Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey looooovvvve virtual reality, they told Re/code Executive Editor Kara Swisher today at Silicon Valley Comic Con — but it’s going to stay in the home and office for now.
Steve Wozniak and Palmer Luckey: Virtual Reality, Yes. Augmented Reality, Not Yet.
“Some of us just like to be early adopters and play with what the future could be.”
Eric Johnson for Re/code
VR’s sister technology, augmented reality, faces the greater challenge of dealing with the uncontrolled environment of the outside world. Luckey said AR “is currently far behind virtual reality technology.” But he did say AR would succeed eventually, even though early heads-up display devices such as Google Glass didn’t make the grade.
“I see us on the leading edge of that,” Luckey said of the long-term merger of virtual reality and augmented reality technology. “We’re working on a lot of cool stuff.”
Wozniak praised his Samsung Gear VR, which was co-developed by Oculus, but also defended Glass as an intriguing first step into a new type of human-computer interaction.
“Some of us just like to be early adopters and play with what the future could be,” Wozniak said.
https://twitter.com/karaswisher/status/711338850589626368
Luckey and Wozniak agreed that video games will drive the early adoption of virtual reality devices such as the Gear VR and the Oculus Rift, which is set to be released to consumers at the end of this month. That’s partly because gamers demanding the best graphics have historically spurred the advance of computer hardware.
Swisher suggested that virtual reality porn would actually be the key.
“Porn users don’t have powerful computers,” Luckey said.
“Porn users, you need to upgrade,” Swisher countered.
“You said it, not me,” said Luckey.
The trio also discussed artificial intelligence and whether robots would ultimately enslave us all (no, Wozniak and Luckey agreed). And Swisher asked about their stances in the Apple-FBI legal dispute, which is heading to court this week.
“Cyber security is one of the greatest threats we have now, and some of us actually respect it,” Wozniak said in defense of Apple. “You go and modify one phone, you’ve given the FBI and the government the right to go in and order any company to say, ‘You have to build this product in this certain way.’”
“I’m a proud American, but I think they’re making a bad call on this,” Luckey concurred.
One thing the pair disagreed on: Mars.
“I don’t want to go to Mars,” Luckey said.
“Oh, I would love to go to Mars!” Wozniak enthused. “Even if it’s a one-way trip.”
But if that doesn’t happen, Woz said he will settle for being able to view the first human landing on the Red Planet through a VR headset.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
