The thought of having the freedom to instantly travel wherever you want is something that is hard to imagine. For one thing, Google Maps street view would likely feel like you were sitting on top of one of their camera cars as it drove down a Paris street. Of course, you would have control over starting and stopping, turning right and left though there could be some interesting differences.
For instance, if you wanted to stop for a closer look it would be like freezing time since everyone and everything around you would stop moving. This would also likely include the sound around you going silent as that would surely become part of the new street view experience. Press the forward button and you and everything else starts moving again like you just pressed a button in a time machine. Welcome to the world of recorded 360 videos where after entering a shop you would not be able to talk to the salesperson unless it was a 360 live stream video. Of course, this takes us into the new cottage industry of guided live tours where small group tour guides start taking us everywhere from Bangkok bars to the latest new shopping malls where we could talk and interact with others.
In addition to changing the way we travel, this new technology will underpin huge advances in education, business, medicine, movies, sports, news, concerts, and all manners of communication. It will open up countless opportunities to experience the world and each other in ways we can only imagine today. Education will become easier and more fun as subjects move from abstract concepts conveyed by teachers and books to real-world immersive experiences that will leave lasting impressions that will be far easier to recall. Not only that, it will be much harder to tune out or not pay attention to something that you experience rather than try to memorize.
So let us know what you think about the coming 360 world in the comments below. Where would you go? Who would you see and what would you do?
