Earlier, Asgardian “The Fabulous Pineapple” asked a great question regarding my push for Virtual Reality. One of the things that I like most about Asgardia is that we have people that are willing to question things and to think logically and to look to the future of our nation.
I wanted to share my answer to this question with you all as it’s relates to a fundamental thing that I want to achieve that I think will have a huge benefit to Asgardia.
The question he asked was:
I like what you have to say, but how much will you rely on virtual reality? I think that virtual reality has immense benefits for every area of society, but a headset and a competent rig can cost $1600. In a few years, virtual reality might be affordable.
It sounds like you intend to create a virtual universe similar to the Oasis in Ready Player One. As cool as I find this, is this a realistic goal? Setting up a government in real life is hard enough, but the use of computers adds the challenges of glitches and poor code. In addition to this, a project similar to what you've proposed would be unrealistically expensive. Taking into account the aforementioned issues, how do you plan on building a virtual society, and when?
My big question is, when will this happen? If this is a long-term goal and you're not 100% committed yet, then I don't expect anything more than a confirmation that this an idea that is still in its early stages.
I love the VR idea, but I don't see it being realistic for at least another decade. That being said, you've still got my vote.
My answer:
Hello Fabulous Pineapple – this is a Fabulous question, allow me to break it down a little and give it my full attention. I’ll apologize in advance for the wall of text, but I just love a good discussion!
The Cost of VR.
Virtual Reality hardware is expensive, but it’s getting cheaper all the time. Many modern smartphones are VR compliant and you can get 60-fps 101-degree experience for $100. I fully see the cost of VR coming down as time goes on. In fact, China is creating a ‘VR Town’ called ‘Guizhou’ located in mid-western China.
A town dedicated to the production and development of VR will help to see the cost go down even further.
The Oasis
Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ is an incredibly well-written journey into a future with Virtual Reality at its core and like many science-fiction books that came before it makes plausible predictions based on what’s happening in the world.
I don’t have any personal plans to make ‘the oasis’ from ready player one, but I do believe that’s where the world is headed. Virtual Realities that exist on block-chain technologies and with the right conditions, Asgardia could be alongside them.
Is it a Realistic Goal?
Asgardia has ambitions for the future. We’re constantly working towards something that many people say isn’t realistic. To launch a satellite. To create an orbital network. To create orbital habitats and to have a space-fleet that defends the planet from outer-space threats.
Asgardia is about the future and it’s about investing in the future – there are technologies out
right now
such as AltSpaces that allow people to come together and socialize and collaborate in a virtual space and I don’t think that creating our own ‘virtual world’ is at all unrealistic.
Will it be expensive
Creating a good virtual world where we can go, train, learn, socialize, model things in virtual labs, watch a movie together will definitely not be cheap. It will take time, development, investment and it will require funds to maintain it, run the servers and provide some level of support to the ‘users’.
However; it’s a small price to pay compared to launching a rocket into space or buying up a piece of land and developing it into a society that will house hundreds of thousands of people.
In addition to that, it has the potential to
make
money through virtual tourism. If people would be able to use our servers and visit ‘virtual’ Asgardia or buy virtual art-work or come here to play our virtual games or see what life would be like in a future Asgardia or train at our virtual universities… we could actually generate income for our nation.
Computers add challenges.
Computers add challenges, but they solve many more challenges than they add. We wouldn’t be able to be having this conversation without a computer. Our Government and our nation are Digital – Adding a virtual layer on top of that will actually
help
.
A virtual world would help us to collaborate, it would help us to come together as a nation, it would help the parliament to work together and discuss issues, it would give us a place for people to come together and work together, a place to learn and a place to train by undertaking various simulations.
Train drivers use virtual Reality. Surgeons use virtual reality. Air-traffic controllers use virtual reality. Tank drivers use virtual reality.
I feel that as the technology develops, it’ll become increasingly valuable to our digital nation to become a virtual nation.
Is this a long-term goal?
I can’t make Virtual Reality a reality on my own. I can only push the agenda. It’s something that I’m personally committed to and something that I study. I know what’s coming for Virtual Reality and I know that it will benefit Asgardia.
I agree with your assessment, I think that VR will probably take another decade to fully mature – but I’d rather that Asgardia starts adopting and investing in the technology now and helping to develop it and guide it than picks it up in 10 years’ time.
Asgardia needs to make choices now about what it invests in. Asgardia and its citizens have the chance to be at the forefront of many future technologies. Asgardia could become one of the top nations for a space-related industry, science, and access. It could become one of the eminent authorities in space-law.
And, if people embrace VR, we could also become an authority in virtual reality technologies – something that shares huge synergies with a decentralised nation and really embraces the culture of Asgardia – No borders, a place where everyone can live, a place where people from all over the world can come together to achieve common goals.
What’s my plan?
I appreciate that VR won’t happen overnight and my initial goal is to show people the benefits of Virtual Reality.
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I aim to create a ‘proof of concept’ called ‘Asgard Island’ which will be a multi-user virtual-reality island where people can visit and hang out with their friends, chat, explore the island and watch movies together. This proof of concept will be built for smartphones that are Daydream / gearVR compatible. I expect that this proof of concept will be completed this time next year.
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I aim to produce research and commission studies into Virtual Reality so that I can show their benefits. I don’t expect people to accept what I’m saying based on blind faith, I want to show people that it’s viable. These studies and research papers will be done throughout the year.
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I will seek support from the ministry and from other MP’s to allow resources to be allocated to the use of and development of virtual reality. I can’t provide any time-scales on this because parliament isn’t formed yet and I don’t fully know what the processes will be.
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I will aim to employ Asgardians with the requisite skills to begin to develop Virtual Reality solutions to come of our common problems. If all goes well, I will begin putting together a plan for this in roughly 2 years and seeing what funding is available for this project.
Once we start to create VR solutions to common problems, if they prove to be a success, then we can further review the development of a VR world for Asgardians.
We need to start thinking about the future and what niches we want to be in as a nation, and my answer for that is VR for all the reasons that I have outlined.
My first priority, however, is the establishment of our Government, Parliament and the formation of our legal systems, financial systems, business systems and immediate citizen needs.
I am currently running for Parliament for District 1, if you would like to support my campaign and help me turn Asgardia from a collection of ideas into a reality, please visit my campaign page:
https://asgardia.space/en/elections/candidates/English/17737/
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