Virtual Reality affects how we see ourselves and others. What if you had a tail? What if you were homeless? Researchers have something to say about it.
Sep 29, 2023·edited Sep 29, 2023Liked by Mark R DeLong
Mark, thanks for sharing that study on VR and homelessness and for linking to my piece from the other week as well. It's interesting to think of how these types of immersive experiences might be used to help us get more in touch with what it means to be more deeply human. For as many instances as there are for this type of technology to go wrong, there are also potential upsides.
Your newsletter also reminded me of this podcast conversation between Zuck and Lex Fridman that Lex released earlier this week. They did the whole interview in "the metaverse" using avatars. Got lots of thoughts but not sure they're cohesive yet... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYrJJNdrEg
I'll have to take a look at the podcast. The homelessness study is interesting for several reasons to me. It actually does a basic comparison of the empathetic impacts of VR and different kinds of texts, too. Many in the humanities see reading fiction, and particular novels, as a way of fostering human understanding and empathy. The Stanford homelessness study suggests that text is inferior to the written word, at least in the context that they set up.
It's true that VR could be horrifically abused. Since it's a medium, I guess, trying to guide its use is downright paradoxical, too. Societies do build norms, but they tend to emerge from messes, it seems. There will be messes with XR.
Today I began putting together my opening comments for the panel on Thursday. I think it might form my Friday post, edging out a planned book review. But that can wait. The panelists have each taken quite inventive approaches in using VR/AR for instruction, one using pretty much whatever she's found adaptable. I think the big hurdel is making VR/AR sensible in a particular context, and education has a whole bunch of contexts to navigate and make use of. I'm looking forward to Thursday's panel, though it feels kinda seat-of-the-pants right now. I guess that's the spirit of a good panel, in the end. Too scripted -- they bore the socks off people; too spontaneous -- they often never take flight. I think we've got the mix right....
Mark, thanks for sharing that study on VR and homelessness and for linking to my piece from the other week as well. It's interesting to think of how these types of immersive experiences might be used to help us get more in touch with what it means to be more deeply human. For as many instances as there are for this type of technology to go wrong, there are also potential upsides.
Your newsletter also reminded me of this podcast conversation between Zuck and Lex Fridman that Lex released earlier this week. They did the whole interview in "the metaverse" using avatars. Got lots of thoughts but not sure they're cohesive yet... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYrJJNdrEg
I'll have to take a look at the podcast. The homelessness study is interesting for several reasons to me. It actually does a basic comparison of the empathetic impacts of VR and different kinds of texts, too. Many in the humanities see reading fiction, and particular novels, as a way of fostering human understanding and empathy. The Stanford homelessness study suggests that text is inferior to the written word, at least in the context that they set up.
It's true that VR could be horrifically abused. Since it's a medium, I guess, trying to guide its use is downright paradoxical, too. Societies do build norms, but they tend to emerge from messes, it seems. There will be messes with XR.
One thing that the Duke panel lacks is a representative who has worked with (dabbled?) into the social uses of VR. There's a later post ("Billion-dollar Babies"; https://technocomplex.substack.com/p/billion-dollar-baby) that considers a VR movie -- feature length, too. We Met In Virtual Reality is the title. There's at least one charter school (in Florida ... more or less) that has attempted to use social VR as a virtual school. Article in The New Yorker a couple weeks ago: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/virtual-reality-school-as-the-ultimate-school-choice.
Interesting article in the New Yorker. Will take a look at that too. Thanks for sharing!
I'm expecting lots of interesting (and potentially ill-considered) ed-tech applications of AI and VR coming soon...
Today I began putting together my opening comments for the panel on Thursday. I think it might form my Friday post, edging out a planned book review. But that can wait. The panelists have each taken quite inventive approaches in using VR/AR for instruction, one using pretty much whatever she's found adaptable. I think the big hurdel is making VR/AR sensible in a particular context, and education has a whole bunch of contexts to navigate and make use of. I'm looking forward to Thursday's panel, though it feels kinda seat-of-the-pants right now. I guess that's the spirit of a good panel, in the end. Too scripted -- they bore the socks off people; too spontaneous -- they often never take flight. I think we've got the mix right....