Beau Cronin, a computational neuroscience expert and a16z researcher, addresses common critiques that VR headsets are inherently isolating.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cronin: VR and AR Will Eliminate the Need for Physical Stores
“The idea behind behind VR and also AR, which we'll get to in a second, is that it really eliminates that, that final reason that you actually would ever have to go to a store.”
Opinion
Cronin: History and science education should be taught in VR
“For VR and education, I think that it's fairly obvious that both history and science education should just be in VR. Like, why on earth would I want to, you know, read about a, you know, these important historical events rather than be present within them?”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Cronin: Holding Business Stand-Up Meetings in VR Is Definitely the Future
“I was really excited to see that Altspace, and of course their early adopters, they do their stand-up meetings in VR right now, and I think that's awesome. I mean, it's obviously weird and awkward to a certain degree right now, but that is, that, that's defini…”
Insight
Cronin: VR eliminates scarcity of premium live experiences by digitizing them
“Being courtside at a basketball game is one kind of prosaic example of that. I mean, you're basically removing the scarcity of courtside seats. You are transitioning that scarcity from the world of atoms and, you know, it's now, you know, zero marginal cost, w…”
Assertion Supported
Cronin: No standalone mobile VR headset offers positional tracking without external camera
“And positional tracking is not available in any purely mobile system that doesn't have an external camera”
Insight
Cronin: Brains fill in incomplete haptic feedback if visual cues align
“If you get a certain amount of, for example, visual cues right, then even very incomplete or crude Haptic cues will feel very complete because your brain is expecting them, and it's going to basically fill in all those details that, you know, may not actually …”