purchased, it would be the portal location--value in the user getting to you first. Beyond, the simulation is not required to be an extension of the reality you just left before stepping through the portal. To quote a Doctor Who, “It really is bigger on the inside.”

Creating webspaces for WebXR makes me appreciate reality more and being a sensing human more. I recall my last visit to the UK, feeling the texture of a church door that was two hundred years older than my country. You can have me wear the bleeding edge in haptic gloves, it will always be a lacking substitute to the reality of me experiencing that door, and remembering it as a moment in my life. What if the visceral experience I had is impossible for others to experience. Is the substitute enough? Will the fried cod sustain? I posit this question for discussion.

Second, NFT’s. ..I think there is quite a lot of well-trodden discussion on that. Something that was intended to help creators secure their intellectual property has devolved into sugary hype?for inconsequential digital wares and minefields for scams.?

Third is the work environment. While there are offerings that promise to revolutionize how many knowledge workers operate through their day, I see a loss in agency. Once upon a time, a lease was taken out on an office, and as soon as it would be populated, the process of slapping “proprietary” on goods and services began. All could be “stealth” behind the doors. But what about the relationship to the virtual service you are using for your virtual office? As someone who works on innovating XR technology, I can assure you I don’t want certain companies anywhere near a microphone in my office. But…look at the price of that Quest, or that Pico? Again, to hold the analogy, it’s cheaper than meat when all you have is three-pence! For the lower price, you invite surveillance by agreeing to ever changing terms and conditions. This can extend beyond the proprietary to the privately owned public spaces. While browsing through the mall, your avatar is sloughing off delicious data points to your host, reporting interest in products and also evaluating your behavior to be later stacked in a dystopian social credit score of pleasant purchasers.

Is not having the thing enough? Can we live full lives with simulated experiences and places and be fully human? As producers of XR products and services, are we enabling our customers to reach for the highest aim, or are we just taking their money as they flail with a plastic blindfold–merely selling managed illusions as cut-price chocolate?