Move over, Martin Shkreli: Palmer Luckey is here!


Give a young man way too much money, and they turn into instant assholes. That’s what I conclude from the story of Palmer Luckey, who was one of the people behind the VR headset Oculus Rift, which he sold for over $2 billion dollars. He’s now worth $700 million (what happened to the other 1.3 billion?), and he’s got to do something to better humanity with that that money.

So he’s funding a company that’s backing Donald Trump.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey financially backed a pro-Trump political organization called Nimble America, a self-described “social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit” in support of the Republican nominee.

A social welfare organization? Well, that sounds nice. Except, here’s what it’s really all about.

We’ve proven that shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real. So many of you have asked us, how we can bring this to real life. We wanted to do it in a way that was transparent and had purpose. Not just sell t-shirts to sell them, but to sell t-shirts to shitpost. We’ve worked with lawyers and RNC consultants to advise us on how to establish the proper entities to do this right, and we’ll be transparent with all financial activity from Reddit. We’ve also worked with the Reddit admins to make sure all of our activity operate within their guidelines.

Announcing Nimble America, Inc., a social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit dedicated to shitposting in real life.

Oh, hell no. How can someone grow up to think that “shitposting” is the great cause to which they will dedicate their life and fortune?

But wait! There’s more! What do you think the lofty goal of virtual reality programs might be?

Someone in the audience asked Palmer Luckey a rather odd but revealing question: Why did he and his chief technology officer, video game pioneer John Carmack, often speak of a “moral imperative” to bring virtual reality to the masses?

“This is one of those crazy man topics,” Luckey answered, “but it comes down to this: Everyone wants to have a happy life, but it’s going to be impossible to give everyone everything they want.” Instead, he went on, developers can now create virtual versions of real experiences that are only enjoyed by the planet’s privileged few, which they can then bestow to the destitute of the world.

He is so generous.

Well, then, I say we should give Luckey what he wants, and condemn him to spend the rest of his life with an Oculus Rift shackled to his head, and free access to all the VR he wants, while he lives in a shack and works 16 hours a day assembling expensive electronic gadgets in a Chinese factory.

It is a shame, though, that the Oculus Rift looks like a nifty toy, but now I’ll never buy one.

Comments

  1. raven says

    I’d barely heard of Oculus Rift VR systems.

    I now have no intention of ever buying one.
    I do hope his competitors come up with something better just in case I end up someday plugging into VR.

  2. golkarian says

    Wasn’t going to buy one, but doesn’t the fact that he sold the rights mean that you can buy one without giving him money?

  3. raven says

    : Everyone wants to have a happy life, but it’s going to be impossible to give everyone everything they want.”

    1. So what else is new? It’s been this way for all our history.

    As the Rolling Stones said, “You can’t always get what you want but you can get what you need.” Most of the time unless you live in Syria et al..

    2. Brave New World had another solution, although whether it is better or not is questionable. The drug Soma which seemed to be a mashup of psylocibin, valium, and prozac only better.

  4. says

    The fact that no one in the group thought it was a bad idea to work with this asshole tells me I’m not going to trust any of the principals in this company.

  5. says

    free access to all the VR he wants, while he lives in a shack and works 16 hours a day assembling expensive electronic gadgets in a Chinese factory

    Or combine the two. (I know links to films and other pop-culture are often rather trivial, but I promise, Sleep Dealer is not only pertinent, but possibly the best SF film most people have never heard of.)

  6. whheydt says

    The other $1.3 billion probably went back the venture capitalists that fund the development of the VR headset. And speaking that, a computer magazine I read did a review of both the Oculus unit and the competition. They rated the major competitor as a better unit overall, so don’t feel bad about having to not buy one.

  7. The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge says

    So if he invented the Eyes of the Overworld, I take it he’s the demon Unda-Hrada?

    “As a knowledgeable and traveled man,” suggested Iucounu, “you doubtless recognize this object. No? You are familiar, of course, with the Cutz Wars of the Eighteenth Aeon? No?” Iucounu hunched up his shoulders in astonishment. “During these ferocious events the demon Unda-Hrada — he listed as 16-04 Green in Thrump’s Almanac — thought to assist his principals, and to this end thrust certain agencies up from the sub-world La-Er. In order that they might perceive, they were tipped with cusps similar to the one you see before you. When events went amiss, the demon snatched himself back to La-Er. The hemispheres were dislodged and broadcast across Cutz. One of these, as you see, I own. You must procure its mate and bring it to me, whereupon your trespass shall be overlooked.”

  8. jtdavi3 says

    “Well, then, I say we should give Luckey what he wants, and condemn him to spend the rest of his life with an Oculus Rift shackled to his head, and free access to all the VR he wants, while he lives in a shack and works 16 hours a day assembling expensive electronic gadgets in a Chinese factory.”

    Reminds me of this (awesome) music video:
    http://www.vevo.com/watch/kenna/hell-bent/USSM20404046

  9. gijoel says

    It is a shame, though, that the Oculus Rift looks like a nifty toy, but now I’ll never buy one.

    I had the same response when I found out a couple of days ago.

  10. sobriquet says

    “Wasn’t going to buy one, but doesn’t the fact that he sold the rights mean that you can buy one without giving him money?”

    You won’t be DIRECTLY giving him money, but part of his $700 million pay out is with Facebook shares. Anything that allows Facebook to benefit will also benefit him. Another reason to stop using Facebook, or most large corporations to the extent one is able.

    I have a personal boycott of so many large corporations that it’s hard to even keep track anymore (Facebook, Amazon, Sony, Microsoft when I’m able, Walmart, all large banks, etc).

  11. zetopan says

    I also failed to mention that Palmer did not even develop the Rift by himself, he has very poor technical expertise. John Carmack and other ZeniMax employees actually got the Rift into a functional state, and are now suing Palmer for effectively stealing their work. The comparison of Palmer to Shkreli is actually accurate for even more reasons that PZ might not have known.
    https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/23/zenimax-oculus-rift-lawsuit-john-carmack-took-tech/

  12. raven says

    I have a personal boycott of so many large corporations that it’s hard to even keep track anymore…

    LOL.
    Yeah, I know.
    I will never set foot in a Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-a.
    Never buy anything from LL Bean again.
    Never buy an Oculus Rift VR set.

  13. William Clark says

    @13 Not just Carmack either; Valve Software also lent a lot of expertise to Oculus, until Facebook bought Oculus and hired away a few employees from Valve… Unlike ZeniMax though, instead of suing Oculus they just turned around and lent their expertise to HTC to make the Vive to compete with Oculus.

    @11 I’d forgotten about the shares… I was going to wait until they get rid of Luckey to buy the Touch controllers, but now that I’ve been reminded that he received shares as well…. Heck, it’s not as if I use my Rift anyway, the Vive’s controllers aren’t that clunky, and really, it’s better to stand up and walk around with the Vive than sit in a chair with the Rift.

    Though that brings up an interesting question: How many shares of a company does a person have to own to make it appropriate to boycott the company over the person’s unrelated actions? Does it have to be shares given in compensation, or shares obtained through any means? Should companies be vetting purchasers of their stock like investors should be vetting the companies? Facebook is easy; they have so many questionable business practices both in general and with Oculus specifically that Luckey’s actions are just another weight on the scales…. I’m not sure I personally could apply it to other companies though.

  14. says

    Luckey is now furiously backpedaling like his canoe is about to go over Niagara Falls.

    I have trouble understanding things written by lawyers, but his apology seems to be “Bloody interns! Can’t trust anyone on Reddit. Buy the Rift. Gary Johnson for evah!”

  15. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    shocked to hear Carmack supports Trump. He was the lead driver of such awesome FPS game software that I greatly admired him. His games were also big components of the shareware distribution model. Too bad no such things as actual heros to hero-worship.
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  16. qwints says

    Horrific labor practices throughout the entire supply chain,owned by a company built to commoditize every bit of privacy, and now this.

  17. andyo says

    Yeah, I was also ready to buy a Rift. Guess Vive it is. The tech sites are blowing up with these news.

  18. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    While we’re mentioning dodgy manufacturers I’ll point out that JHS Pedals (makers of electric guitar effects) have ties to International House of Prayer, a homophobic evangelical group who were involved in the ‘kill the gays’ bill in Uganda. They also are accused of ripping off other people’s designs, but the evidence I’ve seen for that seems a bit murky to me.

    Info here.

    A pretty minor company compared to Oculus of course, and an even smaller set of folks ’round these parts who might be in a position to be concerned about it…

  19. says

    Give a man way too much money, and they turn into instant assholes; teach a man to make way too much money, and they turn into lifetime assholes. This is the lesson here, right?

  20. Holms says

    “…it comes down to this: Everyone wants to have a happy life, but it’s going to be impossible to give everyone everything they want.” Instead, he went on, developers can now create virtual versions of real experiences that are only enjoyed by the planet’s privileged few, which they can then bestow to the destitute of the world.

    For the low low price of US$600, plus a fairly solid PC.

    What is it with these Silicon Valley instant millionaires? Their blindness to what life is like outside that bubble of theirs is extraordinary.

  21. foodmetaphors says

    Don’t really have interest in VR, tho as others have mentioned the Vive is supposedly a superior (and I think less expensive?) alternative and you get the added benefit of not supporting Facebook/Luckey (I’ve read his salary is tied to the success of the VR). I’ll probably make the jump when the technology is better, cheaper and optimally says Nintendo somewhere on it.

  22. emergence says

    I’d be more disappointed that the oculus was in part made by an asshole if there weren’t alternatives like other people above mentioned.

  23. applehead says

    This means my schadenfreude will double or triple if VR fails to find a market.

    And before you say anything, to paraphrase Warren Ellis: “People didn’t want to strap a brick in front of their faces in their 90s. What makes you think they will now?”

  24. Zmidponk says

    foodmetaphors #25:

    Don’t really have interest in VR, tho as others have mentioned the Vive is supposedly a superior (and I think less expensive?) alternative

    In my opinion, the Vive is definitely the superior product, as there’s little details like a camera on the front that allows what they call ‘room view’, where an image of what that camera sees can be lightly overlaid on what you’re seeing in VR, so you can avoid tripping over things and suchlike. As for cheaper, that depends on how you look at it. You see, there’s two main types of VR. In one, you sit or stand in a single spot and use the headset to look around. This is the kind of VR currently in games like Elite:Dangerous or Eve:Valkyrie, as, in those games, you’re a pilot sitting in a spaceship flying around. The second kind, called ‘Room Scale VR’, is where you actually walk around with the VR headset on and interact with things in VR. The HTC Vive comes everything you need to have both types of VR. The Rift is cheaper, but, out of the box, only really comes with what you need for the first type. By the time you get everything you need for the second type as well (the Touch controllers, which have actually yet to be released, possibly a second sensor, and, apparently, you might need cable extenders so you don’t pull the cables out of your PC as you move around), it may very well end up being more expensive than the Vive.

    and you get the added benefit of not supporting Facebook/Luckey (I’ve read his salary is tied to the success of the VR)

    The Facebook thing is what turned me off the Rift, along with their ‘closed garden’ approach, whereas the Vive seems to be a bit more open. The fact this guy seems to be a thieving arsehole, and was intimately involved with the Rift, only serves to make it seem I made the right choice.

    I’ll probably make the jump when the technology is better, cheaper and optimally says Nintendo somewhere on it.

    I would say that, currently, VR is pretty damn good – but not perfect. There’s various compromises and flaws that, most of the time, aren’t really apparent, but do become noticeable every so often. Waiting until there’s ‘2nd gen VR’ might mean you don’t experience these flaws.

  25. says

    I now have no intention of ever buying one.
    I do hope his competitors come up with something better just in case I end up someday plugging into VR.

    They have. The Valve/HTC Vive is way better but slightly pricier, and Sony is preparing to knock the bottom out of the VR headset market. They are neat devices – game-changers for certain types of games.

    Oculus got out of having to actually accomplish much after facebook bought ’em. Expect a few years of press releases and a small smoking crater.

  26. says

    they can then bestow to the destitute of the world.

    …VR being one of the most data-hungry applications in gaming, those poor destitutes had best have high bandwidth internet connectivity and host systems with loads of memory and fast processors.

    I always look askance when people try to justify their hobbies as being for the common good. “My croquet and port-drinking club is most definitely friendly to single moms dont’cha know?”

  27. numerobis says

    If you had no intention of getting into VR, does it make you a superior person, now that you know the the founder of one of the VR companies is an asshat?

    PZ:

    what happened to the other 1.3 billion

    Co-founder, early investors, employees. You know how the myth of a rich person who made it all on their own is a myth? Well, it turns out even dyed-in-the-wool capitalists know it’s a myth and they demand a cut of any eventual sale.

  28. says

    If it’s interesting 3D projects you’re after, I recommend CastAR, an augmented-reality system in development by non-shitlord person Jeri Ellsworth. (Their website is pretty bare, most of the actual stuff of the thing in action seems to be on their Facebook page)

    (Disclosure: I backed the original CastAR project on Kickstarter but got a refund after they transitioned to a more conventional funding model)

  29. mond says

    I always thought that solipsism was a philosophical imponderable rather than a lifestyle choice.
    Is reality just really meta? We are brains in a jar having a virtual life in which we make virtual worlds in which to exist.
    OMFG It’s virtual all the way down!!!!!!!!

  30. unclefrogy says

    he sold for over $2 billion dollars. He’s now worth $700 million (what happened to the other 1.3 billion?)

    creative accounting?
    a fire?
    he is a fool?

    uncle frogy

  31. rq says

    Daz @5

    Sleep Dealer is not only pertinent, but possibly the best SF film most people have never heard of.

    This is very, very true.

  32. DanDare says

    Great works of art and innovation are not responsible for the assholes that created them. They are great anyway.