{"id":1107,"date":"2021-11-10T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T13:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:10:46","slug":"a-history-of-xr-cross-reality-part-2-of-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1107","title":{"rendered":"A History of XR Cross Reality Part 2 of 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Poster<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jules Ch\u00e9ret, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n

As a reminder, we are using science fiction as our time
\nmachine vehicle to examine how good we are at predicting the future and
\nour intention is to predict the future of cross realities (XR).<\/span><\/p>\n

1881 – 1909<\/span><\/h2>\n

1881<\/b>
\n – The invention of the theater phone (theatrophone) allowed users to
\nlisten to the live opera from a location up to 1 mile away from the
\ntheater. So you do not have to be there to be there<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Artwork<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
M\u00fcnzbetriebenes Empfangsger\u00e4t des de:Theatrophons. Circa 1892<\/a>. Work is considered to be in the public domain in the US.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

1882<\/b> Paleo futuristic image showing opera attendees in the future year <\/i>2000.
\n In case you are checking your watch, that’s 2 decades ago as of this
\nwriting. Did I miss fish cars? Lizard cars? Actually, never mind. I
\ndon’t think you’d find me going to the opera regardless of the kind of
\ncar.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Art<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Villemard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

1895<\/b>
\n H.G. Wells published The Time Machine as a dystopian future view. Wells
\n was living in rural England and was seeing the industrial revolution
\nexpand. He saw large factory cities swallow up young workers for long
\nhours in dark conditions and producing to satisfy an seemingly
\ninsatiable consumer. He looked forward and saw a future where humanity
\nwould become split into two groups that would almost <\/i>would never interact.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Book<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Author Herbert George WellsPublisher William Heinemann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

On
\n the surface was a Greek god-like existence of Eloi. They all looked
\nalike. (Shivers.) This group would be the consumers. They would benefit
\nfrom this world order but simultaneously be oblivious to the price for
\ntheir existence. They would be a small group, the 1%.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nunderground dwellers, the Morlocks, would run all of the machinery. They
\n would be the producers, and the generations of being underground would
\nallow for adaptations of evolution including large eyes, intolerance of
\nsunlight, and flesh-eating.<\/span><\/p>\n

E.M. Forster read The Time Machine and rejected this future that H.G. Well foresaw.  <\/span><\/p>\n

However,
\n before we get to Forster\u2019s publication, we visit one other futurist. In
\n 1901, Frank Baum (of The Wizard of Oz) published The Master Key which
\ncontains the first known reference in writing to what we would recognize
\n today as augmented reality:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Book<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
William Wallace Denslow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

 “On
\n the other hand,” continued the Demon, “some people with fierce
\ncountenances are kindly by nature, and many who appear to be evil are in
\n reality honorable and trustworthy. Therefore, that you may judge all
\nyour fellow-creatures truly, and know upon whom to depend, I give you
\nthe Character Marker. It consists of this pair of spectacles. While you
\nwear them every one you meet will be marked upon the forehead with a
\nletter indicating his or her character. The good will bear the letter
\n‘G,’ the evil the letter ‘E.’ The wise will be marked with a ‘W’ and the
\n foolish with an ‘F.’ The kind will show a ‘K’ upon their foreheads and
\nthe cruel a letter ‘C.’ Thus you may determine by a single look the true
\n natures of all those you encounter.”<\/i><\/p>\n

“And are these,
\nalso, electrical in their construction?” asked the boy, as he took the
\nspectacles\u2026 All character sends out certain electrical vibrations, which
\n these spectacles concentrate in their lenses and exhibit to the gaze of
\n their wearer, as I have explained.”<\/i><\/p>\n

“It’s a fine idea,” said the boy; “who discovered it?”<\/i><\/p>\n

“It is a fact that has always existed, but is now utilized for the first time.”  <\/i>[A wonderful Wizard of Oz-like sense of humor. Making fun of the fantastical, but obvious.]<\/span><\/p>\n

In December 1909, <\/b> E.M. Forster publishes The Machine Stops.<\/a> If
\n you have a chance to read it, I encourage that. It is a remarkable
\nstory. If you substitute \u201cthe Internet\u201d for \u201cthe Machine,\u201d the story is
\neerily accurate in some predictions of humanity. There is also very
\ninteresting economy where humanity values the exchange of ideas<\/i><\/b> above all other concepts (cough, Instagram, Twitter\/X, Mastadon, Bluesky, etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n

Short summary:<\/span><\/h3>\n

In
\n the future, everyone lives underground in these large columns of cells
\nbecause the surface is inhabitable. Each person lives in a cell that is
\nof a small defined space, one person per cell. The collections of people
\n are like bee hives. Everything a person needs to live is brought to
\nthem in their cell by the Machine. Food, air, water, and once a day the
\ncell (and the person) are washed clean. The humans never meet or touch
\nin any way. They listen to concerts, speeches, and read books.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\n plot of the story unfolds with a son that yearns to escape to the
\nsurface world; he believes it might be inhabitable and as such, holds
\nnew promise for humanity. At first, he tells his mother about his desire
\n to leave via the Machine (a progenitor to Skype?) but the Machine,
\nintercepting the message, always fuzzes out when people express
\nunhappiness with the current order of things (cough, Facebook experiment<\/a>).
\n Thus, the mother does not understand her son\u2019s intent. She tries to
\ndismiss her worries. The son becomes insistent and travels to visit his
\nmother in person. When they meet, the mother is bothered by human touch.
\n He insists that he\u2019s been on an exploratory climb and that he knows
\nother youth that are going to leave too. She will not leave the hive,
\nshe cannot understand why anyone would leave the Machine. He leaves and
\nfinds a livable world on the surface. The Machine, without humans to
\nservice it, eventually breaks down and everyone remaining underground
\ndies; not because they are unable to leave, but because they lack the fortitude to do so<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Forster\u2019s future vision does not have cannibalism but it highlights an amazing weakness; that the more humans depend on machines, the less <\/i>human<\/i><\/b> we will essentially become.<\/i> Forster seems to argue that the human connection to the natural world is our salvation; a lesson not lost in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’ve
\n finished a great deal of time travel but this was the slowest feeling
\npart of our journey. We’ll start speeding up in Part 3 which will
\npublish on November 29, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part 1 380 B.C. to 1880 <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 2 1881 to 1909<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 3 1910 to 1965<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 4 1966 – 1998<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 5 1999 – 2013<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Part 6  2014 – Future<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

#Reality
\n #CrossReality #MixedReality #VirtualReality #AugmentedReality
\n#VirtualWorlds #Design #Transmedia #XR #VR #AR #ARVRinEdu #EdTech
\n#Innovation #Change #HGWells #EMForster #TheMachineStops #TheTimeMachine
\n #TheMasterKey #FrankBaum #TheaterPhone<\/p>\n

Originally posted in November 2019. Updated on February 24, 2026 with changed font and re-added images.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n  Jules Ch\u00e9ret, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons As a reminder, we are using science fiction as our time machine…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “A History of XR Cross Reality Part 2 of 6”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,72,27,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-research","category-vr","category-xr","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}