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

[Yui Hirasawa]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2016 at 11:00:12AM +0100, Fabio Pesari wrote:
> 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.

Hardware also means that there will be firmware and drivers. And it's
not impossible that those could be subverted to show messages to the
subconscious mind.

> 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.

I'm not optimistic either. It's highly likely that the VR for free
software extremists will be just headmounted displays.

> 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.

It's not that people are ignoring them. There are just not enough
resources in the movement to fight for these causes.

> I personally come from an unpopular perspective in the tech community,
> as I am strongly against Virtual Reality in any shape or form.

We all come from an unpopular perspective.

> 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).

I don't see what would be so bad about doing horrible things to an
simulation. People do that all the time already, and not just to
simulations but also to other people controlling the other virtual
character. I would think that letting people act out their fantasies
virtually would make them less interested in doing it in real life as
long as the virtual reality is sufficiently realistic.