this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] NONE_dc 56 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The current TechBro fetish, just like the Metaverse was, and the NFTs, and the Crypto.

When the bubble burst, which will be the next TechBro fetish?

[–] Vinny_93 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Quantum computing. It would have already been but it still has a very nerdy, no real-world application vibe.

[–] 9point6 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Well the real world application is breaking nearly all existing encryption.

Criminals and spies are going to have a field day once it becomes practical.

[–] Valmond 12 points 1 month ago

The new asymmetric quantum safe algos are coming though.

[–] partial_accumen 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

With classic cryptography being broken that also opens the need for quantum cryptography and commnications. China is a bit farther ahead of us on this launching their first satellite encorporating these concepts in 2020:

"The nation’s Micius satellite successfully established an ultrasecure link between two ground stations separated by more than 1,000 kilometers" source

China is launching a second newer generation satellite next year. source

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It only breaks asymmetric encryption like SSL and PGP. The strength of symmetric encryption, like you have with password protected files and drive volumes, is reduced somewhat but should still be more than sufficient.

And like the other commenter said, there are asymmetric algorithms that are quantum-safe, they just aren't in widespread use (though apparently just this year NIST announced a standard for lattice based cryptography).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I could swear we've been preparing for that day for a decade now

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Only, NFTs and Crypto are relatively accessible; anyone can get in on the game. The Metaverse is a monopoly.

The bubbles are still going, BTW. Bitcoin prices are currently higher than they have ever been, thanks to America re-electing the Fascist Orangutan.

[–] Valmond 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The Metaverse is the invention of Neal Stephenson in his book Snow Crash. He incidentally also invented the word cyber space IIRC.

It's cool, I want it. Not the crap that fuckberg tries to push on people like used bubblegum but the real thing.

A shame VR makes me vomit...

[–] Tarquinn2049 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

VR sickness is not a permanent thing. You can train it away. You can also just do stuff that doesn't cause it in the first place. But I recommend training it away, cuz some of the best VR content is the stuff that would cause VR sickness to people that still get it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Any advice on how? I would love to be able to play vr racing games etc

[–] Tarquinn2049 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It is the same thing as sea sickness and car sickness. But you have way more control over when you start and stop. So you can either go with dramamine or you can go with controlling the variables to train your brain that it doesn't need to protect you from "the poison berries". Motion sickness is caused by your eyes and inner-ears disagreeing with what is happening. Which for most of human history meant you were hallucinating from eating something poisonous and vomiting would be a good way to save your life.

But, the brain can be trained to lessen and even completely forego this response. If you immediately stop as soon as you have the first minor symptoms, usually warm face, and then wait an hour or so and go back in. You'll steadily increase the amount of time you can play before feeling symptoms. Your brain will subconsciously reinforce that it doesn't need to protect you, whatever is going on isn't life threatening. But the opposite is also true, if it keeps going far enough that you get most of the symptoms or even do vomit, it'll reinforce to your brain that it is indeed saving your life and the response will get faster and faster.

Dramamine can artificially slow down the response and buy you way more time to start with, which would make training it away even easier, and it's usually a very important part of training it away for sea sickness since you generally can't immediately stop being on a boat, and helpful for car sickness if you can't just have the car pull over for an hour when you feel it coming on.

There are also usually settings in most VR experiences to reduce how much they might trigger that response. For racing games, a "lock to horizon" option can really help. There will still be some milder triggers, but getting rid of that one can buy you a lot of time.. For other games, avoiding movement that isn't coming from your body in the real world pretty much eliminates VR sickness causes. But if the game really needs artificial movement, there are settings like vignetting and having more static graphic elements added to focus on during movement.

Eventually, with successful training, you won't need the comfort features. You'll be able to play any game for any amount of time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

TY. I can give that a go then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, yes. Of course you're right that "metaverse" predates Facebook. They've successfully co-opted it by now, though; Meta is what the average person thinks of when you say "metaverse." Stephenson's was also fictional, unless you're really generous and use "metaverse" as a synonym for "the internet."

[–] Valmond 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It wasn't a fictional internet, but a 3D VR world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In the books, yes. It didn't exist IRL, and a poorly as it was done, FB's metaverse was (is?) a real product.

Facebook/Meta has never had an original idea; I'm not trying to give them credit for anything. There were other VR "worlds" before FB's (Sony's, for example, which was also a failure).

I just found out that Steve Jackson Games actually owns the trademark to the name "Metaverse." I'll bet that drove Zuck nuts.

[–] Valmond 2 points 1 month ago

So you mean we have to make a FOSS one now :-) ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Metaverse is just a VR implementation, like Second Life or VRChat. My point is: In a broader sense it's not a monopoly; only if you are hellbent on wanting a feature only that implementation offers, you have no choice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Yah, you're right. Like I said, when you say "Metaverse" most people (on the street) are going to think of Meta's. I doubt most people in even developed countries even remember Sony's failed VR world.

Is there another networked VR world that is anywhere near as big as Meta's today? With nearly as many users (even with as much of a ghost town as it purportedly is)?

I think you were talking about a hypothetical metaverse, whereas I was thinking about the only one that I know that has any traction - tenuous though it may be - at all, which is Meta's.

[–] rayquetzalcoatl 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hopefully suicide 🤞🤞

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Metaverse 2 - now with AI!

[–] NOT_RICK 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But is it on the blockchain?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

metaverse 3 will use ai 2 which is on the blockchain

[–] spankmonkey 3 points 1 month ago

Can we jam some crypto and NFTs into that bad boy?

[–] spankmonkey 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't remember people talking about the metaverse except for mocking the legless mii inspired avatars.

There were a lot of ads pretending to be articles.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Bring back Miiverse

[–] rayquetzalcoatl 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My boss wasn't forcing me to use the metaverse to produce uninspired, low effort garbage to rip off my clients. You didn't have loser "metaverse artists" fannying about everywhere. Bring back the metaverse talk, as dumb as it was, please!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ai could have a lot of benefits. Just not in the hands of megacorps

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And not when it requires a crazy amount of resources to run.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

If its not in the hand of megacorps that implies that it s "lightweight"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I preferred metaverse talk. All of it was obviously useless nonsense that would never go anywhere. It could be safely ignored and laughed at. Simple times.

In contrast, not ALL of AI is useless nonsense. It takes more brain power to think about.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 8 points 1 month ago

We can have AI control our metaverse avatars so we can ignore them both.

[–] Matriks404 6 points 1 month ago

I don't know, I am both interested in AI and metaverse (and AR/VR in general), it's just I don't care what greedy corporations do with them.

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E 4 points 1 month ago

Ah, i miss metaverse-shilling posts on LinkedIn, praising the visionary, prophet, mastermind Zuckerberg, telling me I will have to attend meetings in VR set

please like and share

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

the meta verse is peak, just not from Facebook. looking forward to whatever comes after vrchat.

[–] owlboy 4 points 1 month ago

VRChat is still slowly growing in the background.

The metaverse that was the hype you despise isn’t the metaverse people in VRChat want. Mark really destroyed the term.

[–] ceenote 2 points 1 month ago

The meta verse was kinda fun to talk about, though. Because it was a train wreck.