The Holo-World: Coming Soon to a Society Near You

Hello again dear readers,

While I spent last week's post dwelling a bit in the past and its effects on the present day I would like to take this week's post to look ahead a bit into the future.

Specifically, I want to take a closer look at the whole Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality trend that has been gaining traction in the past few years. Due to advances in the technology and a lot of hard work in development the science fiction vision of the future where everyone is interacting with holograms and stuff will soon be upon us.

So what does it all mean? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Basically, it means the '90s are coming back in a big way. You see back in the 1990s people who were into computers and technology imagined the near future to look increasingly like Star Trek as time wore on. They envisioned people putting on special visors to see and interact with a digital reality that was overlaid onto actual reality, or stepping into a special chamber to completely immerse themselves into a highly detailed virtual reality.

They knew that the computer manufacturers would continue to be able to fit more and more transistors onto a single silicon chip and that the economics would shake out to this leading to faster and faster computer processing power at lower and lower prices.

Which is what has happened. Though we may be approaching the physical limit to how many transistors we can fit onto a single chip the number is actually right now in the billions which means a smartphone has more computing power in it than the entire world during the height of the space race.

That's right. The Greatest Generation and their children were putting people on the moon using only a fraction of the computing power we use today to play Candy Crush Saga. And they did most of it using a thing called a slide rule, no computer required.

Well now scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and engineers at Microsoft have developed technology that allows for people to explore distant planets without having to leave Earth. It was part of a new product unveiled by Microsoft during their latest Windows 10 announcement. It's called HoloLens and it's basically a Star Trek type visor you wear on your face and use it to interact with a digital reality that is overlaid onto actual reality.

HoloLens is basically a visor with a camera on it that maps out your real world surroundings and uses software that projects highly detailed holograms into your field of vision. You can then reach out into the space in front of you and interact with them using hand gestures.

Microsoft markets HoloLens as a device you can use to play Minecraft on your coffee table (and indeed, all over your living room/house), do AutoCAD type design work that pops up on your desk next to your computer, or guide another HoloLens user through some technical task like repairing the plumbing under a sink. And while that stuff is all well and good it's the applications towards space exploration that is the most exciting.

Because with HoloLens organizations like NASA can use satellite imagery to create a detailed map of the Martian landscape and then use the device to guide remote-controlled robots to explore and do experiments. It's a lot cheaper and safer than sending humans, though that apparently is still the long term goal. But it's apparent that technology like this can do a lot of the necessary groundwork of, say, setting up a habitable Martian colony well before the first Martian astronauts need to start suiting up for their voyage.

And of course they're going to need something to do to relax when they get to Mars and get all set up. Which is where the next big thing comes in, Virtual Reality. Right now the big name in VR is the Oculus Rift although there are other companies doing the same thing. The Oculus Rift is bascially a big headset thing that sits over your face. It has two screens, one for each eye, that project the viewer into a fully immersive 3D space.

Right now Oculus Rift is still in its early phases but you can get a developer kit if you want and use it to play (some) video games. I can't imagine a better use of GTA V's new first person mode that got added into the game upon release on the latest consoles and PC. But the real story with Oculus Rift is of course those applications that extend beyond gaming. The medical field is already making good use of the tech and new ideas and applications are springing up all the time.

However since this is a gaming blog I'll stick to just talking about how these new technologies impact video games. When I was a little boy a video game was a thing you played on a computer or on a television via a special box you hooked up to your T.V. To the little boys and girls of the future a video game will be a thing you interact with via your computer, your television, your phone and/or tablet as well as the very environment around you.

It will be a thing you choose to engage in by degree depending on how deep or shallow you prefer the experience to be. You will be able to do it the "old fashioned" way by pushing buttons and analog sticks on a handheld controller while watching a screen. Or you will be able to do it the more modern way by donning your visor and projecting the game's holographic interfaces onto the world around you. If you prefer a more detailed experience you will be able to don a special headset, or maybe even enter a special chamber, where you will be fully immersed in the world the game provides for you.

Your connection to the "merely" real world will be as strong or as tenuous as you want, and if you so choose you can even abandon it entirely in favor of the virtual. If you think that video games and technology today overly contribute to people isolating and alienating themselves from one another then just wait. It will be even worse for you in the future.

I used to be an evangelist for technology until I realized just how intertwined it was with the world of state and corporate surveillance. I still use the internet, though I am much mindful of my online activity, and I still play video games. They will always be my drug of choice, but I am these days a lot more leery of the latest and greatest trend in technology because I realize that the future is merely an extension of the present.

In an age where hackers can break into any application and steal anyone's personal data it's no surprise to see outdated technology like the early-00s flip phones coming back in style among the famous and privacy-conscious. When anyone can spend 20 minutes on Google learning how to remote-access to a webcam without turning on the indicator light can you really blame people who feel uncomfortable using devices with built-in cameras that are always pointed right at them?

Microsoft's Xbox One features Kinect, a 3D camera that literally watches you playing video games and watching T.V. It's not a requirement to use an Xbox One but the same camera is in fact a requirement if you want to use something like HoloLens, because it needs to be able to see your surroundings to know where to put all the holograms.

Technically it's all a moot point anyway. If you've been using modern communications technology of the last 20 years, like Windows, the Internet and the iPhone, you've already consensually signed away the rights to all your personal data to the companies that provide you with those services. They sell your information to advertisers and give it to Big Brother when he comes asking and all we can do is trust that it's not being misused.

Or try to forgo the use of those services completely. I mean, if you didn't want to be tracked you wouldn't keep clicking "yes" on all those user agreements, right?

Surveillance is a much bigger question than just video games though. But video games are just as much a part of the ever-encroaching surveillance apparatus as anything else. My behavior when I'm playing a game on Steam or on my PlayStation 3 is still be tracked and logged automatically, adding to the digital trail of my online habits.

And behind all this activity the central question emerges, which is: Who has access to all my data? The companies? The government? Anyone? I don't know which is a more frightening notion: that there exists some company or agency that has access to all of my data or that it's all just out there floating around with everyone else's data just waiting to get snatched up by whoever has the motive and opportunity.

Regarding the the most recent hack on Sony I think Bruce Schier summed up the privacy angle best:

"The worst invasion of privacy from the Sony hack didn't happen to the executives or the stars; it happened to the blameless random employees who were just using their company's email system. Because of that, they've had their most personal conversations -- gossip, medical conditions, love lives -- exposed. The press may not have divulged this information, but their friends and relatives peeked at it. Hundreds of personal tragedies must be unfolding right now."

 Techno-evangelists are hyping up something called The Internet of Everything, which is basically the set of trends that have resulted in more and more of the devices we use in our day-to-day lives being hooked up to the internet for whatever reason. We have "smart homes" now where your utilities are hooked up to the internet and there are designs right now for "smart clothing", fabrics that have computer chips weaved right into them that will also be connected.

How are we supposed to get on board with this notion if there's no guarantee of network security? Major companies like Sony can't secure their own networks and thanks to Edward Snowden we know that NSA and their friends intentionally weaken network security for everyone to make it easier for them to spy on us. So this Grand Vision of the future in which everything is connected and online doesn't sound so hot now, does it?

All that aside, I still want to play holographic Minecraft in my living room. I just wish I didn't have to enter into some Faustian deal-with-the-devil to do it.

Thanks for reading.