What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Plutarch
Step Back Technology
I remember when the Compact Disc came out and we consumers could listen to music that was Studio Quality. It was quite the technological break-through and I was very pleased. We went from vinyl to tape to disc and the disc was amazing. Baby, you’ve got to go digital; that is what we were told.
However, soon after the CD came Compression and we took all of that high end quality and squished it. And everyone was okay with that! Personally, I was amazed that having arrived at the best that everyone was quite alright with less.
I also remember trying iTunes and it automatically went through my entire, carefully saved, high end music burns and compressed everything to be their format. I was so angry at iTunes.
Somehow it is in human nature maybe to accept less than the best. I see it everywhere. We arrived at high end HD wide-screen televisions and are content to watch a movie on our phone. Or stuttering streaming. Egads, microwave food; doesn’t anyone know what a good plate of home-made mac and cheese is like? You’d realize quickly how we accept less than best quite all of the time with mac and cheese.
Badly written 3D movies, need I say more?
Maybe we are suckers. High tech salesmen sell us on the latest and greatest “something” and the world rushes out to get the best. And then, we are all content to step back and accept less for the majority of our encounters.
So…
Virtual Reality is on the horizon for we every-day consumers. It has arrived with a big truck-load of hype. Me, I’m uncomfortable with the title itself, virtual reality. It is the new thing and there will be a big push to sell us “the best”.
But, I don’t want to wear goggles.
We gather information from the world through our senses. About 90% of all the information is through our eyes. I’d be interested in some kind of experience with me at it’s center for about two minutes. I don’t know how there will be a step back from VR, but it is sure to come and we, as a planet, will accept less very easily.
Maybe it is about the experience. We don’t care so much about the quality of the music as we do the melody. We don’t care so much about the CGI as we do the story. We don’t care so much about the taste as we do the salt and fat. That someone is trying to sell it as “experience technology” takes a lot of gall and yet, we are sure to be gullible.
When I’m being sold on Virtual Reality, I don’t care about the technology: what reality is being sold to me? That will be my question.
Still, I don’t want to wear goggles.
Coffee Cakes and Crits 