Virtual Reality, Identity and Transcendence.

Our identities are formed through a feedback loop between our visceral sense of self and the reflecting chamber of the external world. There is an ongoing interplay between our projection of self to others and the affirming or contradictory stories others project back at us us.

Over the course of life, the flexible and fluid emergence of our human potential becomes increasingly constrained by an accumulating legacy of personal history. Both our own sense of self and the way we are perceived by others become more fixed and less amenable to change. Although it is certainly possible to recreate oneself at any point in life, it is not simply a matter of acting to modify one's own behavior. It is very difficult to develop and maintain a "new you" when friends, family and colleagues continue to respond to the "old you" they are used to. This is why people who leave their hometown to forge new lives can quickly fall into old patterns when they come home for the holidays.

Pseudonymous identity lets us temporarily step out of the mutually reinforcing feedback loops outlined above and transcend some of the psychological, cultural and interpersonal constraints. We don’t merely leave our hometown behind, but also escape the socially defined feedback and presumptions associated with physical form, nationality, economic status, etc., including those we have internalized.

The power to escape the legacy of the past is even more pronounced in avatar-based pseudonymous identity that is grounded in active participation in virtual worlds. It not only allows us to redefine ourselves, but also to create new feedback loops with those we meet through the new identity. For instance, I suspect that many virtual world artists and designers who are perceived to be very creative individuals within Second Life, lead very different offline lives and are not viewed primarily as “creatives” within their physical world social circles.

Just dabbling In virtual worlds doesn’t actualize the transformative potential of avatar identity. The mind-altering power of virtual worlds is not realized until both the virtual environment and those we meet within it become as psychologically real as physical world experience. Then it's possible to begin expressing new dimensions of human potential through the avatar persona. To complete the circle, the new attributes developed within the virtual world can then be integrated into offline life.

Currently, the creation of a deeply realized virtual world identity can take a lot of time to achieve. Especially for one's first breakthrough immersion experience. And even after crossing that psychological line, the perceptual reality of the virtual sphere and one’s virtual identity will fade without consistent reinvigoration.That’s why a transition from screen-based to VR mediated virtual world experience should have a profound impact on pseudonymous virtual identity.

VR-based experience that provides instantaneous and more fully realized immersion is bound intensify the identity-shifting potential of pseudonymous virtual identity. If VR eventually becomes the new standard interface for virtual world experience, the identity-morphing potential of virtual worlds and avatar identity should become more pronounced and more widespread. (Assuming we’re not going end up exclusively using wallet name identities with avatars that mimic our physical world form.)

From the time an early human figured out she could use a stick to dig up insects to eat, people have been extending their biology through technology. From the phonetic alphabet to the digital computer, each new medium radically transformed human psychology and culture. As Marshall McLuhan wrote, "We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.” If avatar embodiment in 3D virtual worlds eventually becomes as common and pervasive as today's use of cell phones and social networks, it will be fascinating to see how this bleeds over into wider culture.

Second Life Was Amazing

According to recent reports, Linden Lab is taking the bold step to escape the quagmire of a decade of technical debt by creating a new virtual world from scratch. Given the current management, I'm optimistic that they'll get it right. Although Linden Lab will continue to incrementally move Second Life forward for the time being, once the next generation of VR-fueled virtual worlds come to maturity Second Life will look as dated as the clips I used from Metropolis for this paleofuturistic music video last year.

Whispersync, VR and the Joy of Seamless Movement Between Mediums

I’ve been skeptical about VR breaking out of games and niche applications into mainstream use within daily business and social life. My main doubt is that the immersive nature of the paradigm resists the seamless contextual movement between mediums which is at the heart of our current use of technology. Although we may eventually be wearing contact lenses, wearables and implants that make VR the ground which subsumes other mediums and applications, that’s likely at least a decade or more away for most of us. Until then, I don't see many of us pulling on and off headsets and haptic controllers dozens of times per day, the way we now move between phones, tablets and laptops.

One application that recently took a leap ahead in the seamless movement between mediums is Amazon’s Kindle software. I’m a voracious lover of novels. Since I spend more than a dozen hours a week in my car, I end up listening to a lot of books on audio. Amazon has offered “Whispersync” for a few years, which allows you to keep the books you read in the Kindle app in sync with the audio books you listen to on their Audible app. So I can quit Kindle, launch Audible and pick up where I left off. Usually. If it synced properly.

Just this month, Amazon released a new version of their Kindle software that lets you move between text and audio within that single application. When reading text in the Kindle app, you click on the headphone icon in the lower left hand corner and the audio player launches, automatically playing right where you left off in the text. Although this seems like only a tiny difference between jumping between two apps, experientially it’s a significant usability improvement. It still makes me smile every time.

Although it costs more to purchase both text and audio versions, the audio version is usually significantly discounted if you’ve purchased the Kindle version. And since you can share both audio and Kindle books with multiple people, in my household, at least two and as many as four people share the same purchases.

The Future of my Dreams

The debate about the future of virtual reality mostly centers around questions of when and what. There's less talk about whether it's necessarily a good thing. Without some conscious practice promoting self-awareness, immersion is more likely to lead to deeper illusion than heightened awakening. I'm no Luddite. I believe that the advance of technology is as unstoppable as the laws of nature, (assuming we don't cause create sort of calamity that sends us back to the Stone Age.) But I would like to see as much attention paid to how new mediums can improve people's lives within physical reality, as how they will create a more encompassing and immersive virtual reality. Brawndo's got what plants crave, right?

An Approach to Identity and Privacy in the Transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3D

There are a wide range of questions that come to mind when imagining a transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3D. Identity management and privacy are two of the most important.

Just a simple scenario of shopping at a single site brings up a lot of alternative possibilities. For instance, when I’m shopping today on Amazon.com, other people browsing don’t know I’m there or what items I’m viewing. But if I’m shopping at an Amazon 3D virtual store, will I be visible to other shoppers as if I were walking through a mall in the physical world? Will they see what I’m browsing? Will my avatar be visible publicly, but my identity cloaked?  If my avatar isn’t generic, might it be recognizable or searchable even if my user name is hidden? Will I even see other people or will I be alone in the store? If I'm alone, doesn't that undermine the social aspect of the virtual environment experience?

Here’s one possible solution: What if there was an identity management feature that lets me represent myself differently in real-time to different groups of people. So if I’m walking around a 3D version of Amazon.com, strangers might see me as J.Doe1001 in a generic avatar, virtual world friends would see me as Botgirl Questi in her form, and my RL friends and family would see me my wallet name with an avatar matching my physical form.

What do you think?

Why The Imminent New Age of Immersive VR is Utter Bullshit

Forget the hype about the new age of immersive virtual reality. That’s the polar opposite of where we’re heading. We live in a time when expedience is the pre-eminent capability and accessibility trumps utility. We watch movies and play games on 5” phone screens instead of 50” televisions. We shoot photos with an 8 megapixel smartphone instead of the $1000 SLR gathering dust on our shelf. We hunt and peck text messages because we don’t want to give our undivided attention to a five minute phone call. And we’re starting to put on smart watches because it’s too much of a hassle to reach into our pocket and take out our smartphone.

That’s why I’m skeptical about the brave new 3D web that’s supposed to be launched by Facebook’s $2 Billion acquisition of Oculus. We’re not willing to pay attention to anything for more than five minutes without checking Twitter or Facebook, sending a text or taking a Selfie. When faced with technology options we choose the one that requires the least commitment to undivided attention, the fastest startup time and the lowest learning curve. That’s not VR. Not today. And not for the foreseeable future.

I’m confident that immersive VR will become the dominant domain for many of the millions of hard core immersive gamers and role players around the world. But until we can wear contact lenses that shift us seamlessly between RL, AR and VR, don’t hold your breath for mainstream use.

Towards a Transworld Future

Towards a Transworld future where we move freely between physical, augmented & virtual realities.

The one-two punch of Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus Rift and High Fidelity's $2.5 million in new funding made me rethink the post I was writing on the future of virtual worlds. A week ago I was skeptical about the odds of virtual worlds gaining mainstream traction in the near future. Today I'm feeling more optimistic. Not because I believe that new VR hardware will catapult existing virtual worlds beyond their current markets. But because the inevitable investment feeding frenzy will fund new hardware and software platforms that will extend the VR medium into social networking, shopping, entertainment and other mainstream activities.

Virtual reality is a natural extension of the second-screen phenomenon. Today, we watch news and television together in the shared psychological space of social networks. Tomorrow, we'll be watching together in the shared physical space of virtual reality. Today we shop online and imagine what our purchases will look like in our homes. Tomorrow, we'll preview 3D printable goods in our virtual homes and try new clothes on our avatars. These kinds of scenarios have the potential to make virtual reality a medium people use in the normal course of personal and business life.

I look forward to a transworld future where people move freely between physical, augmented and virtual realities, jumping between PCs, consoles, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, AR glasses and VR goggles. I'm not sure where proprietary virtual worlds will fit into the picture as the medium matures and begins to develop interoperable standards. As for Second Life, Linden Lab is going to have to get their act together to meet challenges from a plethora of well-funded competitors who aren't tied to a ten year old platform and the associated technical debt.