Post for: #facebook (2 Posts)

Two days ago, Facebook announced they're buying Oculus for $2 billion.

I backed the Kickstarter in August 2012. $300 for an early dev kit and Doom 3 BFG. A kid in his garage, Carmack's endorsement, the promise of real VR after decades of failed attempts.

Now it's Facebook's.

The internet is furious. Notch canceled Minecraft support: "Facebook creeps me out". Kickstarter backers feel betrayed. I get it. We funded an indie hardware project, not a Facebook subsidiary.

But here's the thing: VR is hard. Really hard. The DK2 they just announced at GDC looks incredible, but getting from dev kit to consumer product requires serious capital. Facebook has serious capital. A billion for Instagram two years ago. Two billion for this.

Zuckerberg says VR is "the next major computing platform". Maybe. The form factor isn't there yet. Neither is anything else. No apps, no ecosystem, no way to actually be with someone in VR and have it feel real.

My DK1 sits mostly unused. Hard to strap a brick to your face when you have a family. But the trajectory is clear.

The question isn't whether VR will matter. It's whether Facebook is the right home.

I don't know. I do know Palmer Luckey gets to keep building. That's worth something.

[Update: December 2016]

In January, Oculus announced that all Kickstarter backers who pledged for a dev kit would get a free consumer Rift. I'd ordered a DK2 after the acquisition. Never unboxed it. But the free Rift arrived this summer.

The kids are intrigued, but we don't know enough about how it affects the developing brain, so best assume it's unsafe. I still can't justify strapping a brick to my face when there's life happening around me. But watching Barak experience it for the first time? Worth every mass-manufactured Facebook dollar.

Back from California.

We spent a few days in San Francisco. Pier 39. Lombard Street.

But the first stop was Ilan. He's one of those friends who are basically part of my extended family. Haven't seen him in years. Watching him and Orly meet each other for the first time was something I'd been looking forward to for a while.

Orly gave me a tour of Stanford, where she spent five intense and formative years. The grounds. Her old lab. Fellow researchers who still work there.

At one point she sat down on a sofa and told me she used to rest on it. Then her eyes lit up and she told me it was Philip Zimbardo's.

We'd been staying at Laura's apartment in the city. I'd heard a lot about her. It was great to finally meet in person. On the day of Passover eve we drove to her parents' house for the Seder.

The next morning we started our road trip headed east toward Sequoia. Laura drove.