Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution | David Ewalt | Talks at Google

Technology has often progressed in leaps and bounds, with life-altering consequences for humankind, from the telegraph to the television set to the internet. Today we are confronted by the rise of virtual reality, aka VR. No longer just a mainstay of science fiction, VR has seen recent success with companies such as Oculus, Sony, and HTC -- but little is known about its history, which reaches back decades. In a new book, journalist and expert David Ewalt chronicles its origins in Cold War military laboratories, and traces it through decades of hype and failed products, to a nineteen-year-old video game aficionado from California whose advancements made the recent breakthroughs in VR possible. Turning to the future, Ewalt investigates the Silicon Valley giants who are now creating a new hundred-billion-dollar industry.

Starting as a cover story for Forbes, Ewalt’s DEFYING REALITY: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution goes more in depth than his original article ever could, telling a tale of booms and busts, of fortunes built and lost, and one teenage genius who succeeded where everyone else had failed. Ewalt offers a unique perspective on how VR got here, where it's going, and how and why it will change the way we live. Rife with first-hand accounts and on-the-ground reporting, DEFYING REALITY makes the argument that virtual reality has the potential to impact every aspect of our social and independent lives, from gaming and entertainment to commerce, to medicine and warfare.

[iqconnect]

Really Good Presentation- Really like the historical perspectives of #VirtualReality Hardware and #VR History

[mbshiva]

It's interesting that human has been trying to create the virtual reality in some form or the other. All these experiments are at the material level, what would be more interesting is to tap into the potential of subtler bodies like mind and it's consciousness. It will be easier to create a richer experience at the level of thoughts, more like different people reading the book interpret it differently. We know that we create our realities by projecting it out. Great talk, thank you.

[David-kdqr]

A "revolution" that has still yet to come. It's looking like Facebook will never make the $2-3 Billion they paid for Oculus, and HTC/Valve's Vive hasn't been doing so hot as well recently. Sales are way down on both, and there is just no compelling VR software (or at least not a lot).

I do think VR will eventually be a thing but...it still has a long way to go before it becomes anything other than a cool gimmick or awesome 3 hr experience.

[educationcentral_]

I'm sure psychedelic mushrooms helped the scene come alive