[Rod_Cloutier]

Is it just me, or are there others out there who are shocked and utterly flabbergasted by the "Pokemon go" fad that just appeared in our society?

https://youtu.be/zdaabTxVXDE

On one hand you have the claim that this is something that is actually getting millenials out into the outside world, wandering around trying to 'capture' pokemon's in the real world. The other comes from the extreme conspiracy theory's that this was created by the CIA to spy on people and get people to take pictures inside of their own homes, offices, and other sensitive areas. The game also tracks the users GPS position as they play the game, is this spooky or what?

Also fights, automobile accidents, and even people walking off of cliffs have already occurred because they are staring into their phones while walking and driving:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/ ... -go/70145/

https://youtu.be/ysUov3TYmPU?t=2s

The fad has caused Nitendo's stock to increase 9.3% in 2 weeks:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/11/12147 ... pokemon-go

Whom a year ago could have predicted that something like this would occur? While millenials say this 'will bring the world together' to capture pokemon's, I find myself appalled of this fad of sheeple chasing phantom electronic creatures outside instead of dealing with the real world issues like peak oil, catastrophic climate change, or looming financial collapse.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

[GoghGoner]

I have been fascinated by it, too. I had no idea what was happening downtown Indy last week with all of the folks lined up along the canal staring into their phones. It was very eerie. Now I have the app on my phone and have caught a couple of Pokemons. A acquaintance of mine has been excited about the release of this game for over a year so some people were anticipating it (part of my research this week into it was question everybody I saw about it).

[Tanada]

Last week two millenials waited until after dark, then jumped the fence at the Toledo Zoo to go Pokemon hunting without having to fight the crowds or pay for entry tickets.

A pair of Pokemon Go enthusiasts hopped a fence at the Toledo Zoo and moved around “like ninjas” playing the game for an hour before being arrested near the tiger exhibit.

Robin Bartholomy, 25, and Adrian Crawford, 26, both of Toledo, were charged with criminal trespass and booked into the Lucas County jail. They were later released on their own recognizance

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/ ... o-Zoo.html

[Rod_Cloutier]

Zerohedge has reported a 'Get a life' article about this fad:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-1 ... fe-choices

(Funny)

[Outcast_Searcher]

Is it just me, or are there others out there who are shocked and utterly flabbergasted by the "Pokemon go" fad that just appeared in our society?

....

Truth is stranger than fiction.

This kind of stuff doesn't even interest me, much less surprise me any more.

There have been lots of fads since I was a kid. This one is based on virtual stuff -- otherwise it's not much stranger than the others. (Pet Rocks, anyone)?

As an "old guy" who has no smart phone, doesn't want a smart phone, gets all the phone (land line) and internet he wants at home for one low price a month -- nothing like this can surprise me any more. Not since I've been rear-ended by multiple kids who I'm sure were texting -- while I was sitting still at the end of a line of cars waiting for a red light in each case. Not since watching people in a crowded parking lot paying NO attention to traffic with their head down absorbed in their cell phone -- while multiple cars drive by on the main drag, with the kids driving holding a cell phone and paying little attention to the road. (It's a wonder more people don't get hit in such situations). Oh, I do cart around a cellphone for emergencies. An old cheap thing that I pay $106 (including sales tax) for a year for pay as you go minutes. The money rolls over annually so my balance is several hundred bucks now, which I'll probably never use.
Why do I have a land line? It's nice to have ONE end of the conversation reliable and able to be heard clearly.

Truth is perhaps stranger than old fiction. But new science fiction is way ahead of this stuff. The Charles Stross SF novel Accelerando had a spaceship going to visit a recently discovered brown dwarf -- apparently something like this new "planet X" thing in location. In case there were intelligent aliens around, it was piloted and run by a bunch of virtual intelligences, who thought of themselves as real people, had their own virtual world (like a resort town, as I recall) on the ship, and were essentially A/I copies of people on earth working for the company that sent the ship. I thought "what an interesting idea -- you could send a ship the size and toughness of some super-hard marble, have all kinds of computer stuff buried in it, and get a hell of a lot done. And it could be accelerated as hard as any hardware would allow -- virtual beings wouldn't care."

And in case that sounds weird, it was just one example of a lot of stuff going on in a solar system where exponentially expanding computer technology was making the entire solar system (ours, in a few hundred years or so) intelligent as virtually everything was having lots of computer power added to it, and AI's were multiplying like spiders.

...

In real life I was kind of blown away by Twitch TV and the broadcasting/teaching/sharing of a bazillion video games over the internet a couple years back. Some clown on a chat thread said "That will never work. Who would watch video games?"

"Sure", I responded, "Like people would never watch golf or baseball or monster trucks". Lots of upvotes tells me I apparently had the right idea on that one.

[ennui2]

Doomerism is in large part rooted in people who are disaffected by modern culture overall, Pokemon Go not withstanding.

This is also why so many doomers tend to be retirement age, when they'd be shaking their fist at the world and telling kids to get off their lawn anyway.

How better to voice that disaffection than to frame doom as some form of decadent cultural rot. This is the Kunstler schtick, which isn't that different from the George Carlin schtick or the PStarr schtick. And yeah, there's some truth to the beef, but are we really that different now?

Go back 60 years and you had huge Caddies with tailfins that probably ate more gas per mile than Hummers to today.

Go back 100-150 years and we drove the Bison to extinction and largely deforested the US in the blink of an eye.

Go back a little farther and you've got slavery.

Wherever you go, you'll find human nature.

[Sixstrings]

https://youtu.be/ysUov3TYmPU?t=2s

Some crazy stories there..

* The gang that set up a pokemon node (is that what it's called) and then did 12 armed robberies, and pokemon players came in one by one. Police caught the robbers.

* The guy that stopped his car in the middle of the highway, "to catch a pikachu" and caused wrecks.



* Some good ole boys out in Louisiana, out hunting Pokemon.. they wind up on "someone else's property" ... and then the NRA "castle doctrine" type owner, starts firing at them.

SO ANYWAY.. my opinion about this thing..

It's part of a future trend called "augmented reality." Games, google glasses, etc. The idea being to mix the virtual, with the "real" world.

In practice, it's a bit strange to me.. people just randomly walking around the real world environment, for no real world purpose whatsoever.. other than "catching" something in the "virtual" world, that's meshed in with the real world.

So, it's unusual situations and unusual behavior, a bit chaotic and anarchist in nature. The rest of the outside world is not aware of whatever "augmented reality world" the other people are in.

From Gasmon's posted article:

But they have been forced to post a warning on their website to members of the public, reminding them they cannot just wander into their busy A&E to hunt down Pokemons.

The hospital said if Pokemon GO gamers become a major nuisance they will be forced to contact game developer Nintendo and have the ‘gym’ removed from their location.

So isn't that interesting.. that a hospital may have to call "Nintendo" to have the "virtual creature gym hotspot" virtually removed, from their real world emergency ward.

So, what about property rights? Shouldn't property owners have a right to the virtual space, on their real world property? There's a supreme court case of the future, lol.

10 Forthcoming Augmented Reality & Smart Glasses You Can Buy
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/augmented-reality-smart-glasses/

P.S. An augmented reality mutual fund would probably be a good investment.

[Sixstrings]

Zerohedge has reported a 'Get a life' article about this fad:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-1 ... fe-choices

(Funny)

So what's going on, is Nintendo putting virtual treasures on people's PRIVATE PROPERTY?



This may need some regulation. Property owners have a right to control over the just-pretend-world, on their real world property.

There should be some kind of opt-out, for virtual reality.

Or is everybody gonna have to get this game, so they can see the virtual critters on their own private property?

[Sixstrings]

Military base issues 'Pokemon Go' warning

However, the phenomenally successful game is fueling public safety fears over distracted pedestrians and dangerous trespassing.

Set against this backdrop, Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, has issued a warning about the game.

“DO NOT chase Pokémon into controlled or restricted areas, office buildings, or homes on base,” it said, in a Facebook post aimed at “budding Pokemon Trainers using Pokemon Go on JBLM.”


http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/07/19/military-base-issues-pokemon-go-warning.html

Some other updates..

* Someone in Texas was bitten by a (real world) venomous snake, distracted while chasing a (virtual world) pokemon.

* A New York driver crashed into a tree, while driving and chasing pokemon.

* A Pennsylvania teenager was hit by a car while chasing a pokemon across the road. (this stuff's not funny)

* California: pokemon player walked off 90 foot ocean bluff. (but they're ok)

MAN STABBED WHILE PLAYING 'POKEMON GO,' BUT CONTINUES PLAYING

Baker told KPTV he was out attempting to catch the mythical creatures when he was approached by a man who he thought was also playing the game.

"I saw him go by and asked if he was playing 'Pokemon Go.' He was like, 'What?' I guess he wanted to battle because he came up at me with a knife," Baker said.

According to a police report, Baker refused medical treatment and continued his Pokemon hunt.

"I basically risked my life," Baker said. "It's important to me. I gotta basically catch them all."
http://abc7.com/news/pokemon-go-player-stabbed-keeps-playing/1428184/

[Rod_Cloutier]

Just to see what the fuss is about, I watched this video about how to play the game:

https://youtu.be/KIv4s6nzvIA?t=1s

Mindbogglingly boring from my perspective, it is a fad so it defies logical explanation. One of the Pokemon sites shown in the video above is in a Jewish cemetery. It is disrespectful to be chasing Pokemon's when people are paying last respects to loved ones.

I also watched a video from the original 90's TV series just to see what this was about. (I had never watched an episode because I was an adult long before then):

https://youtu.be/_CvBNRxpRqU?t=3s

My wife saw something on facebook today where a woman had to have an emergency c-section to save the baby because she was hit by a car by someone who was playing Pokemon and driving.

[sparky]

.
From the BBC news
Pokemon Go: Bosnia players warned of minefields !

Bosnians playing the hit mobile game Pokemon Go are being warned to avoid straying into areas still sown with landmines from the war in the 1990s.
A Bosnian demining charity, Posavina bez mina, issued its warning after hearing reports of Pokemon Go users venturing into risky areas.

Players use their smartphones to hunt for cartoon monsters in the real world.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36841828

[Sixstrings]

Also from your linked article, Sparky:

Earlier this week, two teenagers in the US state of Florida were shot at by a householder who mistook them for burglars.

The game, however, has had some unexpected positive effects: in one UK town police said players reported a theft while hunting for monsters.

VIDEO: DRIVER PLAYING 'POKEMON GO' CRASHES INTO POLICE CAR
http://abc7.com/news/video-driver-playing-pokemon-go-hits-police-car/1434396/

'Pokemon Go' More Than Doubles Nintendo's Stock Price
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/pokemon-doubles-nintendos-stock-price-market-cap-40693642

A positive article:

Pokémon Go: why our dark world needs escapism more than ever
The wildly popular mobile game is a Pokétopian fantasy that has flooded our world with good feelings – and timing could be everything behind its success

What has technology offered us in these dark days of violence and fear? Silicon Valley’s technologies are more pervasive than ever, its dark and toneless luxury gadgets, its social media amplifying the atrocities and raw pain of the real world’s problems. And yet among all this was born the phenomenon of Pokémon Go, a pure escapism that may well be the most successful mobile game of all time.

The first time you look at a road or park through your phone camera to see a fictional creature standing feels like a little bit of magic that makes familiar spaces feel exciting again.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/19/pokemon-go-success-augmented-reality-escapism

[Cog]

[Timo]

I'm busy working on my own Frogger Go game that can be used on a smartphone in the same way as Pokeman Go.


Imagine the fun people will have with this new game! Kickstarter funding opportunities coming soon. Stay tuned.

[Timo]

If Frogger Go doesn't pan out, then i've got in mind a Space Invaders Go game that involves the smart phone, and every state's new Open Carry laws.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Just like the 2011 Occupy movement- I predict this Fad will end as soon as the weather turns cold in the fall.

[Outcast_Searcher]

* A New York driver crashed into a tree, while driving and chasing pokemon.

Was he driving with Tesla's Autopilot activated at the time? If so, did Autopilot fail to see the tree because of a tree colored sky? (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

Computers are behaving more "intelligently". Sadly, people apparently aren't.