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@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 37 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

The new asymmetric quantum safe algos are coming though.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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).

[–] dch82@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

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

[–] sxan@midwest.social 13 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days 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.

[–] Nighed 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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.

[–] Nighed 1 points 4 days ago

TY. I can give that a go then.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

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

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days 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.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 5 days 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@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Hopefully suicide 🤞🤞

[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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!

[–] FQQD@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 30 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Metaverse 2 - now with AI!

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But is it on the blockchain?

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

metaverse 3 will use ai 2 which is on the blockchain

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

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

[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days 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.

[–] dch82@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

Bring back Miiverse

[–] felykiosa@sh.itjust.works 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] felykiosa@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

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

[–] Matriks404@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days 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.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

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

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days 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

[–] owlboy@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days 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.

[–] 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago

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

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

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