[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” hundred_percent_height=”no” hundred_percent_height_scroll=”no” hundred_percent_height_center_content=”yes” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” status=”published” publish_date=”” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” hover_type=”none” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”true” first=”true”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”1619|full” max_width=”” style_type=”” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https:\/\/www.riseupdaily.com\/88namespodcast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Matt-Ruff-Header-Image.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_separator style_type=”default” sep_color=”” border_size=”” icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” alignment=”center” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” top_margin=”40px” \/][fusion_title title_type=”text” rotation_effect=”bounceIn” display_time=”1200″ highlight_effect=”circle” loop_animation=”off” highlight_width=”9″ highlight_top_margin=”0″ before_text=”” rotation_text=”” highlight_text=”” after_text=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” content_align=”left” size=”2″ font_size=”” animated_font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_top_mobile=”” margin_bottom_mobile=”” text_color=”” animated_text_color=”” highlight_color=”” style_type=”default” sep_color=””]<\/p>\n
88 Names: Some Final Thoughts<\/p>\n
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It wasn\u2019t supposed to happen this way.<\/span><\/p>\n When Blake Collier approached me with the idea of doing a podcast in conjunction with the publication of <\/span>88 Names<\/span><\/i>, it was meant to be an addition to the traditional book tour, not a replacement for it. Most of the interviews were recorded before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. With the exception of the special quarantine episode, the only reference to the virus I can recall came during our conversation with <\/span>Mariana Acu\u00f1a Acosta<\/span><\/a>. In response to a question about nightmare scenarios, she told us that VR headsets are a great vector for disease transmission, especially at electronics trade shows where hundreds of people may share the same pair of sweat-stained goggles. But the phrase that stuck with me from that exchange wasn\u2019t \u201ccoronavirus outbreak,\u201d it was \u201cocular herpes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Towards the end of February, I heard a news report about a cluster of COVID-19 cases at a nursing home in Kirkland, less than twenty miles from my home in Seattle. Because of the proximity, I paid more attention than I otherwise might have. Additional reports soon followed, of new cases with no direct connection to the nursing home, suggesting that the virus was spreading through the community. I paid a <\/span>lot<\/span><\/i> of attention to that, but even so, my reaction strikes me as na\u00efve in hindsight\u2014I believed I could pick and choose which parts of my upcoming book tour to cancel. \u201cThe signing session at Emerald City Comic Con isn\u2019t worth the risk,\u201d I remember thinking, \u201cand we should postpone the out-of-state events for a few weeks, until this blows over, but the local bookstore appearances can probably still go forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Spoiler alert: they did not go forward. Within a matter of days, it became clear that there would be no in-person events in the near future. But when my editor, Jennifer Brehl, called to console me about my lost book tour, I was able to tell her not to worry. While other authors with new novels to sell were scrambling to get themselves online, I was already there. The podcast was ready to go, and I had a bunch of other events lined up as well. Some of these, like <\/span>my virtual book reading in AltspaceVR<\/span><\/a>, had been arranged by the podcast\u2019s hard-working producer, Darryl A. Armstrong; others, like my guest appearance as a talking monkey on the <\/span>Drax Files Radio Hour<\/span><\/a>, were a result of my having written a novel about virtual reality. For once in my life, I was ahead of the curve. This was luck, not prescience. All I can claim credit for is having the sense to say yes to cool ideas suggested to me by other people.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, as I write this, we are nearly two months into a lockdown I once thought would last a few weeks. The big question on everyone\u2019s mind, after \u201cWhen will this end?\u201d is \u201cWhat will the world be like when it does?\u201d In the tech realm, where my own attention has been focused, people wonder how much of the current interest in remote technology will persist beyond the crisis. Is working from home a temporary adaptation, or will it become the new normal?<\/span><\/p>\n Having already proved to be a terrible prophet, I should probably cut my losses and keep my mouth shut, but what the heck, I\u2019m stuck indoors with nothing else to do. So here\u2019s my take:<\/span><\/p>\n In the short term, I think most of the changes to society not directly caused by the virus itself will be the result of powerful people using the virus as an excuse to do things they wanted to do anyway. I have already seen a number of opinion pieces arguing that, in response to the pandemic, the U.S. needs to become more like China. We need broader surveillance, they say, to keep track of the infected, and stronger censorship of the internet to stop \u201cbad\u201d information from spreading. I can see how these ideas might seem sensible if you\u2019ve been in a coma for the past several years, but as someone still capable of forming long-term memories, my instinctive response is: \u201cYou think the problem is Donald Trump doesn\u2019t have <\/span>enough <\/span><\/i>power?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Power also factors into the question of whether work-from-home will become the new normal. A lot of people aren\u2019t working at all right now, and unemployment is likely to continue to skyrocket as more businesses go under. A year from now, those lucky enough to still have jobs will not be in a position to negotiate the terms of their employment. So as my protagonist John Chu might put it, what matters isn\u2019t what you think about working from home, what matters is what the person signing your paycheck thinks. If they feel that in order to get their money\u2019s worth, they need you to put on clothes and spend several hours a day commuting, that\u2019s what you\u2019ll do\u2014even if the result is that you are less productive.<\/span><\/p>\n In the long term, though, power has a way of shifting. Work-from-home may not become a norm, but it has already become a much more widely shared experience. People who prefer it will remember that they do, and their displeasure at being forced back into a daily office grind will be added to the already widespread unhappiness among low-wage \u201cessential workers\u201d for whom telecommuting was never an option. For some smart political predictions about where that might lead, I recommend listening to our episode three podcast guest, <\/span>Cory Doctorow<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The lockdown is also giving millions of people a crash course in the relative strengths and weaknesses of existing online platforms. In the past two months, I\u2019ve used Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, AltspaceVR, Sansar, and Second Life. All of them have their selling points; all of them leave something to be desired.<\/span><\/p>\n If I just want to talk to people remotely, Zoom would be my top pick right now. But as podcast guest <\/span>Noah Nelson<\/span><\/a> points out, Zoom lacks the sense of shared space that virtual reality can provide. Zoom lets you make video calls; VR lets you <\/span>mingle<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, virtual reality has its own long list of drawbacks. A recurring theme of the podcast is that the technology is not even close to fully baked yet. The current generation of VR goggles are expensive, temperamental, and uncomfortable to wear for long periods, especially over regular glasses. VR also requires a lot of computer processing power, and augmented reality\u2014which might be a better choice for people prone to motion sickness\u2014requires even more.<\/span><\/p>\n And there are other, subtler issues. In AltspaceVR, for example, when I speak, you can see my avatar\u2019s lips move, and from time to time it will blink its eyes. But this is digital sleight-of-hand; my VR goggles aren\u2019t capable of reading my true facial expression, and what the computer cannot see it cannot render.<\/span><\/p>\n This is a problem where communication is concerned. In a real-world conversation, if you are talking and I want to jump in to make a quick point without totally derailing you, there are non-verbal cues I can use to signal this. These physical cues allow for a natural back-and-forth that is much harder to achieve in virtual reality. In VR, people are constantly talking over each other, and apologizing for it. Or they take turns, which is more polite but also entails a lot of verbal doubling back: \u201cBefore we go on, I\u2019d like to comment on something you said a minute ago\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I am not the first person to notice this. In his novel <\/span>Snow Crash<\/span><\/i>\u2014published in 1992\u2014Neal Stephenson includes a whole riff about the importance of accurately rendered facial expressions when communicating in cyberspace. But it\u2019s one thing to read about a problem and quite another to experience it for yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n