Adomania
We are three weeks into our Talks on Tap series and launch. It’s been a roaring success and we are building our community, one talk at a time.
We will continue in our newfound tradition of offering a word and a musing from “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”:
Our word of the week is “Adomania” – Have you ever had Adomania before?
“Adomania” Definition — n. “The sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fanciful names are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking your grip while you slip around in your saddle, with one hand reaching for the reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question”. (Via The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows).
My question to you the reader is: Has tomorrow’s mania arrived?
In our second lecture of the Talks on Tap series, “Transforming Reality: How Extended Reality (XR) is Shaping The Future,” Shan Liu of Sunshine Media in Beijing, delved into the future of human interaction by exploring how XR is transforming the way we live, work, and connect. From healthcare to entertainment, XR is making waves across industries, and this talk gave us a chance to dive into real-world examples from China and beyond.
I had to do a little due diligence and find out exactly what XR was – it does not stand for X-Rated, and I was sure that I wasn’t the only one in the room who might have thought the same. In simple terms, it is the blending of the physical and virtual world; Immersive technologies that merge these two worlds together to create a new experience and reshape the way industries operate.
Research professor from Dartmouth College, Patrick Cavanagh, suggests that: “It’s really important to understand that we are not seeing reality. We’re seeing a story that’s being created for us”. Story or no story, to be honest I haven’t fully decided what I make of all this blending of digital realms with the physical.
I majored in Film and Media, long before terms like Augmented Reality (AR) and XR came into being. Back then I was obsessed with analyzing the way films examined and reflected societies fears and desires. I loved films, such as The Terminator, Minority Report, Fifth Element, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless mind – anything existential or apocalyptic that deals with the conundrum of what society may look like should our world merge beyond what it should with virtual systems.
Now, the question isn’t merely concerned with the musing of an analytical review of a film but one that may exist as an undercurrent in our current collective consciousness. The time is not when but now. What does the future look like beyond this technological advent we are experiencing with XR, AR and AI (Artificial Intelligence)? With change comes the doing away of something else – right?
What residue, if any, of our familiar pastimes might be undone? Whether your reluctantly flailing in the wind on your horse or embracing new technologies, the time is here, it is among us, we are already using it and merging with it, and so we must be wholly cognoscente of its impact in our daily lives and the ways in which it is changing our future – for better or worse.
This is what I am learning, particularly as dreamer of the nostalgic. There is something to be gained by becoming a learned and informed citizen as it pertains to Extended Reality — in your lives and our world.
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