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The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

beyondthescreen.substack.com

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Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#51

Post by pengaru »

Semaphor wrote: post #44
pengaru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

adblock assumes a world where the web is an actual supported first-class medium of society I think it's pretty clear where that trajectory is already headed. Proprietary Apps are not the web, and your adblock browser extensions are irrelevant when everything relevant is an App. FTR this is not the future I want, it's just the future I see. We need a new and better Mozilla analog to champion the web browser and push t…

Besides the obvious option of not using those apps, I have an adblocker on Android, and it works perfectly fine with my apps, so I’m not sure why that would change.

> I have an adblocker on Android, and it works perfectly fine with my apps, so I’m not sure why that would change.

That's simply unsustainable long-term. It happens to work today that you can trivially block them at the network level, because they're still unsophisticated about how ads are delivered, in this still mixed open-Web-transitioning-to-closed-Apps world.

Long-term, ad-serving becomes more sophisticated, in-band, and indistinguishable from any other App data over an encrypted stream from the App vendor and/or walled-garden provider, or just bundled with the now-normalized constant App "updates" without the need for network access when displaying them at all.

You're on the losing side of an arms race when everything's closed.

Even if you prefer living in walled gardens, preserving the open Web escape hatch does a lot of heavy lifting in the checks and balances department. If it's entirely deprecated by society, the walled gardens will get exponentially worse with their increased leverage.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#52

Post by Semaphor »

pengaru wrote: post #51
Semaphor wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides the obvious option of not using those apps, I have an adblocker on Android, and it works perfectly fine with my apps, so I’m not sure why that would change.

> I have an adblocker on Android, and it works perfectly fine with my apps, so I’m not sure why that would change. That's simply unsustainable long-term. It happens to work today that you can trivially block them at the network level, because they're still unsophisticated about how ads are delivered, in this still mixed open-Web-transitioning-to-closed-Apps world. Long-term, ad-serving becomes more sophisticated, in-…

Good points.

I'd like to mention, that I don't prefer closed gardens and out of principle don't use anything app only. My phone is for calls, the bath, and my bed. Plus the rare traveling.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#53

Post by hinkley »

aprinsen wrote: post #40
hinkley wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no plan to ever buy one of these headsets. I used to be in a social circle where a couple people claimed they would rather die than ever own an ebook. I wish I had written down which people they were so I could RemindMe in ten years to see if they were enjoying the afterlife or not. When we are in the early adoption phase there are always late adopters who expect to be never adopters. But peer pressure happe…

Except I never bought cryptocurrency and I don't have TikTok and you being right about eBooks has no bearing on the success or failure of personal AR

Youtube is giving you TikTok whether you want it or not.

Not all fads get adopted. AR is in my opinion still a tech before its time, which makes it a fad - for now - but not necessarily forever. Cellphones and particularly smart watches are a form of ambient technology that have caught on, and I think it's only a matter of process shrinkage and battery tech before it happens. Say another 7-10 years for battery density to double again. Early ebooks were objectively as bad as current or last generation VR equipment. Nobody was going to adopt that. It's a matter of connecting the dots.

If you don't like the idea of everyone in AR, that's fine. Then I recommend you start now to participate in environmental and conservation special interest groups, because there is a day coming when philosophers, ascetics, and people who touch trees on purpose are the main demographics of people who actively reject augmentation for augmentation's sake. There are loud opinions in each of those groups, and they have merit.

And frankly we could use a few more science-minded tree huggers to dilute the conspiracy theorists.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#54

Post by tomjen3 »

tiedieconderoga wrote: post #19
throwaway22032 wrote: post #2

In what sense would AR ads be inescapable? I have no plan to ever buy one of these headsets. If the streets of London became Minority Report-esque e.g. holographic loud projections, I can just move five or ten miles down the road to somewhere slightly less urban. It'd be significantly less expensive too. I mean, almost all tube station adverts are still just paper billboards, clearly something is preventing them from…

Just wait until you can't see a restaurant's menu, in-flight announcements, traffic advisories, etc. The pandemic opened the door to making a piece of technology a mandatory requirement to participate in society. It used to be possible to live without a smartphone, now you really need to be able to read and produce QR codes¹. Why couldn't the same thing happen with AR, considering how expensive it is for governments…

You don't actually need a smartphone, which is good because a lot of older people do not have them or can't use them.

I think people sometimes forget that you can inconvinience a waitress without being an asshole about it (they are there to provide service) and that being able to be a customer is important enough that most businesses would prefer staff spend time helping you.

Sure they would prefer you have a smartphone, and it may be less convinient but that doesn't mean they can't work to accomondate you.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#55

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

EA-3167 wrote: post #36
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can count clicks with eye tracking. If you look at it then they know.

It'll be amazing if that level of tracking proves advertising is grossly overpriced and only modestly effective.

Apple is extremely transparent and they'll definitely share data that proves the ads they show are a ripoff.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#57

Post by EA-3167 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #55
EA-3167 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll be amazing if that level of tracking proves advertising is grossly overpriced and only modestly effective.

Apple is extremely transparent and they'll definitely share data that proves the ads they show are a ripoff.

A fair point well made.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#58

Post by yomlica8 »

Semaphor wrote: post #43
yomlica8 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, I think you can still survive fine without a smartphone, although it becoming more difficult. During the pandemic we had to install an app to check our kid into preschool. Ridiculous, but I guess you could argue I could have made a stink or switched preshools. Asia and European sound a lot more far gone in this area though and I feel like the days are numbered here.

> Asia and European sound a lot more far gone As a German: Why? All scam-app checkins during the pandemic were also doable via paper (I refused to install the damn app), pretty much everything I can do on my phone, I can also do by paper (which I have to for my health insurance, damn TK is not only the most digitally progressive health insurance, they also seem to be the only app existing on Android with an almost un…

Glad to hear it isn't as far gone as I've been led to believe, but the situation does sound similar to over here. Not using a smart phone increasingly gives you a second class citizen status and some companies even require it. I don't hold much hope for a reversal of the trend.

Re: The Wild (and Slightly Terrifying) Future of Inescapable AR Ads

#59

Post by _a_a_a_ »

yomlica8 wrote: post #58
Semaphor wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Asia and European sound a lot more far gone As a German: Why? All scam-app checkins during the pandemic were also doable via paper (I refused to install the damn app), pretty much everything I can do on my phone, I can also do by paper (which I have to for my health insurance, damn TK is not only the most digitally progressive health insurance, they also seem to be the only app existing on Android with an almost un…

Glad to hear it isn't as far gone as I've been led to believe, but the situation does sound similar to over here. Not using a smart phone increasingly gives you a second class citizen status and some companies even require it. I don't hold much hope for a reversal of the trend.

> some companies even require it

which? If they require a works phone they will give you one. Leave it at home and use it only for work.

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