virtual reality

How cutting-edge fiction shapes our future

April 9, 2019 by JD Lasica Leave a Comment

For decades, fiction authors have built worlds for their books that, over time, become reality. H.G. Wells imagined inspired inventions from the laser to email. Jules Verne envisioned modern submarines, TV newscasts and lunar modules. Isaac Asimov predicted robotics and mobile computing. “Star Trek” conjured the holodeck and universal translators. I still get chills thinking of Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt.”

A novellette by Isaac Asimov appeared in the September 1950 edition of Weird Tales.

As the tech advances, engineers and technologists begin to build what seemed like science fiction fantasy only a few years or decades before. Today, teams at Amazon AWS and elsewhere are working on a sort of universal translator. And what is a holodeck but an advanced form of virtual reality?

Not all such fantasies pan out — we still don’t have Wells’ time machine or invisible man — but a funny thing is happening as the future rushes toward us ever faster: The mind-bending changes that new technologies imprint on society are no longer centuries or decades away. They’re right around the corner.

That means near-future fiction is no longer the province of just sci-fi authors. Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, has a lengthy Eve Dallas series of police procedurals set in the 2050s. Daniel Suarez has given us “Change Agent” and “Daemon.” Andy Weir’s “The Martian” is more science thriller than sci-fi. Matthew Mather gives us “CyberStorm” and “Polar Vortex” without tipping into straight-out sci-fi — it’s the realism that makes it all so scary. Even Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” hews to a credible futuristic landscape circa 2045.

Over at Forbes.com, technology columnist Giovanni Rodriguez has a smart new piece titled, How A Great Techno-Thriller Might Help Us Reshape The Future. In it, he holds up my new high-tech thriller, Catch and Kill, as an example of this new breed of suspense novel that warns of the dark side of emerging technology. [Read more…] about How cutting-edge fiction shapes our future

Virtual reality events usher in a new era

July 2, 2018 by JD Lasica 2 Comments

I’ve been a longtime fan of virtual events, dating back to the early 2000s when lots of us were attending speaker events in Linden Lab’s online world Second Life. I even devoted a chapter to the trippy intellectual property challenges posed by virtual worlds in my book Darknet.

Back then, you would teleport into the designated space (perhaps an open-air amphitheater) and move your avatar around, through keys or mouse clicks, and type out comments and questions for the speaker and fellow participants while your connection went up and down. High-speed Internet was still years away.

It was fun and cool but ultimately clunky and frustrating. Second Life still exists but mostly its best days are behind it.

Well, a decade and several technological epochs later, a new era is about to unfold, an era not of virtual worlds but virtual experiences propelled by virtual reality, augmented reality or a hybrid of the real and virtual worlds called mixed reality.

And a major player in this emerging space will be High Fidelity, which closed a $35 million funding round on Wednesday with the goal of bringing VR to a billion people worldwide. [Read more…] about Virtual reality events usher in a new era

A glimpse of the VR deluge ahead

May 17, 2017 by JD Lasica Leave a Comment

Outtakes from the VR Tuesday meetup in San Francisco

OK, you’ve heard about this virtual reality thing and know something big is coming down the road, but what is it, how big will it be and is it worth paying attention to?

Last night I wandered out to Shasta Ventures in South Park, the longtime epicenter of the tech revolution in San Francisco, for VR Tuesday #9, the ninth monthly gathering dedicated to unpacking the world of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and the digital 3D world. Founder Jacob Mullins, a partner at Shasta Ventures, brings in three entrepreneurs or developers every month to talk about the real-world, commercial applications of this stuff.

‘Fourth Transformation’ book review: Brace for impact

December 1, 2016 by JD Lasica Leave a Comment

A clear-eyed look at the mind-blowing changes in spatial computing dead ahead

Title: “The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence Change Everything”
Authors: Robert Scoble & Shel Israel
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: December 7, 2016 on Amazon

At the Launch Scale conference in San Francisco on Nov. 14, technologist-futurist Robert Scoble held forth for 20 minutes wearing a mixed reality headset, allowing him to interact with the attendees (startup founders, angels and techies) while projecting a presentation behind him. “Within two years,” he said at one point, “everybody in this room will be wearing a glass. And you might say ‘I’m never going to do that,’ but I’m telling you right now, you will.”

A few minutes later he insisted: “You all are going to have this in 12 months or less.” [Read more…] about ‘Fourth Transformation’ book review: Brace for impact

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