"So we embraced the fundamental truth that sitting at a desk or standing in one position is not what human bodies were made for."

That's pretty cool, but I'd love to see more serious research to support this claim. There was a tendency for people to work standing up[0]. I, for example, when I need to do things fast I prefer to do the work standing up, but I end up getting very anxious, so I can not work that way for too long.

During meetings that use the Sprint process[1], not all people like to be seated, but this should be because everyone should participate in the whole process.

[0]http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/08/health/standing-desk-produ... [1]http://www.gv.com/sprint/

I think that the answer to the fundamental truth about what humans were made for is 'walking'.

Maybe, the office environment of the future is about hunting and recollecting business goals.

Or more precisely: having a physiology best suited to walk/run mode was an evolutionary advantage for most humans. Maybe we can tinker with our genome to produce a sit-mode optimized human in the future, if desired. For me personally, I would rather be able to hike all day, thank you.

5:26 "and we found that with any work we do in VR, we always end up on the floor at some point..."

Looked as if they were high on drugs on something... but then when bluetooth handsfree headsets first came out, I thought they were crazy people talking to themselves.

And look where bluetooth handsfree headsets are now.

The site seems slow, so here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7yLL5fJxT4

Really cool, exciting stuff that they seem to be doing! Also awesome that YC is funding this sort of stuff.

I know that it is somehow irrational but am I the only one actually scared by VR? It seems so good that I am afraid will decouple people from the real world.

As human specie are we sure that we will be able to manage it?

Are we sure that the negative effect will be couter balanced by the good one? What if we get hooked to VR?

What will be the meaning of "real"?

Along a similar path, there was a dystopian theory (story?) I came across that made a somewhat insightful reference to this in connection with the Fermi Paradox - what if advanced civilizations all "go digital" (or in to the "XR" space)? I could imagine future peoples not being bothered to physically explore if their new reality all existed in a virtual/holographic state. A self-imposed pod, The Matrix-style, for everyone. Man, I love sci-fi.

It's a common theme in the last decade of science fiction.

In "The Unincorporated Man" (set 300 years in the future) the VR technology interfaced directly with the brain, so it was indistinguishable from reality. That made it extremely addictive and had nearly destroyed human civilization.

But I don't think anything less immersive, even something like OASIS from "Ready Player One" would be dangerous, or would make us to not care about the "real" world.

> What will be the meaning of "real"?

Precisely the same as it is now.

IMO it will be the same as with weed fashion. There will be a large group of people seeing only benefits of it, lobbying it, swearing by it and not seeing a problem it might cause. And then there will be the rest.

The issue probably will be more social (sustaining people that are hooked in through social welfare) and rise in inequality.

In the video it sounds like they are against using the scientific method because they don't have a hypothesis. So my question is what goes into their publications and work featured in Nature?

You could have just clicked the link yourself http://www.nature.com/news/mathematicians-create-warped-worl...

Ah, so it's not like a published paper in Nature. It's news about research covered by nature.

oO looks like second life.

How do you get payed for doing this a year long?

"research"

The best for me would be to not stare at a screen(s) all day, with VR it will be even worse, like literally having a screen on your head all the time :-)

Wow, looks like a lot of interesting stuff for one year!

I especially liked the Venn Kitchen. Can't wait to try that out once I get me some VR gear.

Cool work. Do you have any ideas about letting multitask with VR?

This is cool. I wonder how one might get involved.

finally some vr ppl who aren't bros

I'm really curious why you would make the first comment here so negative if you don't really know what they're doing and don't have anything to add.

I wasn't trying to be negative. I am not talking about the technical side but about the philosophical. And there I do know what they are doing as they explained this themselves.

What stood out for me was this.

"We don’t think VR’s power is in simulating reality."

This literally flies in the phase of said reality, case in point flight simulation. Furthermore so many upcoming uses for remote controlling robots in space, large machinery in toxic places, the ability to help children with autism. I could go on. There are an extremely large amount of real value and real power in simulating reality exactly because it allow us to test hypotheses, train and remote control, furthermore any robot worth it's salt need to be able to simulate reality. In other words. The very basic premise IMO is flawed if they don't think the power is in that.

Anyway I certainly didn't want to claim they don't know how to do their research, just think that their premise is rather flawed if they really believe there is no power in simulating reality.

Simulation is useful in itself, but what does that have to do with VR?

vr simulating reality i.e flight simulator. you dont need googles to do VR