Are We Living In A Simulation Or Creating It Now?
This NASA illustration helped inspire some of our earliest thinking on layered spherical information and is taken from a 2011 Science Update sheet on the Voyager Spacecraft depicting past and future exploration methods. It has also been described as “a child in a 3D world unaware of other dimensions”
(sphere) has been intrigued by the concept of the multiverse, where infinite overlapping worlds exist simultaneously and in parallel. Our first (sphere) patent demonstrates how the opacity of one layer of visual information including our actual reality (where a camera system acts as the substitute for our eyes, described as Passthrough by Meta) could be adjusted to reveal another alternate reality or the blending of the two or the layering of augmented information on top of real reality. Precision optics, machine learning and computer vision converge to allow you to capture and explore other virtual worlds instantly through AR/VR/MR no matter where you are. If we are not already living in a simulation, we may be in the early stages of building it now.
Drawings from (sphere)’s first utility patent describe concentric spherical layers of information.
In the video below (circa ~2012), Ray Kurzweil describes the future of virtual reality and what to expect around 2022 (and beyond). His thoughts helped guide us to concentrate on areas where we could make the biggest impact, the immersive capture side. Kurzweil’s predictions on the level of realism in VR have proven to be fairly accurate even if the hardware is not quite there yet.
Ray Kurzweil Explores the Next Phase of Virtual Reality and AI. (credit: bigthink.com)
Research Supports an Immersive Future
Historically speaking, technology cycles tend to last around 10 years with each one leading to the next: mainframe computing in the 1960’s, Mini Computing in the 1970’s, personal computing in the 1980’s, internet computing in the 1990’s, mobile computing in the 2000’s, wearable computing in 2010’s. Our research led us to believe that next logical step was for users to step inside the interface and become an integral part of the experience itself by the 2020’s.
Our research in 2013 showed that mobile users were checking their phones on average 150 times per day (144 times/day in 2023) and a social media-fueled FOMO enabled by technology compelled mobile users “to document and share experiences in real-time…often sacrificing the opportunity to be in the moment itself.”
The old adage used to be “never use your real name on the internet” but that mindset has changed as our real identities have merged with our digital versions. Many say that digital privacy is a concern yet we often over share every minute detail of our lives online and actively forego privacy in favor of convenience, never reading the fine print of the user agreements as we download yet another app. As hard as you may try, anonymity is nearly impossible to maintain in the digital age, just ask some of the folks who are serving time after storming the capital on Jan 6.
The Super Star market phenomenon of the winner-take-all economy powered by advancing technology amplifies scalability allowing a smaller percentage of individuals and companies to take a disproportionate share of income, further separating the highest from the lowest income earners and eroding the middle class. We recommended that consumer product companies should focus on exclusivity with higher priced luxury items and experiences catered to higher income earners, that lower income earners would also aspire to have. Apple seems to be taking a page from this playbook with the cost of the Apple Vision Pro close to $3500USD and offering long-term payment plans.
Smartphone users continue to have their devices “glued to their faces” and advances in mobile technology (e.g., 5G, easily accessible Wi-Fi, battery tech) have vastly improved, making way for the more powerful untethered, hands-free computing necessary to support wearable spatial computing systems. When information that you once had to look at your smartphone or smart watch to see (time, weather, email notifications) migrates to a heads-up display, we think this could allow users to be more present in the actual world around us.
As we look ahead, we predict that smartphones and smart watches will be used as input devices in concert with glasses and goggles as the convenience of the information delivery will bring more social acceptance of headgear. The COVID pandemic made wearing face masks more socially acceptable (just imagine walking into a bank with a facemask on prior to 2020) and perhaps set the stage for products like head mounted computers. Reductions in overall air quality fueled by pollution, climate change, and new pathogens is an ongoing threat that when combined with omni-present facial recognition surveillance will lead to more acceptance of identity-obscuring facemasks to better protect us both physically and digitally.
This is the second part in a series of posts that document the history of (sphere). Next we will highlight the early physical prototyping that led to the invention of our patented optics technology.