Lupi

One of the reasons I think social VR has a big future is: tech companies hate it, view it as a failure, want it dead dead. They keep pivoting to games and office stuff, which doesn’t stick because there is no mass adoption for either. But the social VR stuff keeps growing. Not rapidly, but steadily. EAC was a hiccup, people kept using VRchat and it bounced back bigger. I think the nature of VRChat and NEOs/Resonite specifically made this happen.

When something keeps going this long even in the face of corporate indifference and hostility that means there’s passion for it. Getting deeper into VR necessarily means getting deeper into the guts of confusing software. But every step you master, every new little bit of customization, every time you put a little digital piece of yourself into the virtual world, you not only stand out more, but learn the way tech actually works on a level more fundamental than making something in say, secondlife or furcadia.

I know what an animator in unity is now thanks to customizing vr chat avatars. I know what weight painting is because of learning things about blender from my friends. I know what ‘flipping a normal’ means and why that makes level design easier for similar reasons.

Even the hardware side of things! While slime VR as a company has had some hiccups there is now a template for open source motion tracking that works pretty damn good. You can use it with spare switch controllers. Or build your own. Tech weirdos are making huge strides with eye tracking tech that seems uninteresting to corporate types except at the very highest end of hardware.

The biggest missing piece of the puzzle right now are headsets and controllers. The one thing we don’t have a solid open alternative too…but I can’t help but feel like one little push would get us there. IR emitters, IR sensors, and accelerometers are all cheap and known tech. Same with LCDs.

I mean…nothing is guaranteed . The future is unknown. I could be wrong about all of this but…I would have never believed I could do what I do now when I started using vrc, and I think that’s true for a lot of people. Social VR is sticking around because it’s for the weirdos, and the weirdos build things.

baby shaped

A touching story..

[edit 2: eSims are working in Gaza] [edit 3: internet has been restored]

appreciate that people are trying to do smth rather than nothing, but please keep in mind $$$ donations for funds or aid will not reach Palestinians or Gaza right now. they were not reaching them before the blackout either, due to the blockade and other technological restrictions.

if you're not sure "what to do" the general consensus from Palestinians in the west bank or diasporacly has been;

• amplify palestinians speaking about this
• speak out about this loudly and explicitly constantly. combat media censorship locally and nationally. many people do not know or care about this happening, don't let them be forgotten
• goals like demanding a ceasefire, an end to US funding, an end to the occupation
• keeping up with targeted boycotts laid out by the BDS movement

other actionable recommendations i can offer you include;

• connecting with people in your area who are not tech literate (often due to age), or not online / in touch with the news; keep them informed and correcting against propaganda they may have come in contact with
• protest local/national media and news censorship
• look up and show up for local/national Palestinian orgs and groups. many post daily on their twitter or instagram accounts for how you can contribute and support their goals, actions, and events
• showing up to irl actions, protests, rallies, marches, and events in solidarity or actively contributing to coordinating / crowd protection / mask distribution
• SJP chapters, PYM chapters, JVP chapters, JAWS etc. reach out, volunteer, again showing up irl whenever you can is extremely valuable

these are just a few starting points for options available to you if you're feeling lost and powerless. Palestinians haven't lost hope, neither should we. put yourself out there. even if it feels useless or pointless, making an effort is never a bad thing.

edit; id like to offer a minor correction since making this last night. i was under the incorrect impression that zero $ aid had been able to make it to Palestine after the 7th/before the siege and blockade, but that is not entirely true.

from @/guribotto on twitter to me: "it's true that donations currently cannot make it to Gaza, but it's not the case that they weren't making it previously - relief orgs like MSF have been sharing the stories of the doctors and surgeons they had on the scene until they lost contact.

MAP was able to distribute over $2m of medical supplies within the first week or two, before the siege made it impossible. They (& MSF) have a permanent presence there so they were able to start responding immediately. But their website also acknowledges they can no longer get in"

i also know some additions with other organizations to donate to have been added on in shares of this. i support all efforts in line with the goals of Palestinians! it must be emphasized in my opinion however, that currently the encouragement is significantly pointed towards BDS, speaking out about this, advocating and educating, and showing up physically in person as much as possible.

i encourage the physical real world actions and starting points over donations because i believe lots of people want to feel able to do something, and know they can commit to $10 somewhere, and thats discernibly doable for most people in a way other options feel less so. however, especially since we do know most money is unable to reach people on the ground at present, encouraging others to show up in person physically in whatever ways they can (doesn't have to be solely going to marches, theres a lot of ways to impact things on a physical local level) to encourage organizing (but not necessarily allowing orgs to use these moments as self-serving membership drives!) is to discourage the american complacency with status quo many of us easily fall into more than we would like.

again, this isnt to say some contributions are more or less valuable, more or less significant, than others. its not constructive to rank or moralize people doing their best. all contributions are valuable. i only lay out my personal emphasis because it is clear peaceful demonstrations—from ones couch or the streets—have not been enough thus far.

from @/PoetTPetty: "When I returned from 10 days in Palestine in 2015, it took me years to recover from what I saw and experienced. And yet, when I asked my comrades in the West Bank what could be done to support them, one said, "Liberate Black people in America." I will never forget that."

^ it may feel overwhelming or unhelpful to realize the only real way in the United States to be able to stop the dropping of bombs, airstrikes, going forward, will be to radically challenge and change and oppose this nation state and it's imperialism in and of itself. but this is how genuine anti-war movement begins. we are all traumatized from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, years of anti-fascist work, of the protests and riots of the past several decades or years. the exhaustion is inescapable for many, i know. dont let it be silent, dont let it be forgotten, everyone is capable of something ... at the very least uplift and remember

to each according to their ability yes, but you must try