The VR vs AR argument.
(What if I had just accidentally misspelled "argument" as "augment" – right?!!) I'm a bit of an amateur in this space, but working in VC, having friends in the space and reading too much Popular Science, Recode, etc, makes it somewhat unavoidable to not get a crash course. Like everyone else, Oculus/oculus gear, was my first true experience with VR. Though, I badly, badly wanted that Gameboy add-on thing when I was a kid. :( As most people will tell you, its truly an incredible experience and for some, can fundamentally change how they perceive what the future will look like. It is, somewhat obviously?, one of the most immersive experiences I've ever had with a computer. But I'm not sold. Maybe I'm old...but I find it to be an incredibly dystopian thing to have a future where complete immersion via computers – with your eyes and ears covered – is going to be the norm. Gross. Almost every new technology in human history is an augmentation, maybe more so an amendment, to our existing ability or to an existing tech. No pun intended, etc. My bet is pretty square on AR for three reasons. 1 - We have pretty great eyeballs, ears, and other senses...plus our real, tangible, physical world is what we evolved to experience...and that process took a long time. My bet is that a complete switch from that has more novel applications than it does pratical ones...for a very significant amount of time at least. 2 - A bit less profound, but none-the-less real: Apple and Ikea. Ikea is using Apple's soon to be released AR Kit to allow you to place pieces of their furniture in your home with incredible realism, see link. Again, this isn't profound to us long-term as a human species...but its the start of us using computers as a real-time "looking glass" to make our lives better. So, the whole point of this post: "Instead of staring at devices, we'll stare through them...I love that. Augmenting our already amazing real world." All while getting all sorts of incredible data in real-time, etc, etc, etc. 3 - VR glasses are corny looking.