Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Virtual Reality and user freedom

[Fabio Pesari]

On 03/03/2016 10:25 AM, Yui Hirasawa wrote:
> It's another category of hardware if anything. I hope it won't be as
> proprietary and closed down as the smartphone market is currently.

Hardware is not really the issue, in my opinion. The Oculus Rift, for
example, is a relatively simple device. A smartphone can be based on a
free hardware design but it won't matter if most users run the Facebook
app on it (as is the case), and the same applies to VR peripherals. The
problem is what is shown to users, and that's software.

I am not optimistic about freedom in VR because all the popular services
today are centralized and controlled by for-profit corporations, and
that didn't change when decentralized free replacement were developed.

Also, self-driving cars, the internet of things and powerful artificial
intelligence are all proprietary, so there are bigger concerns than VR
everybody is ignoring.

I personally come from an unpopular perspective in the tech community,
as I am strongly against Virtual Reality in any shape or form. There are
simply too negative aspects for it to be ever acceptable in my view,
regardless of its legitimate uses (like assisting surgeons), but I don't
expect many people here to share my concerns because most of them are
moral in nature (for example, I think letting a serial killer or rapist
live out their fantasies in the virtual world is still wrong, even if it
would only involve AI-controlled characters).