I think the fundamental thing Metaverse / VR can do is replacing setup. The setup includes 3 parts: place, ppl, and tools. For me rehearsing stand-up comedy, VR can practically help me replacing my current setup at home (no audience, printed script and pen on the desk), with actual stage I will perform every Friday, with fake ppl looking at me (maybe someday they can do fake laugh. It won’t be too hard) , with a digital screen showing the script on the floor so that won’t distract me.
Is it a better setup replacement? In this case I believe so. Although it’s far from being perfect, but it’s not that far, except hardware, the missing piece on software part is roughly easy to build. And today it is already better than any setup I can build in my home.
And, because the setup is digital, where we are the god of ourselves, for “place”, a lot of extra things could be done easily. Like in real life, I always feel lazy to find way to count time for my performance, the VR app I use has it by default and I really really like it. I can record my digital rehearsal, with facial expression, and I can view the rehearsal, from the position of an actual audience on the seat. The volume of my voice could change based on distance so I can see if the last row can hear me clearly. And I can send some clips to my friend to get some feedback. In real life, yes it will be me instead of the awkward avatar, but setting things like camera up has so much friction. We mostly don’t have the luxury of having enough rooms for perfect setups of doing different things. We do have tools in physical world, but physics is the friction. Camera cannot fly in the air. Space is limited (and expensive in Bay Area!).
And for “people”, a lot of discussion around metaverse has already been there around “defying distance” but realistically to me in my case, it’s too far and not practical yet. Truth is, most of my friends dont have VR headset yet. And asking them to be online when I want to have them is just hard. It’s more like introducing friction in my case.
For “tools”, similar to “place”, physics introduces friction and VR has some chance to do better. It takes time. It takes human civilization centuries to iterate on the tool we use nowadays. It takes time for digital world to catch up. But there clearly are opportunities. Most people take notes digitally already.
I’m somehow excited about the future of VR. At least for me rehearsing stand-up comedy, it already provides a better setup and not far from providing an amazing one.
Next thing I wanna try is doing work in a nice “cafe”, ideally in my hometown Shanghai in a rainy day, with some ppl around me but not that distracting. Looks like I need a Oculus Pro?
