Virtual reality might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but it has been in use in various forms since the 1950s. Experts caution that virtual reality could be physically and emotionally debilitating. Readers will learn the hot-button issues associated with virtual reality and whether we should be excited or afraid of this incredible technology.
Here is a list of books you can read in order to better understand VR and AR.
1. Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality by Robert M. Geraci
“Drawing on interviews with roboticists and AI researchers and with devotees of the online game Second Life, among others, Geraci illuminates the ideas of such advocates of Apocalyptic AI as Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil. He reveals that the rhetoric of Apocalyptic AI is strikingly similar to that of the apocalyptic traditions of Judaism and Christianity. In both systems, the believer is trapped in a dualistic universe and expects a resolution in which he or she will be translated to a transcendent new world and live forever in a glorified new body.”
2. Augment’s Essential Guide to Augmented Reality by Dennis Williams
“This book by Augment, a venture-backed AR enterprise software, is written as an overview of what augmented reality truly is, how it works, and the way it will revolutionize business.”
3. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff
“Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.”
4. Communication in the Age of Virtual Reality edited by Frank Biocca and Mark R. Levy
“This volume addresses virtual reality (VR) — a tantalizing communication medium whose essence challenges our most deeply held notions of what communication is or can be. The editors have gathered an expert team of engineers, social scientists, and cultural theorists for the first extensive treatment of human communication in this exciting medium.”
5. Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolutionby David Ewalt
“A fascinating exploration of the history, development, and future of virtual reality, a technology with world-changing potential, written by award-winning journalist and author David Ewalt, stemming from his 2015 Forbes cover story about the Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey.”
6. Entering the Metaverse: A Guide to Joining the Virtual Reality Industry by Liv Erickson
“Entering the Metaverse provides a high-level view of what it looks like to work in VR in its new wave by providing an overview of designing, developing, and understanding today’s VR devices, the tools available to create experiences, and advice on building a portfolio and community around immersive technology.”
7.How We’ll Listen Next: The Future of Music From Streaming to Virtual Reality by Cortney Harding
“In this collection of essays, Cortney Harding asks the big questions about the future of music consumption. Will we one day do all our listening as part of immersive VR experiences? Will the streaming music model collapse under the weight of too many competitors? Why do so many music startups fail to gain traction, and what’s behind some of the biggest music startups flops in recent history? Going beyond reporting on current music tech events, this book seeks to figure how we’ll all listen five, ten, and even twenty years down the road.”
8. Imagining an AR Future: A Glimpse into the Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality by Jason N Garland
“There are a few highlights that come to mind when imagining an AR world. Apps will run in parallel in a layered landscape, as opposed to the one-app-at-a-time app landscape that we are used to now. AR participants will find themselves with a much bigger workspace, no longer confined to the small screen of a smartphone that must also fit in their pocket, or a computer screen that can display only a few windows at once.”
9. The Age of Virtual Reality by Thomas Hohstadt
“Through provoked discoveries, engaging artistic journeys, and creative dialogues with the “language” of virtual reality, this book explores both the pre-digital history of VR and its sobering-yet inspiring-future. Readers will learn to test, discern, and ground the “evidence” of their experience. In “The Age of Virtual Reality,” they will discover where we’re going by confronting where VR is going. More important, they will engage the skills necessary to participate constructively and creatively in an increasingly “virtual” world-a world that demands their participation.”
10. The Fourth Transformation by shel israel and Robert Scoble
“Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have written this book in the hope that it will serve as a business thinker’s guidebook to the near-term future. They hope readers will walk away understanding the massive changes rapidly arising, so that they will navigate a successful course through the changes they will be facing sooner than they — or their competitors — may realize just yet.”wrote about cybersex and the challenges it creates? Who worried about addiction to VR? Did anyone ever cure cyber-sickness? From 1991 to 1996, CyberEdge Journal covered these stories and hundreds more.”
Read the full list on vrroom.buzz
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