[FRIAM] Augmented Reality

[Prof David West]

another, I think relevant/interesting science fiction reference: Neal Stephenson's *Snow Crash*.

Not  central to the novel, but central to scene settting for much of the action was a concept of a metaverse—a single streeet 32,000 miles long) where the superstructure/infrastructure was paid for, hosted on servers owned by a (world?) government; the structure maintained by a non-profit (ACM in the novel); Buildings and neighborhoods by corporations; rooms and suites by smaller businesses and affinity organizations; and smaller buildings/rooms by effectively any group or individual.

Always struck me as a not unreasonable approach to creating a metaverse, one free from the insidious and evil intent of some entyty like Meta.

davew


On Tue, Aug 23, 2022, at 7:41 AM, glen wrote:
> This is an interesting take on AR I hadn't really thought of:
>
> Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound 
> whiter
> https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/sanas-startup-creates-american-voice-17382771.php
>
> And a voice modifier from a different company here: https://koe.ai/recast/
>
> This post brings home the implications of such:
>
> Does the rise of the Metaverse mean the decline of cities?
> https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/agora/2022/08/rise-metaverse-mark-zuckerberg-decline-cities
>
> Do we want our "public spaces" (e.g. cities) to be owned by singular 
> corporations? Olympia (where I live) is already bad enough, mostly 
> renters, most of the downtown rental properties owned by a single 
> family. We're inching ever so slowly to Plato's Philosopher King, 
> except any benevolence of the King is a mere (and sporadic) side-effect 
> of the primary motive: profit. This seems, to me, strongly analogous to 
> the grifters who call pretending to be "Agent Bob Jones" or whatever 
> from the IRS trying to steal money from me in the form of Walmart gift 
> cards. I know several of my similarly aged peers who talk loudly and 
> often about their rental houses, usually, since I'm surrounded by 
> liberals now, bragging about how they keep the rent low and try to 
> provide a good place for the renters to live. This altruism-washing of 
> their rent-seeking behavior is way too similar to disguising an East 
> Indian voice to sound more white. Is it really any less dystopian if 
> you're the one on top?
>
> It's interesting that I don't mind the loss of possible 
> contact/engagement with some people because they rely solely on 
> Facebook (Instagram, Zoom, or whatever) for their networking. Most 
> breweries and music venues up here use Instagram as their primary 
> announcement forum. The result? I don't know about them. So I'm much 
> less likely to engage. That's fine. More time to think 
> <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35901414/>. I'm "this close" to 
> quitting LinkedIn, too:
>
> People Are Flooding LinkedIn With Strange Stories. We’re Calling Them 
> Broetry.
> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-posts-taking-over-your-linkedin-feed-because
>
> We really do need honest *public* spaces, even if you hate "socialism". 
> The internet is a public utility and should be treated that way. And 
> governments should devote some of our tax monies to 
> corporation-independent social network platforms. Mastodon would be 
> perfect for that.
>
> -- 
> ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ
>
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