Modern human interaction
Life waits for no man
We all know what is going on right now on this beautiful planet of ours. An enemy we have not yet seen is here to change the way we live, change the way we think, and change the way we treat each other. While we are seeing societies all around the world fighting vehemently against an enemy that is here to force itself on all of us, one cannot but think that this could be an introductory point to a new way of living. Not just hanging around, not just doing business — living, with all of its perks and downfalls.
For a while now, we humans have acted as if we were untouchable. We live longer, think better, jump higher, drive faster, consume easier. We say this not to pass the judgment — after all, this is one of our major evolutionary feats. However, it would seem that the same race that enabled us to thrive also made us move apart from each other. Therefore we have a situation where there is more than seven billion of us — and we still feel alone.
In the same time, technology is not catching up anymore — it is leaping forward, opening possibilities we did not dream of having just 20 years ago. Not so long ago, technological advancements opened some doors into the future. Today, we can choose which door we will open, and we are nowhere near done. It is up to us to handle and tackle what we find behind those doors.
Let’s take the extended reality (XR) industry for example. After all, this is the newest technology we have available to get to know each other, irrelevant to our location. Being a new discipline, XR is currently experiencing the same evolutionary path as all new, groundbreaking technologies did. After producing the initial excitement, the things came to a little stagnation, as the industry was still trying to find itself. Shortly after, the industry is going good with more and more fields of human activities getting covered, and the industry professionals getting bolder and bolder every day.
However, a vast number of these projects still fall under the gaming/entertainment and business umbrella. Here in “Delta Reality”, we do not only believe we will need to transcend this notion — it will be necessary, and not only for the industry.
Going back to us humans feeling untouchable — every time something rattles our cage and makes us rethink our lives, we feel unease and anxiety spreading through the society like a forest fire. A tiny thing can collapse the whole society. Maybe it is time to rethink our societies, and how (will) we go about our lives differently.
VR and AR can be of tremendous help here.
Schools can be closed — but VR can take you to the classroom, wherever you are, while enabling you to try concepts as opposed to just learning them by heart. AR can make your periodic table come alive with specifics on each element and can make Pablo Neruda recite his sonnets just for you.
Stores can be closed — you can still try on new clothes or place your wanted furniture into an apartment without buying it. In no time, you will be able not only to inspect, but to create and order. Eye blinks will soon become new mouse clicks. AR can make you scavenge hunt for clues about the store dropping new Jeezy’s tonight from the comfort of your home.
Museums can close — we can still experience the culture in a way that no web solution could offer it. For most of Earth’s population, Louvre Museum can be very, very far away — and not only in a geographical sense. Nowadays, we have the means to create solutions that will bring Louvre to your room. We can make Leonardo da Vinci a tenant in your smartphone. We can enable you, your friends and Leonardo da Vinci to do an art or engineering project together.
Concerts can be postponed or forgone — we can still enjoy the Paul McCartney concert while sharing the moment with friends and absolute strangers. We can make live shows happen right in front of you when you scan the marker or come to a certain location.
Collaboration can cease in its current form — if you cannot travel, it is harder to cooperate, as we still like that human touch. Sure, we can stick to sending emails and doing things by phone, but VR can help here by enabling instant meetups in a way that is engaging, immersive and purpose driven. In addition, go and check how many unread emails you have in your inbox.
In short — isolatory may be the name, but immersive engagement is the game.
Isolation is (among other meanings) a geolocation term. For centuries, isolation meant that you will be left to fend for yourself, without knowing if there is a better, easier and more practical way to go about life. Knowledge could remain hidden from you. Events could occur without you knowing it.
Coming back to the beginning of the story, a lot of humans feel alone even though most of us live not more than a few meters from another human being. This is where modern technology like VR comes in, changing paradigms about what it means to be isolated while enabling both unmatched information presentation and retention, with a strong flavour of collaboration.
In the end, there is a question to be asked.
Is it better to be among the crowd while feeling alone or to be isolated while being able to join any crowd, and concert, any movie, any experience-share experience? For now, this is a question of preference.
Seeing how fragile and susceptible to external elements our societies actually are, we need to be ready for the times where this will become the question of evolutionary necessity.
