[There’s a new development in the ongoing debate about the possibility that our universe is a sophisticated, presence-evoking simulation. The details are reported in this story from ScienceAlert, where the original version includes a second image and an 11:47 minute video (also available on YouTube). While the debate will probably never be resolved, the continuing and apparently growing fascination in science and popular culture with the idea that everything we experience is an illusion is consistent with the fact that we’re living in an era in which humans are using technologies to produce increasingly more, and more convincing, illusions.…

[A new augmented reality public art project in Philadelphia features photographs and interviews with some of the diverse people who work and travel on the buses, trains and trolleys of SEPTA (the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). As the artist, Anula Shetty, notes, “the goal is to create connections between people who cross paths during their daily commute”; QR codes are embedded in photos displayed throughout the system and as this SEPTA blog post puts it, “Through this augmented reality series of works born of Philadelphian stories, daydreams, thoughts, and performances that Shetty has filmed – Philly Daydreams allows travelers to…

[Presence-evoking augmented reality and artificial intelligence are being used to help more people experience and learn about the monuments and history of Greece, as reported by the Associated Press via ABC News. See the Greek telecom company Cosmote’s website for more, including a 2:19 minute video (also available on YouTube).  –Matthew] [Image: A man holds up a tablet showing a digitally overlayed virtual reconstruction of the ancient Parthenon temple, at the Acropolis Hill in Athens, Greece on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Credit: Petros Giannakouris/The Associated Press.] An app shows how ancient Greek sites looked thousands of years ago.…

[Though he doesn’t use the term, the writer of this essay in The Verge describes how the nascent status of AI-based voices and images being added to social media platforms could lead to a dramatic increase in experiences of presence, especially medium-as-social-actor presence: “feeds that were once defined by the connections they enabled between human beings will have become something else: a partially synthetic social network.” –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Álvaro Bernis / The Verge] The synthetic social network is coming Between ChatGPT’s surprisingly human voice and Meta’s AI characters, our feeds may be about to change forever By Casey Newton,…

[Penn State News provides this report on the use of virtual reality in Criminal Justice and other courses at Pennsylvania State University’s Harrisburg campus. Among other observations it’s interesting that the report says that “employers are looking for experience with [VR] on résumés.” See the original story for a photo gallery containing nine more images and a 2:05 minute video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Sharon Siegfried / Penn State] Virtual reality enhances learning for Harrisburg criminal justice students October 3, 2023 MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — They didn’t leave their seats in the Olmsted Building classroom, but Penn State…

[Many writers are covering and/or commenting on a new technique that uses artificial intelligence to incorporate ‘hidden’ messages in images (with varying degrees of presence-evoking subtlety). The Motherboard story below has a more serious tone while the Laptop Mag story that follows it takes a lighter approach. For more examples of the technique see coverage in Bored Panda, and if you’re interested in creating images yourself, Michael Brig has a four-minute tutorial on YouTube. –Matthew] AI-Generated ‘Subliminal Messages’ Are Going Viral. Here’s What’s Really Going On They’re not going make you subconsciously crave McDonald’s, but they are pretty cool as…