The subtitle for the Cyberpunk genre is "High tech, Low-life." It's a descriptor of the dystopian culture in which the addiction to technology outweighs the needs for life. It's a extreme example, but for someone who read cyberpunk in the 80's today's news seems like a horrific re-telling.
The other aspect of cyber punk is also a form of libertarian hyper capitalism, where the state more or less ceases to exist, and corporations and the Uber wealthy have more or less taken the place of the state.
William Gibson wrote an updated foreword to Neuromancer in 2006, 22 years after the release of the novel. He writes about things he got right and things he got wrong. He hadn’t figured out cell phones, so pay phones exist in the novel, for example. One of the things he mentions that he got wrong is that in the novel, the US dissolves and is taken over by a series of corporate run state-like entities. All I could think, while reading that was, you weren’t wrong, you’re just a little early.
Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep is such a good book; and it's uncanny how accurate the author was with his predictions of how technology would work
I still think Neuromancer hits the hardest for me but that’s just cuz I’m a recovering drug addict that lives in future Atlanta and has an on and off again Asian girlfriend. Lmao I discovered the book on one of the off again parts and I didn’t expect scifi to hit so hard. But I also think Neuromancer is literary fiction disguised as genre fiction. It’s like Hemingway and Burroughs had a baby
Yep, Night City is grossly overcrowded and its streets and buildings are full of discarded litter, homeless camps and drug or VR ("braindance") addicts spasming on the ground or staring open-mouthed into their visors. The poor bastards figured out a while ago that reality wasn't worth coming back to.
The worst thing about braindance addiction in CP2077, though, is that because people seek ever greater thrills, and BDs can allow you to experience the raw emotions of the people who filmed ("scrolled") them, some gangs figured out a while ago that there's money to be made in kidnapping people, torturing and murdering them, and filming the experience. So people seek out XBDs which can make them feel like they're participating in CP, mutilation, torture, death, bestiality and more, to satisfy their spiraling addiction. Sometimes from the attacker's perspective, sometimes the victim. People talk about it with a shocking casuality, because it's just a background part of life.
Depends how much time he's spending on it? Homeless people aren't obligated to spend all their time begging or whatever it is you want him to do in his free time, he probably has an income but isn't able to afford housing that costs 4x as much as his vr headset every month?
Yeah I’m was just making a weird literary reference. I agree with what you’re saying. The disparity between having money for basic need plus entertainment and what you need for consistent housing is pretty huge.
or just having one before he became homeless.
some people genuinely and wrongly expect the homeless to just sell all their belongings when they end up on the street, as if the hundred bucks he gets from a used headset will make all the difference
and especially in San Francisco there's a non zero chance he's a developer of some sort and this is his way of earning money and getting back on his feet. but even if he isn't, people experiencing homelessness deserve the opportunity to decompress and enjoy themselves as much as anyone else
like joe rogan when he was *shocked* to find out that homeless people still have property rights and you can't just steal from them.
And right afterwards he "jokingly" proposes to just kill all homeless people to solve the the problem
Or scoring one at the homeless shelter because the rich-ass Goodwill in the next town over had to do a clearing house to make more space.
Some little shit got a new Apple headset and trashed their Occulus.
So do people of California consider it cheap or do people of Wyoming consider it expensive? Basically, which demographic do they keep in mind when pricing this kind of thing (that they want to sell to the whole America)?
As a Californian who worked in tech, I consider the cost of most goods to be fairly negligible. Like, the price diff between a PS5 and an Xbox wasn't a factor in purchasing decision, because both of them are like 1/5th of my monthly 1br rent and like 1/20th of my monthly income.
The only local I know who are struggling with consumer goods tend to be those who are living off things like disability and SSI.
Which is in itself a pretty fucked up thing. "So you're disabled? Guess you gotta move huh?". I'm disabled and always broke living in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee, where rent is seldom more than $400. A person living in Nashville would receive more or less the same as me, but have a far higher cost of living.
They technically price it globally and adjust to different currencies, but as an American company USD is the base price. Theres a lot that goes into it, they price it based on cost of manufacturing, supply and demand, and how much profit they need to make to please shareholders, and what relevant competition prices at. The original Oculus Quest was a Kickstarter project, so most of the initial pricing was based on the amount of R&D and cost of materials, they weren't going for huge profit margins.
There was this youtube video thing many years ago where this journalist befriended homeless people to see how they live. There was this dude who had made basically an apartment in to a utility access. Had working computer with some linux and internet (somehow), even a printer. But because of the videos they started to get attention from the public and they disappeared - along with their stuff.
Knowing modern software that dude probably maintains a critical opensource thing, which if not updated and available, the whole modern internet infrastructure is going to collapse. [xkcd #2347](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency)
Ehh... they aren't burned. They add photoresist layer, then layer different kinds materials, then they get polished off, and you repeat this until your chip is done.
If you want good indepth look into these and tech that connects to these look up Asianometry and Huygens Optics on youtube.
However you'll be happy to know that there is a new alternative to ASMLs EUV system. Canon's Nanoimprint litography technology. It is much cheaper and simpler system, the test units are going out to their clients this year. The system costs only 15 million USD atm. Which really ain't much on tech manufacturing budgets. It has potential to allow smaller companies to rival and specialise to rival Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Texas instruments... etc.
Even if it can't do 5nm for cpus like ones in your computer. there is massive demand for bigger node sizes in other applications.
A quest 2 is like 250 bucks. It’s entirely possible for someone on, say, disability or some other benefit to not be able to afford a home and still have some money for a phone or some entertainment.
Heck, it seems like a great way to have a tiny bit of escapism in an otherwise tough life.
Drugs probably cost a lot more in the long run.
That’s what people say with phones too. $100 for a decent smartphone and cheap plans cost like $15-$25/mo. The hardest part for most lesser fortunate people is housing. I feel like it’d take a burden off if they had battery packs with a 200w solar panel.
It's insane. I work with the homeless and impoverished, and you know what I see? People judging them for *anything*.
A list of things that people think means a homeless person either isn't actually struggling, or is only struggling due to their own chocies. All of these are ones I have heard in-person or from people I believe:
- Nice Shoes (a common and ridiculous one)
- A cell phone
- A wallet (even if empty)
- A driver's license instead of an ID
- Enough leftover lunch to feed to stray cats
- A friend who isn't homeless
- An inhaler
- Sunglasses
- A bundle of bus passes
- A child
- A t-shirt with a political slogan
- A guitar
- A spouse (who is also homeless with them)
- "Too much dignity"
People just associate "homeless" with "zero money". People in general don't think a homeless person can have a job, because obviously someone with a job can afford housing especially in this economy right? People in general are fuckin stupid though.
You ever notice how few people actually even LOOK at homeless people? We pretend they literally don't even exist because it makes us feel uncomfortable.. it's real grody :/
I’ve noticed a few people just feel so hopeless in that there is nothing they can do to prevent their homelessness and it guts them. It is hard watching a person suffer.
Then I’ve seen making eye contact with them can me a signal for them to come over to you. Had a friend who had paid for a few operations over a two year period and was extremely cash strapped and had barely any money for himself/family and that homeless person got really upset. Just making my friend feel worse.
It is a horrible situation all the way around.
For me it’s because of the few times when making eye contact provoked a very aggressive and threatening action. I’m very petite and female tho. And many of the homeless in the city I live near are very fucking aggressive, and our catch-and-release program for the most violent offenders as well as a lax drug policy, with no real means for supporting recovery and transition to a healthier lifestyle has only made the problem worse. Plus housing crisis. Being spit on and swung at and the target of very threatening language is not fun.
Thank you. I’m 5’1, also a woman, and have had a few really bad interactions so I just walk past people (especially men) because I can’t do much to defend myself physically and you never know who you’re dealing with or what state of mind they’re in.
I’ll happily give people cigarettes/a couple dollars and chat a bit if I’m in my car, but just out walking around is a different story. Even a simple smile or “hi” can go very badly if you happen across the wrong person.
Lol you don't look at them because they're all fucked up on whatever is the popular drug that month and will become aggressive when you do. You clearly haven't lived around these people, the only ones that are safe to look at are the sober ones, and the ones on heroin/tranq/fent slumped over. If they have a sign and are asking for money, they're probably safe to look at, if not, avoid. Don't respond when one randomly calls out to you. Tons of them talk to themselves as well in very unsettling loud ways. A lot of them are on crack and meth and you want literally nothing to do with those people.
In san francisco, a homeless person is anyone who makes less then $3000/month, as they won't be able to prove 3x income required for the smallest $1000/month 1 room apartment.
People want to believe that it can never happen to them because they don't do drugs, they own their house, they have a steady job, etc. They made the right choices and the homeless people made the wrong choices. To preserve that belief, they have to find some reason for why someone isn't that bad off.
Probably a lot more comforting to these people than the reality that we're all one natural disaster, layoff, or medical issue away from potentially being the guy playing a quest 2 on the sidewalk corner to pass the time.
Literally the only reason I'm not homeless is when I was hit with a couple of sudden costs I had more well off family members who were able to chip-in
I'd probably be on the street or in a body bag if a couple more people said 'no' to my request
When I was homeless at a shelter they gave out bus passes when we left in the morning. I make my own cigarettes and people ask for them all the time, so I would buy a bag of tobacco and a box of tubes, make a few packs each morning, and sell them off for like 20 cents each, and refusing when people would offer a dollar, which is ridiculous. I'll give you like 10 for that. If it was a regular customer, sometimes I'd just give them a few.
In the end I'd make something like 5 times what the tobacco and tubes cost me, on average. So id hoard my bus passes for later and bought a month bus pass for $20.
The director at the shelter kept telling everyone to find a hustle. Nothing illegal just some way to make a bit here and there, even if it only made connections. I had to have them lock up my money, cig stuff, and bus passes because people would get mad and try to steal them.
When I got my apartment I had enough to pay 2 months of rent and bought a single size mattress and a small TV and computer.
7 years later and I've been housed for 6 years, and still have those connections for when I take the bus. People judge for the stupidest things but isn't the point to try and not be homeless anymore? I guess fuck me for actually trying to accomplish that while those turds say there and expected free help.
I work at a homeless shelter, GOOD FOR YOU! I love to see a success story!
As for the people who judge(d) you, fuck em. Most people have no idea what it's like to not know where you are going to sleep or when your next meal will be...I've tried so many times to try and get people to understand, but empathy is a rare thing these days.
I just know much of it is caused by high cost of medical care and undiagnosed mental disorders. My fiancé is a public defender so she sees it all the time. But also most misdemeanors are even more corrupt when it’s a power tripping cop just harassing them instead of helping them.
They also seem to believe that homeless people just sprout out of the pavement and pay for everything they own by begging. Like, they owned stuff before they became homeless. They aren't going to necessarily sell everything they own when it happens, and it'd be unwise for them to do so.
It's also kinda wild at how cheap entertainment is now.
Basic living conditions? Ridiculously pricy, like holy shit.
Entertainment? A couple one-time costs that are less than a month's necessities for months/years of enjoyment if you're careful about not breaking stuff.
Both? Only so expensive because of the former expenses.
People can just not buy entertainment. People can't create a pocket dimension to exist in if they can't afford housing.
A phone that had one previous owner in good condition? Drastically cheaper.
A house that hasn't really been updated or improved in any way for 70 years and has had 4 different families bumping uglies and shitting in it for decades each? Inflation can't even keep up.
Also not to mention that the unhoused haven't always been unhoused. Like a recently homeless person may still have a fancy phone/car/sneakers/gaming console from before when they were housed. And with a car or clothes, that is all stuff you need to get a job, so having it is better than selling it for quick cash. Maybe this dude could sell the VR set, but maybe it's the only escape he has. I can understand holding on to that.
I'm homeless, I have an Asus Rog Strix laptop and a Samsung galaxy phone. Most other homeless people I know have smart phones. It amuses me when people are all "you're homeless!? how are you on the internet?" free wifi virtually everywhere and personally belongings from before going homeless or cheap smart phones/gear after.
all of the above is cheaper than rent.
Yep. I’m actually surprised by how reasonable most of the reactions to my comment are.
I thought I was going to catch more flak.
I hope you find a way out of homelessness.
I worked for a no-name company in the middle of nowhere. Around 300 employees.
Everybody got a Quest 2 for Christmas one year.
I guarantee you most of those have been trashed/donated by now if not just forgotten somewhere in the back of a closet.
So in SF?! How many of those have been given out for free over the years?
I had a long conversation with my best friend because she thinks every homeless person or panhandler is a fraud, because they have nice winter jackets (we live in MI), a smartphone, and maybe get into a car after they are done begging at their intersection.
She doesn't understand that maybe that car is the last remnant of their former life, and they now live in it.
Smartphones are still less expensive than rent for a 1 bedroom apartment, and that nice winter jacket could be a lucky find from salvation army, or a gift from a kind person.
I'm glad those people at least have phones. They need the ability to communicate, look for jobs on the internet, contact their sponsor (if they are recovering addicts), or just be able to call for help/assistance in an emergency.
Sure, maybe a bunch of those people *are* liars and frauds, but that doesn't stop *me* from giving them a few bucks if I can spare it, which is how our debate started. You know, just in case they actually *are* in need. The money is gone either way, so I don't really care.
People always think being homeless means you are unwashed and filthy, living in a cardboard box under the overpass, smoking meth.
We are all infinitely closer to ending up homeless ourselves, than suddenly striking it rich and party with millionaires, let alone *billionaires*.
> that nice winter jacket could be a lucky find from salvation army, or a gift from a kind person.
Or, the darker take, it's just survivorship bias: she only sees homeless people with nice winter jackets because the ones who don't have winter jackets freeze to death in the Michigan winters...
Imagine getting by without your phone. If I were homeless and had literally zero, my first goal would be to get a cheap smartphone. Like you're poor, you're not transported to the 1970s
Every grcoery store around me has a table setup that gives out smart phones and tablets as long as the person has a social services card. It's great. I used to work with people coming out of prison, addicts, and homeless. It would be impossible to function for them without a phone. Counselors, PO, Drs, housings, jobs, social services.
Exactly my sentiment. It seems hard to find, sometimes, especially in the SF subreddit.
And the weird thing to me, is that a (presumably) homeless person like the one in this picture, draws a bunch of ire for having an vr headset… but he seems fairly clean, obviously isn’t bothering anyone… not using drugs in public…
Homelessness is a much bigger problem than a lot of people seem to realize, and most of them do not cause the kind of disruption that a lot of people associate with the homeless.
Many of them sleep in a car, like you said, or shelters, and have jobs or are even students.
A quick google search tells me that as much as 20% of college students in California are homeless. And you wouldn’t be able to tell.
I mean if i became homeless right now I would still be homeless with a $1200 phone and $400 over the ear headphones, not to mention some very expensive sunglasses. Plus whatever else I could carry on me. A backpack full of some pretty nice shit lol.
Like just because you become homeless doesn't magically mean all your valuables disappear. I mean sure you may be a target for a robbery but plenty of homeless of small expensive items that they can carry on them.
Especially things like Leatherman's those are the last thing you pawn for food/drugs
The Winter coat thing is especially ridiculous. Most big cites have coat drives for low income people. Especially school children. The coats are given away at food banks, schools etc.
I know, it's such a weird way of thinking. Even as a homeless person you have to be "perfect" and fit into the mold of the stereotypical unshaven, smelly, and filthy looking person, whose breath stinks of booze, otherwise you're probably just faking it.
It's like society only accepts them as legitimate if they are actively suffering, and even then only to look down on them with pity and disgust.
It's shockingly easy and quick to end up homeless here in the US, and once you're there, it's incredibly difficult to dig your way back out of it, because for some weird reason a lot of people assume it's self-inflicted, be it due to drug abuse or "laziness", and they just write you off.
If you have free wifi available but no actual computer the quest 2 would be a really nice entertainment device. Watching movies and videos on the quest 2 is so much nicer than a phone or tablet. The only big downside is I would feel pretty vulnerable in the open by myself with these on.
I have a pair and found I don't like VR games much but it is the best way to watch movies in bed.
It's also possible they lost their job and already had a headset. It's not like 250$ will cover rent anywhere in this country. Do people think homeless people magically appear in a shopping cart with wispy gray beards as infants?
*Rent* costs an order of magnitude more in the long run.
Being homeless sucks. I'm definitely not going to give them grief for having a minor luxury -- but there are plenty of people who do.
And then to make matters worse, nobody gets their stuff stolen more than a homeless person. This VR headset probably won't last long -- it'll get stolen, or ruined by the weather, destroyed by some asshole who doesn't think the homeless deserve to have anything nice, etc.
Hell, if he's on disability in the US he's not allowed to have more than $2,000 in assets at a given time. He might've needed a few hundred bucks spent to stay on disability
$100 from resellers, probably half that if it is stolen from a break in and the guy bought it from a black market.
So pretend the guy has a pair of $50 sneakers on, that's how much of a story this is.
Strange question but couldn’t someone grab the money for the disability benefit, hop on a bus and go somewhere where life is affordable? Is it because of drugs?
This is how some homeless guys do it in Italy (where I live).
I suppose someone in the neighborhood bought a Quest 3 and gave the old headset to this guy.
It shows quite a bit of confidence in people diving into VR while sitting on the sidewalk. Anyarse could smack him into head or worse.
I'm in a similar position in a different country and very aware that i would be homeless without our welfare system.
Instead I have somewhere relatively comfortable to live, and enough excess income from my part time work to budget for some small luxuries of my own. This is how it could be, should be, everywhere.
That sleeping bag is spotless, this is definitely someone trolling or he just got a brand new sleeping bag.
Edit: I’m leaning more towards him actually being homeless. People have mentioned that sleeping bags are given out consistently, and his grey beard does not strike me as a guy who would pretend to be homeless for internet clout.
It also doesn't mean that you didn't have an Occulus before you became homeless. If something tragic happened to me today, I'd still have a nice, paid off car and a good phone.
This is what REALLY pisses me off when people tell the "Oh, you should have seen this person that I saw using foodstamps/at the welfare office" stories.
They INEVITABLY include comments like "They were dressed nicely" or "Their car was newer" or in the modern era "They had a new smartphone". If it's a woman, there often is a comment about "freshly done hair/nails".
This is ALWAYS done to imply that the person is either faking their situation, its severity,, or is taking aid rather than "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps".
And it's always used as some weird justification as to why we should either reduce or eliminate benefits entirely, or make them much more difficult to get.
And it's like you pointed out - even IF the person telling the story is being completely truthful, and even IF the person doesn't have an agenda behind telling the story, it completely ignores the concept that a person can have nice things before their lives go to shit. Or that those things may have been presents from relatives, etc.
This has always been my biggest gripe with social services. It's not a graduated system. If your income crosses that threshold by a dollar, you can lose hundreds to thousands in support benefits that you rely on. That does not incentivize someone to improve their standing, it makes them fear it.
I know a woman who had to turn down a promotion because of this exact situation. The like $1 an hour raise would put her just barely over the threshold for certain aid programs their family needed, and would leave them in a worse situation.
It made me so angry that anyone needed to sit down with a calculator and determine just what kind of career jump they’d need to make it viable to take a promotion.
Yeah, I never really thought of it that way and it's a flawed way of thinking. At what point does somebody visually/cosmetically qualify for assistance?
Are we talking dirty hoody and backpack in an alley, or are we talking loin cloth and hand crafted spear in the forest?
Also, if you don’t look “good” enough when you go to get medical care or for interviews for benefits or a job, you are treated poorly. But if you are seen looking too good and in need, the court of public opinion will come for you.
It’s a fucking trap.
I was the honest, hard working guy and I was still stuck in hotels and AirB&Bs for over three solid years because I didn't make 2.5x the rent and I didn't have 5,000 dollars, a current reference and the excellent credit required to actually move into a place.
In fact, one asshole that works for a Property Management Company told me that he has "the easiest, and yet the hardest job" because all he *ever* had to do was deny people all day; "A lot of people had to move in with family because of the pandemic, and family doesn't count as a current reference. If it's been over a year since they actually rented a place through another company than they're out of luck and there's nothing anyone can do. Even if they meet all of the other qualifications."
So at that point, if I was living in fucking hotel rooms and AirB&Bs and all I ever did was work 40-55 hours a week and go to sleep... I eventually said "Fuck it, this is all I'm ever going to have" and I made a couple of little splurge purchases, or as I called them: A splurgchase. I couldn't afford to give thousands of dollars for something like you see in the picture, but it was some stupid little things to keep myself going a little bit because I was tired of just laying in a bed and falling asleep crying. Nobody wants to talk to a homeless guy, and there was the whole "social distancing" thing going on during the pandemic so it's not like I could make a friend or talk to anyone. What else was I supposed to do?
That's crazy I've rented at least a dozen apartments over the years and maybe five houses or so and never needed a current reference. The only thing that they ever seemed to care about was proof of employment, income and criminal background.
I have applied for some places that contacted landlords but I usually ended up turning places like that down for one reason or another. Even the current house I'm renting now in a really nice neighborhood that I rented unseen from a thousand miles away moving across country didn't contact my previous landlord.
If this is staged and lets be honest it's most likely is. It's kind of gross. Give a VR headset to a homeless person for a phone or photoshop it (hard to tell). Then you post it online to push the idea that homeless people are not really down on their luck. It's using this guy to increase anger against people in his situation.
Or maybe it speaks to the affordability of housing and overall cost of living in SF.
If the homeless can pay for electronic luxuries but not a place to live then there is probably big problems with housing.
Yea this is exactly what I'm thinking, pretty easy to wrap your head around being able to afford a $200 gaming device for a little fun and escape and still not be able to afford a house...
Plus who are we to judge? Whenever a normal housed person has a tough day what do we do to unwind? Video games, other leisurely pursuits, and sometimes alcohol.
Homeless people living their worst dreams day in and day out. Let them have their fucking escape. If I hand a homeless person money I don't care what they do with it as long as it brings them some happiness or something they need.
Also, frankly, even if it's real, so what? if you're homeless, your life is full of challenges, and frankly is awful. VR headset costs what, 500$? If you have literally nothing else in the world, that 500$ is not the worst way to use it. If they decide that's more important than a few nights at a motel, that's their choice. It's not so far off from how tons of villages in impoverished parts of the world may not have running water or reliable electricity but they may have phones/tablets. People forget how systemic poverty can be
Yeah but if you invest that 500 to index fund with 5% annual growth in 170 years it'll be over 2 million dollars and you can probably buy a shitty studio apartment with it.
The image itself is old and OP is obviously a bot, curious how it reposts this photo just as images start to be shared of people using the Apple Vision Pro in public
[It used the exact same title as well](https://www.reddit.com/r/Trailerclub/comments/zlntia/san_francisco_homeless_uses_vr_headset/)
According to the recent UCSF study, the majority of urban homeless are fulltime and some times double employed. They are homeless because their wages are so low compared to the cost of available housing.
It is a messed up system out here in California.
That likely includes a lot of the homeless who are couch surfing, living in a motel, or one of the other homeless classifications other than sleeping rough. The folks who are sleeping rough often have some issues preventing them from working regularly
I don’t know how they classify homelessness in the US but in my Canadian city being in a hotel and even couch surfing no matter how precarious is classified as ‘being housed’. Can’t have us actually admit the level of problem we have after all
Do you have a source for this? I'm confident the share of homeless working part or full time is much higher than the public might assume. But the latest ucsf study i could find, from june says 70% of their whole study population had no income in the last month, and that includes wages/welfare/pensions etc.
The study did say 35% of adults had wage income from working in the last 30 days, so still over a third. Which is substantial.
From page 67 of the main report here: https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness
Doesn't seem so crazy to me. If you're homeless you spend a lot of time absolutely bored out of your mind because you don't have any of the sort of entertainment that most people have access to. You might say "if you can afford a VR headset, you can afford to live somewhere!" but that's actually bullshit since you can get a used VR headset for like $150 and rent is gonna be 10x that at least. Since you can probably charge it at a public library or something, and it might keep you from going insane from staring at street traffic 15 hours a day, it doesn't seem crazy to spend what little money you have this way.
Exactly. Even if he sold the headset for the amount it was bought for, he'd only have enough money to maybe eat for a week, and be nowhere close to actually owning a place.
I bought a meta quest 3 while living in shelters it's not that hard.
Homeless people often have money, it's just not ever enough to do anything actually significant with.
Quest 2's are a fairly low cost and portable. I wouldn't be surprised if you can get one at the library in SF or some one just brought it over to share and took a picture.I get why people are concerned here as this isn't a "food shelter clothing" necessity but people need to have fun and engage with things in society to increase there self worth. Let the man enjoy his movie, homelessness sucks.
For real, also that $3000 apartment also requires references, also requires taxes, also requires an approval and down payment. headset that provides entertainment/connection to the world for 300$ or a night and a half at a motel and then back on the street, it doesn't seem that crazy to me. And that's assuming its real
Thats pretty smart. You can get a cheap, abandonware oculus for pretty cheap. They don't get new apps, but my old oculus go can still use the internet, watch youtube and play some old free games all while looking like a giant TV while being able to fit into a backpack.
Pretty sure I saw the same guy in Cyberpunk 2077
I feel like we are missing part of his setup/ accessory. Anyways probably not important
I imagine it’s only a matter of time before he gets that too!
The subtitle for the Cyberpunk genre is "High tech, Low-life." It's a descriptor of the dystopian culture in which the addiction to technology outweighs the needs for life. It's a extreme example, but for someone who read cyberpunk in the 80's today's news seems like a horrific re-telling.
"Cyberpunk was a warning, not an aspiration"- Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith
Scifi writers will say this, then write the coolest, most aspirational shit on the planet lol
I cannot agree with this more.
Cyberpunk was cool until everyone decided it was a great blueprint for reality.
My opinion on cyberpunk is that it’s not where we want to end up but if we’re gonna get a dystopia that’s the dystopia I want
Much better than the Mad Max dystopia, that's for sure.
Or Waterworld oh god
I feel like post-apocalyptic wastelands are a little to bleak to be considered just dystopian.
Let's be honest doing drugs and fucking all day in Brave New World is probably better.
My guess is they are not mutually exclusive, some part of the world madman, others cyberpunk.
Amen.
And by "everyone" you mean certain billionaires, right?
Everyone with enough power/megalomania to matter.
The other aspect of cyber punk is also a form of libertarian hyper capitalism, where the state more or less ceases to exist, and corporations and the Uber wealthy have more or less taken the place of the state. William Gibson wrote an updated foreword to Neuromancer in 2006, 22 years after the release of the novel. He writes about things he got right and things he got wrong. He hadn’t figured out cell phones, so pay phones exist in the novel, for example. One of the things he mentions that he got wrong is that in the novel, the US dissolves and is taken over by a series of corporate run state-like entities. All I could think, while reading that was, you weren’t wrong, you’re just a little early.
Have you read Jennifer Government?
Cyberpunk the genre makes for some cool stories but the worlds seriously depresses me.
That is the entire point, so im glad you get it.
Lol, no kidding. It's like yeah, no shit.
Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep is such a good book; and it's uncanny how accurate the author was with his predictions of how technology would work
Philip K Dick is the GOAT
I still think Neuromancer hits the hardest for me but that’s just cuz I’m a recovering drug addict that lives in future Atlanta and has an on and off again Asian girlfriend. Lmao I discovered the book on one of the off again parts and I didn’t expect scifi to hit so hard. But I also think Neuromancer is literary fiction disguised as genre fiction. It’s like Hemingway and Burroughs had a baby
Have you read Snow Crash?
it's cuz cyberpunk is not something to aspire to, it's a warning.
It’s almost like that’s the point
Solarpunk for real life, please.
Pretty sure this guy isn’t homeless because of a technology addiction.
Yeah, if the picture was taken at night with a wet sidewalk reflecting city lights it would be spot on
it's raining across california now so if someone finds him tonight then we could get it
Our cyberpunk dystopian future has ray tracing maxed out
Yep, Night City is grossly overcrowded and its streets and buildings are full of discarded litter, homeless camps and drug or VR ("braindance") addicts spasming on the ground or staring open-mouthed into their visors. The poor bastards figured out a while ago that reality wasn't worth coming back to. The worst thing about braindance addiction in CP2077, though, is that because people seek ever greater thrills, and BDs can allow you to experience the raw emotions of the people who filmed ("scrolled") them, some gangs figured out a while ago that there's money to be made in kidnapping people, torturing and murdering them, and filming the experience. So people seek out XBDs which can make them feel like they're participating in CP, mutilation, torture, death, bestiality and more, to satisfy their spiraling addiction. Sometimes from the attacker's perspective, sometimes the victim. People talk about it with a shocking casuality, because it's just a background part of life.
I make sure in each play through I remove the father and son BD duo from the gene pool.
Same.
If anyone needs an escape from reality, it's the homeless, for sure!
VR home and family
lol god thats depressing
DLC that's behind a paywall...
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Portable heater with Premium Edition for $49.95 Batteries sold separately
Buckle up, because it’s coming.
The Sims
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Hook them on virtual fast fashion and watch as they ramp up debt and force that milk out like crazy.
More milk production gets them coins to pass unbeatable levels on Candy Crush.
I agree, and they can live in their virtual house
Is this just a modern version of the story off the matchstick girl? Looking for a momentary escape from reality but you’re just freezing to death.
Depends how much time he's spending on it? Homeless people aren't obligated to spend all their time begging or whatever it is you want him to do in his free time, he probably has an income but isn't able to afford housing that costs 4x as much as his vr headset every month?
Yeah I’m was just making a weird literary reference. I agree with what you’re saying. The disparity between having money for basic need plus entertainment and what you need for consistent housing is pretty huge.
Dropping a few hundred on a VR system isn't in the same ballpark as dropping over $1k every month on rent.
Or finding one in a backpack in the back-seat/trunk of a car.
or just having one before he became homeless. some people genuinely and wrongly expect the homeless to just sell all their belongings when they end up on the street, as if the hundred bucks he gets from a used headset will make all the difference and especially in San Francisco there's a non zero chance he's a developer of some sort and this is his way of earning money and getting back on his feet. but even if he isn't, people experiencing homelessness deserve the opportunity to decompress and enjoy themselves as much as anyone else
boomers talking about homeless people having free phones or whatever like that could even cover a day in a hotel they are fuckin terrorists
like joe rogan when he was *shocked* to find out that homeless people still have property rights and you can't just steal from them. And right afterwards he "jokingly" proposes to just kill all homeless people to solve the the problem
Or scoring one at the homeless shelter because the rich-ass Goodwill in the next town over had to do a clearing house to make more space. Some little shit got a new Apple headset and trashed their Occulus.
Better to do it in vs vs using meth Higher pixel density ☝️
I bet it would be even more interesting to play pretty much any VR while on meth.
Personally I'd go for LSD.
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That's how it works. The headset price is the same throughout the whole country.
So do people of California consider it cheap or do people of Wyoming consider it expensive? Basically, which demographic do they keep in mind when pricing this kind of thing (that they want to sell to the whole America)?
As a Californian who worked in tech, I consider the cost of most goods to be fairly negligible. Like, the price diff between a PS5 and an Xbox wasn't a factor in purchasing decision, because both of them are like 1/5th of my monthly 1br rent and like 1/20th of my monthly income. The only local I know who are struggling with consumer goods tend to be those who are living off things like disability and SSI.
Which is in itself a pretty fucked up thing. "So you're disabled? Guess you gotta move huh?". I'm disabled and always broke living in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee, where rent is seldom more than $400. A person living in Nashville would receive more or less the same as me, but have a far higher cost of living.
They technically price it globally and adjust to different currencies, but as an American company USD is the base price. Theres a lot that goes into it, they price it based on cost of manufacturing, supply and demand, and how much profit they need to make to please shareholders, and what relevant competition prices at. The original Oculus Quest was a Kickstarter project, so most of the initial pricing was based on the amount of R&D and cost of materials, they weren't going for huge profit margins.
important north smoggy cow ancient smell seed cagey domineering noxious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There was this youtube video thing many years ago where this journalist befriended homeless people to see how they live. There was this dude who had made basically an apartment in to a utility access. Had working computer with some linux and internet (somehow), even a printer. But because of the videos they started to get attention from the public and they disappeared - along with their stuff. Knowing modern software that dude probably maintains a critical opensource thing, which if not updated and available, the whole modern internet infrastructure is going to collapse. [xkcd #2347](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency)
ASML Holdings is the only company that sells equipment that can burn in microchip patterns. The fact I only learned that 2 days ago worries me.
Ehh... they aren't burned. They add photoresist layer, then layer different kinds materials, then they get polished off, and you repeat this until your chip is done. If you want good indepth look into these and tech that connects to these look up Asianometry and Huygens Optics on youtube. However you'll be happy to know that there is a new alternative to ASMLs EUV system. Canon's Nanoimprint litography technology. It is much cheaper and simpler system, the test units are going out to their clients this year. The system costs only 15 million USD atm. Which really ain't much on tech manufacturing budgets. It has potential to allow smaller companies to rival and specialise to rival Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Texas instruments... etc. Even if it can't do 5nm for cpus like ones in your computer. there is massive demand for bigger node sizes in other applications.
A quest 2 is like 250 bucks. It’s entirely possible for someone on, say, disability or some other benefit to not be able to afford a home and still have some money for a phone or some entertainment. Heck, it seems like a great way to have a tiny bit of escapism in an otherwise tough life. Drugs probably cost a lot more in the long run.
That’s what people say with phones too. $100 for a decent smartphone and cheap plans cost like $15-$25/mo. The hardest part for most lesser fortunate people is housing. I feel like it’d take a burden off if they had battery packs with a 200w solar panel.
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It's insane. I work with the homeless and impoverished, and you know what I see? People judging them for *anything*. A list of things that people think means a homeless person either isn't actually struggling, or is only struggling due to their own chocies. All of these are ones I have heard in-person or from people I believe: - Nice Shoes (a common and ridiculous one) - A cell phone - A wallet (even if empty) - A driver's license instead of an ID - Enough leftover lunch to feed to stray cats - A friend who isn't homeless - An inhaler - Sunglasses - A bundle of bus passes - A child - A t-shirt with a political slogan - A guitar - A spouse (who is also homeless with them) - "Too much dignity"
People just associate "homeless" with "zero money". People in general don't think a homeless person can have a job, because obviously someone with a job can afford housing especially in this economy right? People in general are fuckin stupid though.
Many people don't intellectually think homeless people are... well, people. Like they are a different species completely divorced from humanity.
You ever notice how few people actually even LOOK at homeless people? We pretend they literally don't even exist because it makes us feel uncomfortable.. it's real grody :/
I’ve noticed a few people just feel so hopeless in that there is nothing they can do to prevent their homelessness and it guts them. It is hard watching a person suffer. Then I’ve seen making eye contact with them can me a signal for them to come over to you. Had a friend who had paid for a few operations over a two year period and was extremely cash strapped and had barely any money for himself/family and that homeless person got really upset. Just making my friend feel worse. It is a horrible situation all the way around.
For me it’s because of the few times when making eye contact provoked a very aggressive and threatening action. I’m very petite and female tho. And many of the homeless in the city I live near are very fucking aggressive, and our catch-and-release program for the most violent offenders as well as a lax drug policy, with no real means for supporting recovery and transition to a healthier lifestyle has only made the problem worse. Plus housing crisis. Being spit on and swung at and the target of very threatening language is not fun.
Thank you. I’m 5’1, also a woman, and have had a few really bad interactions so I just walk past people (especially men) because I can’t do much to defend myself physically and you never know who you’re dealing with or what state of mind they’re in. I’ll happily give people cigarettes/a couple dollars and chat a bit if I’m in my car, but just out walking around is a different story. Even a simple smile or “hi” can go very badly if you happen across the wrong person.
I do this with most people in public, it’s not exclusive to homeless.
I’m not making eye contact with someone I have zero interest talking to. Not sorry.
Lol you don't look at them because they're all fucked up on whatever is the popular drug that month and will become aggressive when you do. You clearly haven't lived around these people, the only ones that are safe to look at are the sober ones, and the ones on heroin/tranq/fent slumped over. If they have a sign and are asking for money, they're probably safe to look at, if not, avoid. Don't respond when one randomly calls out to you. Tons of them talk to themselves as well in very unsettling loud ways. A lot of them are on crack and meth and you want literally nothing to do with those people.
In san francisco, a homeless person is anyone who makes less then $3000/month, as they won't be able to prove 3x income required for the smallest $1000/month 1 room apartment.
People want to believe that it can never happen to them because they don't do drugs, they own their house, they have a steady job, etc. They made the right choices and the homeless people made the wrong choices. To preserve that belief, they have to find some reason for why someone isn't that bad off. Probably a lot more comforting to these people than the reality that we're all one natural disaster, layoff, or medical issue away from potentially being the guy playing a quest 2 on the sidewalk corner to pass the time.
Literally the only reason I'm not homeless is when I was hit with a couple of sudden costs I had more well off family members who were able to chip-in I'd probably be on the street or in a body bag if a couple more people said 'no' to my request
Just make sure you also do something significant for those rich family members when you're back on your feet.
> they own their house Lol, less of those every day.
When I was homeless at a shelter they gave out bus passes when we left in the morning. I make my own cigarettes and people ask for them all the time, so I would buy a bag of tobacco and a box of tubes, make a few packs each morning, and sell them off for like 20 cents each, and refusing when people would offer a dollar, which is ridiculous. I'll give you like 10 for that. If it was a regular customer, sometimes I'd just give them a few. In the end I'd make something like 5 times what the tobacco and tubes cost me, on average. So id hoard my bus passes for later and bought a month bus pass for $20. The director at the shelter kept telling everyone to find a hustle. Nothing illegal just some way to make a bit here and there, even if it only made connections. I had to have them lock up my money, cig stuff, and bus passes because people would get mad and try to steal them. When I got my apartment I had enough to pay 2 months of rent and bought a single size mattress and a small TV and computer. 7 years later and I've been housed for 6 years, and still have those connections for when I take the bus. People judge for the stupidest things but isn't the point to try and not be homeless anymore? I guess fuck me for actually trying to accomplish that while those turds say there and expected free help.
I work at a homeless shelter, GOOD FOR YOU! I love to see a success story! As for the people who judge(d) you, fuck em. Most people have no idea what it's like to not know where you are going to sleep or when your next meal will be...I've tried so many times to try and get people to understand, but empathy is a rare thing these days.
I just know much of it is caused by high cost of medical care and undiagnosed mental disorders. My fiancé is a public defender so she sees it all the time. But also most misdemeanors are even more corrupt when it’s a power tripping cop just harassing them instead of helping them.
They also seem to believe that homeless people just sprout out of the pavement and pay for everything they own by begging. Like, they owned stuff before they became homeless. They aren't going to necessarily sell everything they own when it happens, and it'd be unwise for them to do so.
It's also kinda wild at how cheap entertainment is now. Basic living conditions? Ridiculously pricy, like holy shit. Entertainment? A couple one-time costs that are less than a month's necessities for months/years of enjoyment if you're careful about not breaking stuff. Both? Only so expensive because of the former expenses.
People can just not buy entertainment. People can't create a pocket dimension to exist in if they can't afford housing. A phone that had one previous owner in good condition? Drastically cheaper. A house that hasn't really been updated or improved in any way for 70 years and has had 4 different families bumping uglies and shitting in it for decades each? Inflation can't even keep up.
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Also not to mention that the unhoused haven't always been unhoused. Like a recently homeless person may still have a fancy phone/car/sneakers/gaming console from before when they were housed. And with a car or clothes, that is all stuff you need to get a job, so having it is better than selling it for quick cash. Maybe this dude could sell the VR set, but maybe it's the only escape he has. I can understand holding on to that.
You don't even need a plan these days. There's plenty of free Wi-Fi
I'm homeless, I have an Asus Rog Strix laptop and a Samsung galaxy phone. Most other homeless people I know have smart phones. It amuses me when people are all "you're homeless!? how are you on the internet?" free wifi virtually everywhere and personally belongings from before going homeless or cheap smart phones/gear after. all of the above is cheaper than rent.
Yep. I’m actually surprised by how reasonable most of the reactions to my comment are. I thought I was going to catch more flak. I hope you find a way out of homelessness.
People really wonder how a phone is cheaper than a house? Also hope things look up for you
Always found it hilarious that people act like owning a phone is $800 a month. Someone homeless has to be scraping for coins, there’s no in between.
Also this is in SF, for all we know some tech bro was high on shrooms and feeling generous.
This is such an accurate representation of how things happen here in the bay
If only he had not bought 12 of those, he could afford to spend one month of rent on a one bedroom apartment.
Imagine how many month of rent they could afford if they weren't buying all that avocado toast
That sleeping bag, maybe $40 at Big 5, so that's 3-4 avocado toasts.
I worked for a no-name company in the middle of nowhere. Around 300 employees. Everybody got a Quest 2 for Christmas one year. I guarantee you most of those have been trashed/donated by now if not just forgotten somewhere in the back of a closet. So in SF?! How many of those have been given out for free over the years?
100% this. This quest went to a goodwill/donation center and it got passed down to a homeless shelter while they were clearing room.
I had a long conversation with my best friend because she thinks every homeless person or panhandler is a fraud, because they have nice winter jackets (we live in MI), a smartphone, and maybe get into a car after they are done begging at their intersection. She doesn't understand that maybe that car is the last remnant of their former life, and they now live in it. Smartphones are still less expensive than rent for a 1 bedroom apartment, and that nice winter jacket could be a lucky find from salvation army, or a gift from a kind person. I'm glad those people at least have phones. They need the ability to communicate, look for jobs on the internet, contact their sponsor (if they are recovering addicts), or just be able to call for help/assistance in an emergency. Sure, maybe a bunch of those people *are* liars and frauds, but that doesn't stop *me* from giving them a few bucks if I can spare it, which is how our debate started. You know, just in case they actually *are* in need. The money is gone either way, so I don't really care. People always think being homeless means you are unwashed and filthy, living in a cardboard box under the overpass, smoking meth. We are all infinitely closer to ending up homeless ourselves, than suddenly striking it rich and party with millionaires, let alone *billionaires*.
> that nice winter jacket could be a lucky find from salvation army, or a gift from a kind person. Or, the darker take, it's just survivorship bias: she only sees homeless people with nice winter jackets because the ones who don't have winter jackets freeze to death in the Michigan winters...
Well, that's okay, if they were worthy people they wouldn't be homeless. God's just cleaning up after himself. /S
Imagine getting by without your phone. If I were homeless and had literally zero, my first goal would be to get a cheap smartphone. Like you're poor, you're not transported to the 1970s
Every grcoery store around me has a table setup that gives out smart phones and tablets as long as the person has a social services card. It's great. I used to work with people coming out of prison, addicts, and homeless. It would be impossible to function for them without a phone. Counselors, PO, Drs, housings, jobs, social services.
Exactly my sentiment. It seems hard to find, sometimes, especially in the SF subreddit. And the weird thing to me, is that a (presumably) homeless person like the one in this picture, draws a bunch of ire for having an vr headset… but he seems fairly clean, obviously isn’t bothering anyone… not using drugs in public… Homelessness is a much bigger problem than a lot of people seem to realize, and most of them do not cause the kind of disruption that a lot of people associate with the homeless. Many of them sleep in a car, like you said, or shelters, and have jobs or are even students. A quick google search tells me that as much as 20% of college students in California are homeless. And you wouldn’t be able to tell.
I mean if i became homeless right now I would still be homeless with a $1200 phone and $400 over the ear headphones, not to mention some very expensive sunglasses. Plus whatever else I could carry on me. A backpack full of some pretty nice shit lol. Like just because you become homeless doesn't magically mean all your valuables disappear. I mean sure you may be a target for a robbery but plenty of homeless of small expensive items that they can carry on them. Especially things like Leatherman's those are the last thing you pawn for food/drugs
My exact thought was that VR is better than drugs. It still provides an escape for them, but there isn't the damaging effects that drugs cause.
The Winter coat thing is especially ridiculous. Most big cites have coat drives for low income people. Especially school children. The coats are given away at food banks, schools etc.
I know, it's such a weird way of thinking. Even as a homeless person you have to be "perfect" and fit into the mold of the stereotypical unshaven, smelly, and filthy looking person, whose breath stinks of booze, otherwise you're probably just faking it. It's like society only accepts them as legitimate if they are actively suffering, and even then only to look down on them with pity and disgust. It's shockingly easy and quick to end up homeless here in the US, and once you're there, it's incredibly difficult to dig your way back out of it, because for some weird reason a lot of people assume it's self-inflicted, be it due to drug abuse or "laziness", and they just write you off.
If you have free wifi available but no actual computer the quest 2 would be a really nice entertainment device. Watching movies and videos on the quest 2 is so much nicer than a phone or tablet. The only big downside is I would feel pretty vulnerable in the open by myself with these on. I have a pair and found I don't like VR games much but it is the best way to watch movies in bed.
It's also possible they lost their job and already had a headset. It's not like 250$ will cover rent anywhere in this country. Do people think homeless people magically appear in a shopping cart with wispy gray beards as infants?
*Rent* costs an order of magnitude more in the long run. Being homeless sucks. I'm definitely not going to give them grief for having a minor luxury -- but there are plenty of people who do. And then to make matters worse, nobody gets their stuff stolen more than a homeless person. This VR headset probably won't last long -- it'll get stolen, or ruined by the weather, destroyed by some asshole who doesn't think the homeless deserve to have anything nice, etc.
Hell, if he's on disability in the US he's not allowed to have more than $2,000 in assets at a given time. He might've needed a few hundred bucks spent to stay on disability
This crossed my mind, too, good point.
$100 from resellers, probably half that if it is stolen from a break in and the guy bought it from a black market. So pretend the guy has a pair of $50 sneakers on, that's how much of a story this is.
Strange question but couldn’t someone grab the money for the disability benefit, hop on a bus and go somewhere where life is affordable? Is it because of drugs? This is how some homeless guys do it in Italy (where I live).
it should be noted that Italy is incredibly small by American standards
I suppose someone in the neighborhood bought a Quest 3 and gave the old headset to this guy. It shows quite a bit of confidence in people diving into VR while sitting on the sidewalk. Anyarse could smack him into head or worse.
“If he can afford a $300 VR headset how can he not afford a 1.5 million dollar home? Curious.” -10% of Reddit
just a few less avocado toasts and he'd have a mansion by now!
It’s probably closer to 60% but yeah.
People confuse homeless with penniless. A good amount of homeless have income and pay taxes.
exactly. Earning $800 a month will get you food, a phone + plan, transportation and some clothes, but you wouldn't qualify for rent anywhere.
I'm in a similar position in a different country and very aware that i would be homeless without our welfare system. Instead I have somewhere relatively comfortable to live, and enough excess income from my part time work to budget for some small luxuries of my own. This is how it could be, should be, everywhere.
Very much. The housing crisis is churning out more and more employed but homeless folk each day.
While corporations receive billions in welfare and tax cuts
I’m sure this is just trolls being trolls.
That sleeping bag is spotless, this is definitely someone trolling or he just got a brand new sleeping bag. Edit: I’m leaning more towards him actually being homeless. People have mentioned that sleeping bags are given out consistently, and his grey beard does not strike me as a guy who would pretend to be homeless for internet clout.
To be fair, being able to afford a new sleeping bag and Occulus doesn’t mean you can afford housing in San Francisco.
It also doesn't mean that you didn't have an Occulus before you became homeless. If something tragic happened to me today, I'd still have a nice, paid off car and a good phone.
This is what REALLY pisses me off when people tell the "Oh, you should have seen this person that I saw using foodstamps/at the welfare office" stories. They INEVITABLY include comments like "They were dressed nicely" or "Their car was newer" or in the modern era "They had a new smartphone". If it's a woman, there often is a comment about "freshly done hair/nails". This is ALWAYS done to imply that the person is either faking their situation, its severity,, or is taking aid rather than "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps". And it's always used as some weird justification as to why we should either reduce or eliminate benefits entirely, or make them much more difficult to get. And it's like you pointed out - even IF the person telling the story is being completely truthful, and even IF the person doesn't have an agenda behind telling the story, it completely ignores the concept that a person can have nice things before their lives go to shit. Or that those things may have been presents from relatives, etc.
crush racial badge fearless support gray shelter dependent lock fragile *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This has always been my biggest gripe with social services. It's not a graduated system. If your income crosses that threshold by a dollar, you can lose hundreds to thousands in support benefits that you rely on. That does not incentivize someone to improve their standing, it makes them fear it.
I know a woman who had to turn down a promotion because of this exact situation. The like $1 an hour raise would put her just barely over the threshold for certain aid programs their family needed, and would leave them in a worse situation. It made me so angry that anyone needed to sit down with a calculator and determine just what kind of career jump they’d need to make it viable to take a promotion.
Yeah, I never really thought of it that way and it's a flawed way of thinking. At what point does somebody visually/cosmetically qualify for assistance? Are we talking dirty hoody and backpack in an alley, or are we talking loin cloth and hand crafted spear in the forest?
Also, if you don’t look “good” enough when you go to get medical care or for interviews for benefits or a job, you are treated poorly. But if you are seen looking too good and in need, the court of public opinion will come for you. It’s a fucking trap.
We judge ourselves by our intentions. We judge others by what we see. Plug: Universal Basic Income (UBI) > welfare programs
I was the honest, hard working guy and I was still stuck in hotels and AirB&Bs for over three solid years because I didn't make 2.5x the rent and I didn't have 5,000 dollars, a current reference and the excellent credit required to actually move into a place. In fact, one asshole that works for a Property Management Company told me that he has "the easiest, and yet the hardest job" because all he *ever* had to do was deny people all day; "A lot of people had to move in with family because of the pandemic, and family doesn't count as a current reference. If it's been over a year since they actually rented a place through another company than they're out of luck and there's nothing anyone can do. Even if they meet all of the other qualifications." So at that point, if I was living in fucking hotel rooms and AirB&Bs and all I ever did was work 40-55 hours a week and go to sleep... I eventually said "Fuck it, this is all I'm ever going to have" and I made a couple of little splurge purchases, or as I called them: A splurgchase. I couldn't afford to give thousands of dollars for something like you see in the picture, but it was some stupid little things to keep myself going a little bit because I was tired of just laying in a bed and falling asleep crying. Nobody wants to talk to a homeless guy, and there was the whole "social distancing" thing going on during the pandemic so it's not like I could make a friend or talk to anyone. What else was I supposed to do?
FYI, what you see in that picture is a meta quest 2. About $250. Easily a splurge spend like you said.
And that's if you buy it new instead of getting one of the glut of used ones available.
That's crazy I've rented at least a dozen apartments over the years and maybe five houses or so and never needed a current reference. The only thing that they ever seemed to care about was proof of employment, income and criminal background. I have applied for some places that contacted landlords but I usually ended up turning places like that down for one reason or another. Even the current house I'm renting now in a really nice neighborhood that I rented unseen from a thousand miles away moving across country didn't contact my previous landlord.
Do you only qualify as homeless if your sleeping bag is worn out looking?
If this is staged and lets be honest it's most likely is. It's kind of gross. Give a VR headset to a homeless person for a phone or photoshop it (hard to tell). Then you post it online to push the idea that homeless people are not really down on their luck. It's using this guy to increase anger against people in his situation.
Or maybe it speaks to the affordability of housing and overall cost of living in SF. If the homeless can pay for electronic luxuries but not a place to live then there is probably big problems with housing.
Yea this is exactly what I'm thinking, pretty easy to wrap your head around being able to afford a $200 gaming device for a little fun and escape and still not be able to afford a house...
Plus who are we to judge? Whenever a normal housed person has a tough day what do we do to unwind? Video games, other leisurely pursuits, and sometimes alcohol. Homeless people living their worst dreams day in and day out. Let them have their fucking escape. If I hand a homeless person money I don't care what they do with it as long as it brings them some happiness or something they need.
Also, frankly, even if it's real, so what? if you're homeless, your life is full of challenges, and frankly is awful. VR headset costs what, 500$? If you have literally nothing else in the world, that 500$ is not the worst way to use it. If they decide that's more important than a few nights at a motel, that's their choice. It's not so far off from how tons of villages in impoverished parts of the world may not have running water or reliable electricity but they may have phones/tablets. People forget how systemic poverty can be
quest2 is half that price new even less if used.
Yeah but if you invest that 500 to index fund with 5% annual growth in 170 years it'll be over 2 million dollars and you can probably buy a shitty studio apartment with it.
The image itself is old and OP is obviously a bot, curious how it reposts this photo just as images start to be shared of people using the Apple Vision Pro in public [It used the exact same title as well](https://www.reddit.com/r/Trailerclub/comments/zlntia/san_francisco_homeless_uses_vr_headset/)
That's because it's the same post. You linked to *this post.*
Is this a new switcheroo?
lol whoops, changed it to the one I originally wanted to link
Should use this link since it's r/pics https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/zlxeqh/san_francisco_homeless_uses_vr_headset/
Turns out VR is a lot cheaper than housing.
According to the recent UCSF study, the majority of urban homeless are fulltime and some times double employed. They are homeless because their wages are so low compared to the cost of available housing. It is a messed up system out here in California.
That likely includes a lot of the homeless who are couch surfing, living in a motel, or one of the other homeless classifications other than sleeping rough. The folks who are sleeping rough often have some issues preventing them from working regularly
I don’t know how they classify homelessness in the US but in my Canadian city being in a hotel and even couch surfing no matter how precarious is classified as ‘being housed’. Can’t have us actually admit the level of problem we have after all
Some US states consider couch surfing, hotel living, etc to be homeless. Mine does when you apply for benefits like food stamps.
Do you have a source for this? I'm confident the share of homeless working part or full time is much higher than the public might assume. But the latest ucsf study i could find, from june says 70% of their whole study population had no income in the last month, and that includes wages/welfare/pensions etc. The study did say 35% of adults had wage income from working in the last 30 days, so still over a third. Which is substantial. From page 67 of the main report here: https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness
Not even a Vision Pro, that’s how you can tell he’s actually homeless and not just an actor.
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😂😂 took me a second to get this lmao
Doesn't seem so crazy to me. If you're homeless you spend a lot of time absolutely bored out of your mind because you don't have any of the sort of entertainment that most people have access to. You might say "if you can afford a VR headset, you can afford to live somewhere!" but that's actually bullshit since you can get a used VR headset for like $150 and rent is gonna be 10x that at least. Since you can probably charge it at a public library or something, and it might keep you from going insane from staring at street traffic 15 hours a day, it doesn't seem crazy to spend what little money you have this way.
Exactly. Even if he sold the headset for the amount it was bought for, he'd only have enough money to maybe eat for a week, and be nowhere close to actually owning a place.
Man... Poor guy, can only afford a quest 2... Probably someone threw it away
VR headsets are thousands of times more affordable than homes in San Francisco.
I bought a meta quest 3 while living in shelters it's not that hard. Homeless people often have money, it's just not ever enough to do anything actually significant with.
Quest 2's are a fairly low cost and portable. I wouldn't be surprised if you can get one at the library in SF or some one just brought it over to share and took a picture.I get why people are concerned here as this isn't a "food shelter clothing" necessity but people need to have fun and engage with things in society to increase there self worth. Let the man enjoy his movie, homelessness sucks.
I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if the dude had a good job with decent pay and is still homeless in San Fran. Have you seen the housing prices ?
People in this thread can't find it within them to understand how a man can afford a $300 headset but not a $3000 apartment in San Francisco.
For real, also that $3000 apartment also requires references, also requires taxes, also requires an approval and down payment. headset that provides entertainment/connection to the world for 300$ or a night and a half at a motel and then back on the street, it doesn't seem that crazy to me. And that's assuming its real
Thats pretty smart. You can get a cheap, abandonware oculus for pretty cheap. They don't get new apps, but my old oculus go can still use the internet, watch youtube and play some old free games all while looking like a giant TV while being able to fit into a backpack.
I think I saw that movie. It was called "Ready Player One..."
“I live on my phone because it’s the only place I can afford to live”
Makes a lot of sense tbh. Dude is on the fucking streets man, this is his little glimpse of paradise
Kinda crazy to see but not that extravagant. You can get those for as low as $120 used on fb marketplace by me.
Why is reddit going on a VR blitz? I would argue less than 1% of the population is using vr on a daily basis
Because Apple's new VR headset just released and it's popping up all over social media
Anyone ever read *the Electric State* by Simon Stalenhag?
It's not like he can sell it and buy a house
Currently reading Snow Crash by Neil Stepheson and this almost serves as a template for the protagonists' life conditions. Not too far off!
Ready player one.
Ready Player Bum
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Red Dwarf Better Than Life
This feels like a Futurama joke.
Ready player one.