The DeanBeat: How long will we have to wait before VR delivers our technology Renaissance?

My former boss, Jerry Ceppos, once said he worried that the San Jose Mercury News was covering the tech industry without enough scope or context, as if we would have covered the Italian Renaissance by measuring how many cans of paint were sold. At the time he said this, Silicon Valley was going through its own innovation renaissance in the 1990s with the dawn of the commercial Internet. And it seemed like jaded journalists weren’t covering it with the awe and scope that could deliver the big picture to our readers.

I’m reminded of Ceppos’ observation at the dawn of virtual reality as the newest technology platform. Plenty of people are ready to declare that a new age has come. Michael Abrash, chief scientist at Oculus VR, which launched its Oculus Rift VR headset on March 28, wrote a column welcoming us to the “Virtual Age.”