>>From: D. Owen Rowley
>>Not very.
>I would have to disagree. Having just read Neuromancer and just discovered
>vrml, I see many similarities. What the main character would jack into was a
>user independent "virtual" representation of the matrix/internet.
on a surface level there are similarities regarding those points, but your
original question addressed the whole paradigm of VRML and 3D interfaces to
the Internet.
Over the last oh- half decade there has been a lot of flap and considerable
effort expended on immersive VR. You have excised the part of your own
message that refers to immersion , but I remember it because it is really a
significant departure point ( perhaps node:-).
Jacking in, ala neuromancer is really quite a complex set of things that are
just not part of the VRML story.
>It seems to
>me that what I have seen through vrml, World Chat and CI$ virtual demo is the
>forerunner to what this independent user visualized as the matrix.
There have been plenty of attempts to do cyberspace, and clearly Gibsons
book is probly on the bookshelves of most those who've been involved with
those efforts.
but there are other storys that also have informed the growth of VR
research, and Matrix is not always part of the picture.
I think the internet itself is the forerunner of matrix . I suspect that
matrix is not just a visualization of the internet - but rather a 2D
hierarchical pupae stage that will metamorph into 3 dimensional matrix.
at least I hope so :-)
Right now we must build models with modeling applications and VRML is
a description language for those models. there have been attempts to use VRML
in an interactive manner to present arbitrary data visually, but these are
realy primitive stages. there is no behavior or interactivity in VRML,
though there is certainly a common desire to grow those things.
Platform dependence based on uneven machine capabilities, and market
dominance will probably present problems as the process unfolds.
I feel its really important that we be patient and allow this process to unfold
in a thoughtfull manner.
>From a
>noncomputer industry user it may be easier for me to see these links because
>I know nothing of the hard science behind it.
I think that in time we will all see some of the things that appear linked
actually related in different ways. But I think its important for every
effort like VRML to have people around who don't know what they cannot do .
I certainly don't want to discourage you, we have VRML products in
development that we hope you will be using in the near future, and I would
be dissapointed if only engineers were involved.
Even though I am involved in the industry, i am not an engineer myself. I
think this allows me a view of some technologies not readily aparent to
those who are focused close in on the tech.
>From a soft science
>(psychology), which is my area, I know that it takes little coaxing from the
>five senses to allow the mind to fill in the blanks with individual memories
>and images to make something more sensible.
Many of us realise that this points at things to fear.
after all what is fear but *False *Evidence *Appearing *Real.
and in VR everything has a bit of that at its definitive root.
I like to pount out that *Virtual Reality* is virtually the same term as
illusion.
A well crafted novel or movie can offer significant opportunity to coax the
senses. one might say that if a book or movie doesn't accomplish that its
not well crafted.
I claim that one increases the *compelling factor* by favoring richness over
resolution -
MUDS and MOOS are ascii based virtual realities
(very low rendering resolution :-) yet they can be very compelling to the
senses when richly populated with users and the myriad inventions of their
minds.
LUX ./. owen
D. Owen Rowley [email protected] http://net.org/~owen
President: The Community Company LTD. http://net.org/~tcc
Communication and Commerce United - Real World performance
"I liked the company so much, I had the logo tattooed on my arm."