[ExI] Future Movie Quality Benchmarks?

[Anders Sandberg]

I doubt you could do that good holographic projections, despite the fun 
advances in projecting stuff in 3D over the last decade. I would think 
VR (visual and audio) could get there, especially if one adds cameras so 
one can turn it into AR during popcorn excursions (just layering on film 
images on top of the background is no good - who wants to see their 
furniture through the space battle?) Direct neural interfacing might go 
even further the day it actually works as good as in movies - which is 
going to be a tough challenge. The brain is good at filling in details, 
but each brain is different which means that the same signal will 
produce different experiences in different people. How do we callibrate 
that without too much effort?

But the biggest problem isn't really the input fidelity but the ability 
to tell a compelling story or create an immersive environment. Note how 
well told the little story of the ad was - he stopped the action at just 
the right moments to create brief cliffhangers, he moved so that the 
flames looked good, you get the explanation for the initial mystery (why 
is he just sitting there?) gradually. The problem with interactive media 
is that they require a different kind of storytelling, and we are still 
in the early days. Truly immersive interactive media likely require 
realtime storytellers, presumably some kind of AI.

And of course, then there is the addiction question. We are already 
experiencing many things through our entertainment that are far more 
rewarding than most things we can experience in real life. Better 
entertainment might also mean more addictive entertainment.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute 
James Martin 21st Century School 
Philosophy Faculty 
Oxford University