Augmented Reality is not just the next wave of collaboration and computing, it is a fundamental shift in how we will engage with our world and each other, and how we will understand and solve the huge problems we face as a species. AR will replace your PC, your phone, your tablet. It will be an always on and always on YOU supercomputer — it will amplify our intentions and ideas enabling all of us to create and explore new universes together.
AR MUST be interoperable between all users and between all devices at all times. Microsoft’s DOS operating system enabled the rise and dominance of the personal computer. It did this by ensuring that every system and every piece of software would interoperate on every PC. It was the single most important factor that drove the intense growth of that industry. Likewise, every phone, regardless of operating system, brand, or carrier can be used to call every other phone in the world. This is a little remarked but extremely significant requirement.
We need to build the DOS of AR — a platform that enables the interoperability, scaling, and development necessary to energize this new ecosystem. Not only must it provide a common platform for applications in the way DOS did, but it needs to enable every AR device to connect and communicate with every other device in the same way the phone does. Every user needs to share and collaborate with every other user in this enhanced digital world — regardless of their particular walled-garden allegiance.
The virtual will not just become as real as real life — it will become real life. We will soon live together INSIDE a shared information space that co-exists with and amplifies the physical plane of existence. Communication, far more than anything else, defines the true value of Augmented Reality. AR displays are transparent not just so we can see the real world with a digital overlay, but because **we need to look another person in the eyes as we engage with them in this extended digital space**. The emerging AR Cloud is not simply about adding a new digital layer to the real world, it is about using AR to expand the scope of how we collaborate, create and share ideas with each other within it. This next generation of computing capability will not only allow us to extend and annotate the real world — far more importantly, it will allow us to easily and instantly create and explore completely new universes that we will build from scratch as part of our everyday discussions.
AR extends the nature and power of the human narrative. We are defined more by how we communicate that anything else. The very foundation of what it means to be human is about to change.
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David A Smith (2020), The Augmented Conversation and the Amplified World. pdf 