Transcript Document 7231388

Bruce Damer, [email protected]
damer.com | digitalspace.com | ccon.org | biota.org | digibarn.com
ABOUT ME
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Started life on a PDP-11 fresh out of high school
(1980), programmed graphics, videotext systems,
dreamed of self replicating robots on the moon,
designed board games, built model space stations.
Worked at IBM Research in 1984 (Toronto, New York),
introduced to Internet, optical computing.
Graduated from USC in 1986 (MSEE). Introduced to
Internet and artificial life, vector graphics
mainframe/multiplayer games while student.
Worked for Elixir Technologies 1987-94, wrote some of
first GUI/Windows-Icons Publishing software on the
IBM PC platform. Sold in 100 countries. Helped set up
first software lab in Czechoslovakia. Developed
artificial life software, 3D worlds (Charles Univ Prague)
ABOUT ME
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Established Contact Consortium in 1995, held first
conferences on avatars (Earth to Avatars, Oct 1996)
Wrote “Avatars!” in 1997. Hosted and supported 9
conferences until 2003 on various aspects of virtual
worlds (AVATARS Conferences, VLearn3D, Digital Biota)
Founded DigitalSpace in 1995, produced 3D worlds for
government, corporate, university, and industry.
Evangelism for Adobe (Atmosphere), NASA (Digital Spaces,
open source 3D worlds for design simulation of space
exploration) and NIH (learning games for Autism)
Established Digibarn Computer Museum (2002)
Virtual Worlds Timeline project (2006-2008) to capture
and represent the history of the medium
New: Breakout, CyberSpace to OuterSpace: hyperevolving the exo-Terrestrials (open source 3D, 2007-).
ABOUT ME
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See more at
www.damer.com
OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
The Virtual World, its Origins in Deep Time
 Text Worlds
 Graphical Worlds
 Internet-Connected Worlds
 The Avatars Cyberconferences
 Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs
 Virtual World Platforms
 Virtual Worlds Timeline Project and Other
Research
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OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
Fashionable Avatars
 Avatar Space meets Outer Space
 Life’s Journey: exoBiota
 And Finally We Come to the End, or Back to the
Beginning!
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History of Virtual Worlds
The Virtual World, its Origins in Deep Time
The Virtual World
A new medium born at the dawn of the space
age and during the very birth of the computer,
will come to shape our world and our future out
of this world.
So what is a Virtual World?
A place
described by words or projected through pictures
which creates a space
in the imagination
real enough that you can feel
you are inside of it.
So…
computers project
words and pictures…
… therefore we find virtual worlds
only on computers right?
But wait…
Was the digital computer the first place people
experienced virtual worlds?
What about…
25,000 BCE
in the Caves of Lascaux?
Or in 1671
Through The Lanterna Magika
Or in 1894
Through the Edison Kinetoscope
Kinetoscope Parlor - 1890s
Projection of Film, Lumiere, Edison - 1895
Now crank the clock forward
to 1962…
…and computers are here (just barely) but we can
already play Spacewar!
(world’s first multiple player videogame running on the PDP-1
in February 1962 when yours truly was just a couple of weeks old!)
Space War! in Action
Space War Film Clip
And then in 1974 a couple of guys figured out how to
put players on two computers connected by a cable
into the same 3D space and…
Hello (3D virtual) World! (Maze War)
EARLY VERSION OF MAZE WAR GAME
Maze War in Action
Maze War Film Clip
MAZE WAR - 1974
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Maze War was the first multiplayer
3D first-person shooter.
Players were represented as
Avatars (vector drawn names at first, 3D eyeballs
in Xerox Alto version, late 70’s).
Displayed maps of the levels.
Player positions shown on map.
Originally written by Steve Colley in
1973-1974 at the NASA Ames
Research Center in California.
Maze War had all the features of the modern
“first person shooter”
…but wasn’t too imaginative
so enter…
History of Virtual Worlds
Text Worlds
TEXT BASED GAMES
Early online worlds took the form of text based
interactive environments known as MUD’s (MultiUser Dungeons, Domain or Dimension)
 The first MUD was put online in 1978.
 This game can still be played online at:
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http://www.british-legends.com/
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by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at Essex
University on a DEC PDP-10
LOGIN SCREEN – MUD1
MUDS always start by asking for your name.
 Your name would be your “tag” and would
identify you in the game world.
 Text commands are translated to movement
and actions.
 Limited interaction with other players beyond
chat.
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AVATAR MUD
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Avatar MUD released in 1979.
First mainframe Role Playing Game (on PLATO).
Based on Dungeons and Dragons rules.
Mixed text and graphics.
First system to use the A,S,D,W movement keys
scheme.
Allowed for groups, or parties, for completing quests.
FIRST COMMERCIAL MUD
In 1978, Alan E. Klietz wrote a game called
Milieu on a CDC Cyber, which was used by high
school students for educational purposes.
 Later ported to the IBM PC in 1983 as Septer
of Goth supporting 10-16 players via modem.
 In 1984, Mark Jacobs created and deployed a
commercial gaming site, Gamers World.
 Gamers World games later ported to GEnie.
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TinyMUD was released in 1989
 TinyMUD allowed players to build the world and
everything in it.
 A range of commands were available for
interacting with other players, objects and the
game environments.
 Many other MUD’s were spawned from this
concept, and the number of players expanded.
 BBS Mud’s dominated the online world until
the Internet killed them in the mid-90’s.
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And now affordable personal computers come
with graphics so why not…
History of Virtual Worlds
Graphical Worlds
HABITAT BY LUCAS GAMES - 1987
Habitat was released on the Commodore 64.
 Created by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar.
 Hosted on Quantum Link, an online service for the
Commodore 64, and progenitor to America Online.
 Players could see, speak and interact with each
other in avatar form.
 Avatars had to barter for resources within Habitat,
and could even be robbed or "killed" by other
players.
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CHAOS IN HABITAT
The virtual world of Habitat was completely open.
 Only the underlying software was off-limits.
 This initially led to chaos in-game.
 Players eventually self-governed their world.
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DOOM - 1993
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Proved that real-time 3D could achieve high
performance on consumer PCs.
Internet was spreading so it was only a matter of time
until…
History of Virtual Worlds
Internet-Connected Virtual Worlds
WORLDS CHAT SPACE STATION - 1995
Worlds Chat Space Station
combined the 3D visual appeal of
Doom with an interactive online
virtual world.
 Players created unique avatars.
 Players could either chat or
whisper to each other.
 Friends lists would allow for
communications with others from
different locations on the station.
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VIEWS FROM THE SPACE STATION
The 1990s - The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period
Multi player gaming vs. multi user social virtual worlds
1994-1996: along with the explosion of the web, an
explosion of social virtual worlds platforms
Lets take a look…
The 1990s - The Early Adopter “Cambrian Explosion” period
ALPHAWORLD - 1995
ACTIVE WORLDS
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Alphaworld was the first Active World, and ran from an
Internet browser.
Citizens could chat with other citizens and build
buildings from selected objects.
Citizens claimed land by placing objects, other users
could delete objects and buildings.
Precursor to Second Life’s in-world building paradigm.
Individuals could own worlds and universes.
This platform is still online today with over 700 Active
Worlds http://www.activeworlds.com/
Ron Britvich’s AlphaWorld
design notes, Spring 1995
Leading to
AlphaWorld’s
launch, Summer
1995…
ALPHAWORLD GROWTH FROM 1995 - 2001
Fujitsu WorldsAway Dreamscape
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Direct offspring of Habitat
Virtual currencies, prices and private “turfs” WorldsAway
goes online
Vending systems and barter trade, gift giving
in 1995…
Precursor of Second Life’s object economy
Financial success, but sold by parent,
operating as Vzones
THE PALACE - 1995
PALACE WORLDLETS
The Palace was created by Jim Bumgardner, an
employee of Time Warner Interactive
 Users could design their own custom avatars,
collect props, play games, and define actions
using scripts.
 Registered users could create their own chat
rooms called Worldlets. These could be public
or private.
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Voice and lip-synch avatar “heads”
intimate conversation
Stereo sound, attenuated
Worlds and avs built by users,
hand edited files
Unique experience in cyberspace,
music, prayer vigils
Parent bankruptcy, acquired by
DigitalSpace in 2001, offers free
200-300 regulars
Traveler
live
Attracts artists: Noel Paul Stookey goes
Spring
“Virtual Party”, MTV
1996…
TRAVELER - 1996
Traveler Film Clip (CNET TV)
Black Sun Interactive (Blaxxun) Pointworld
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First multi-user VRML
platform
Inspired by “Snow Crash”
Personal cyber-cards
User built worlds
Many community events
and firsts
Still operating today,
Cybertown
Blaxxun users in SL
Black Sun
goes online
in early
1996…
Other worlds coming online in 1996
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Various platforms, companies, university research
efforts…
History of Virtual Worlds
The Avatars Cyberconferences
The Avatars Conferences – full circle
1998
1997
1999
2000
2007
1996
2004
2002 2003
2001
The Avatars RL Conferences
Earth to Avatars 96 (San Francisco)
The Avatars RL Conferences
Avatars 97 (San Francisco)
Tour of Avatars98 Exhibits Area
Av98 Film Clip
Current Platforms
MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE RPG’S
EVERQUEST - 1999
MMO’S INVADE MAINSTREAM
In 1999 Sony Online released Everquest.
 Everquest was the first truly 3D massive
multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).
 Thousands of players could be online at once
participating in shared quests, player vs. player
(PVP) combat, and player vs. environment
(PVE/exploring).
 This game launched the current generation of
MMO’s, including virtual world platforms.
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EVERQUEST AND EVERQUEST II
Tailor made to appeal to the Dungeons and
Dragons crowd of game players (both paper and
computer based).
 Promoted player guilds and social interaction.
 Active in-world economy.
 Spawned many expansions and an Everquest II
in 2004.
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http://everquest2.station.sony.com
RUNESCAPE - 2001
STAR WARS GALAXIES - 2003
WORLD OF WARCRAFT - 2004
WOW – THE 2,000 LB GORILLA MMO
World of Warcraft currently boasts over 8 million
paid subscribers.
 The recent release of The Burning Crusades
expansion broke all sales records.
 Some say that WOW is hurting innovation in
computer games because it holds so much of the
MMO market.
 Fantasy setting with two groups of races that are
at war with each other: Alliance vs Horde
 Quest and story driven game engine, heavy social
focus. High level content available to groups only.
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HTTP://WWW.MMOCHART.COM
VIRTUAL WORLDS A REALITY
Current Platforms
VIRTUAL WORLD PLATFORMS
VIRTUAL REALITY?
Virtual Worlds differ from MMO’s because they
are open platforms, often allowing the players
to shape the world content. Virtual Worlds are
not Virtual Reality (no immersion).
 There are no quests, no specific goals, and
varying degrees of user control over the
environment.
 These worlds are usually built around social
interactions, commerce, and collaborative
activities.
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THE SIMS ONLINE - 2002
TOONTOWN ONLINE - 2003
THERE.COM - 2003
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE
There.com was very innovative
(gesture/emotion tied to chat).
 Fully integrated voice and music support.
 Economy based on user created items.
 First online virtual world to have trademarked
items for purchase.
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http://www.there.com
MTV VIRTUAL LAGUNA BEACH - 2006
VIRTUAL LAGUNA BEACH AND THE HILLS
MTV infused There with new capital by
licensing the technology.
 Virtual Hills and Laguna Beach is a mirror of
the MTV reality show settings.
 Teen’s come online to watch episodes of the
two shows in virtual theaters, then they go out
and shop, socialize and party.
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http://www.vlb.mtv.com
FORTERRA SYSTEMS INC.
SECOND LIFE - 2003
SECOND LIFE PLATFORM
Second Life was launched in 2003.
 The entire virtual world of Second Life has
been created by the “residents”.
 Full 3D tools built into the client software for
creation of in-world objects.
 Full scripting language to support intelligent
behavior and animation.
 Growing support for multimedia, video and
audio. Limited formats so far.
 Economy based on Lindex Exchange, a floating
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FUTURE OF SECOND LIFE
Client software was just placed in Open Source
 Server software rumored to be in “open source”
by end of 2007.
 Spatial voice support coming in 2007.
 Security being added into system in
preparation for a distributed architecture.
 Linden Lab trying hard to be “the next big
thing” in virtual worlds, Web 3.0
 Continuation as separate company or
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Near Future
The Coming Metaverse?
THE METAVERSE
Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash gave rise
to the concept of a “Metaverse”.
 This is the vision behind current work on fully
immersive 3D virtual spaces.
 These are environments where humans
interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and
economically) and with software agents in a
cyberspace, that uses the metaphor of the real
world, but without its physical limitations.
 Will there be a universal format and standards
for shared 3D cyberspace?
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THE COMING METAVERSE
Several new platforms are in development.
 A new organization Metaverse Roadmap has
formed to draw a Roadmap of future virtual
worlds. http://www.metaverseroadmap.org
 Many expect that a merging of virtual worlds
and the Internet will lead to the next
generation, often referred to as Web 3.0
 Note: this has been tried/dreamed of before.
Can we overcome the “stovepipe effect”?
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MULTIVERSE – 2007?
Formed in 2004 by a team of Netscape
executives, currently in BETA.
 Will provide independent game developers with
the resources they need to enter and compete in
the MMO and Virtual World markets.
 One client will allow entry into any Multiverse
developed platform.
 Both MMO’s and Virtual Worlds for Indie
Developers.
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http://multiverse.net
ARDEN : MULTIVERSE – 2008?
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What is Arden: The World of William Shakespeare?
It’s a synthetic world, a massively-multiplayer online
role-playing game where the lore is drawn from the plays
of William Shakespeare.
EverQuest meets Macbeth.
It’s going to be built by professors and students as an
academic research project at Indiana University.
http://swi.indiana.edu/ardenworld.htm
3B VILLAGES - 2007
KANEVA – BETA – 2007?
GOOGLE METAVERSE – 2007?
VIRTUAL GOOGLE EARTH?
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Google released SketchUp program for adding 3D
buildings and objects as a layer to Google Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FABcWGb93QY&mode=related&search= .
Benchmark Capital analyst Michael Eisenberg
calling the rumored project a "world game."
 Google is courting in-game ad company AdScape
in preparation to monetize the virtual world.
 Will Google Earth evolve into a multi use platform?
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History of Virtual Worlds
Virtual Worlds Timeline Project and other Research
Key Anniversaries in the History – on the 7s
Luscasfilm’s 1987 Official Avatars Handbook,
Damer 1997 Avatars!, many books & publications
 Academia: hundreds of research programs
 2007: Need for a comprehensive timeline project
to capture ephemeral artifacts before they are lost
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Lucasfilm 1987
–
Damer 1997
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VWTimeline 2007
The Social Virtual Worlds Timeline Project
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Sponsored by the Contact Consortium
Avatars book, version 2.0
Enable the community to tell the history
Simple web-based timeline, Wiki entry, MIT SIMILE
project Ajax Timeline
Scope from 1970s to present
A place for current virtual worlds history to be recorded,
within the context of the movement it represents
Several universities, companies and individuals being
signed up (HUMLab, University of Umea)
You can be a part of it! See www.vwtimeline.org
RESEARCH ON VIRTUAL WORLDS
MMOG Chart, Industry statistics on virtual worlds
and MMO’s http://www.mmogchart.com
 The Daedalus Project, Nick Yee. The psychology of
MMORPG’s http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus
 Terra Nova, serious researchers blog on
MMORPG’s and Virtual Worlds
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http://terranova.blogs.com
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PlayOn, exploring the social dimensions of virtual
worlds http://blogs.parc.com/playon
HISTORY OF VIRTUAL WORLDS
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Ralph Koster’s Online World Timeline
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml
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Bruce Damer’s Virtual Worlds Timeline, the
origins and evolution of virtual social worlds
http://www.vwtimeline.org
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The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat
http://www.scara.com/~ole/literatur/LessonsOfHabitat.html
FURTHER READING
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Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the
Internet – Bruce Damer
Designing Virtual Worlds – Richard A. Bartle
 Synthetic Worlds: The Business of Online Games –
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Edward Castronova
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Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide
– Henry Jenkins, MIT
 The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds - Jack
M. Balkin
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Second Life: The Official Guide – Linden Lab
Second Life Video Documentary Explosion
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What is Second Life? Philip Rosedale: (3:42 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZPoOC_06M&mode=related&search=
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NOAA Virtual Education Island: (4:29 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is8YX32GAyQ
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Henry Jenkins, MIT on Global Kids Island: (2:32 mins)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sAQ2V356q-Y
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Global Kids/Unicef Competition: (2:27 mins)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jQr0izgm0iw
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Text 100 Island: (2:59 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=synxFmQJ_0A
Developing Applications
Fashionable Avatars
First there was the Avvy
Awards
1996-2001
Then there was
Ratava’s Line
2003
Pushes Avatar
fashion to the
next level!
Hey, what about…
Combining a passion for avatars
with a fascination for garment design… with your
iPod, your cell phone, your GPS, you are becoming
your avatar!
But how to house all that gear?
How about in a Cyber garment
of the 21st Century!
But what…
…would such a garment look like?
What would it do (house your gear)?
What genre would you derive it from?
Sir John Harman
Admiral
1580s
Look at that cool
jacket!
Hmm… holds a
lot of gear!
Building
A
Rennaissance
Doublet
Piece
…by piece
Done!
Works?
OK got that…
…time to design the cyber version!
Channels
Hackable
S100
Stores your
Warez
YT from Snow
Crash?
Now sew it…
…(a lot of late nights in the bus)!
Its done!
Hey…
…now I want my “in world” Avatar to
look like my “out world” me!
Plain Jane
Bruce in
Second Life
Lets go
looking for
some
clothiers!
Wow…
…I found a cool designer and bingo,
From the photos of Cyberwearz
My garment returns to the Avatar real
from whence it began!
See how…
…well this all plays together?
Now for another round, print out
my in-world garment to fabric and…
Whole Garment Knitting
CAD/CAM comes to the apparel business (Shima Seiki)
Futuristic Applications
Avatar Space Meets Outer Space
And other Virtual Worlds Applications from DigitalSpace
DriveOnMars – DigitalSpace/JPL 2003-2004
DigitalSpac
e training
environme
nt for NBL
“Drive On Mars” night-day transition, basic modeling of vehicle systems,
RAT instrument deployment
Mining the Moon - DigitalSpace and Colorado
School of Mines 2004
Colorado School of Mines
Prototype Lunar Bucket Wheel Excavator
Mining the Moon - DigitalSpace and Colorado
School of Mines 2004
DigitalSpace
Lunar analog
simulation of
BWE
Lunar Landers – DigitalSpace/NASA JSC, Ames
Research Center 2006
Lunar Landers – DigitalSpace/NASA JSC, Ames
Research Center 2006
Movie of rock encounter landing simulation
Lunar Landers – DigitalSpace/NASA JSC, Ames
Research Center 2006
Lunar Landers – DigitalSpace/NASA JSC, Ames
Research Center 2006
Movie of microsat landing simulation
Lunar Rover Polar Ice Mission – DigitalSpace/NASA
MSFC, Ames Research Center 2005-2006
Find the Light
• Crater Rim (Sunlight Area) Exploration
– Imaging of site from surface—time data
collection to correlate with LRO orbital images of
same conditions (pan every 2 hours over 1 year)
– Geotechnical properties of lunar regolith (bearing
strength, soil composition, cohesiveness, block
and slope populations)
– Biological effects of radiation, reduced gravity
over 1 year
Touch the Ice
• Crater Floor (Dark Area) Exploration
– Physical environment and geotechnical
properties (temperatures, soil characteristics, etc.)
– Examine both surface and subsurface of cold trap
region
– Volatile deposits: elemental and molecular
composition, species abundance, physical state,
distribution and extent; number of samples from
varied locations in crater floor; locations and
settings documented
Lunar Rover Polar Ice Mission – DigitalSpace/NASA
MSFC, Ames Research Center 2005-2006
RLEP2 Pre-Phase A:
TeamX, JPL: Dec 12-15th, 2005
Lunar Rover Polar Ice Mission – DigitalSpace/NASA
MSFC, Ames Research Center 2005-2006
Cold traps in permanently shadowed craters 12-20 samples at 1-2m depth, test volatiles, water ice.
Nominal Target: Shackleton
19 km complex impact crater
Steep interior slopes 25-35°
Interior walls loose material
Rough floor
Eratosthenian age
Ice distribution may be heterogenous
Dawes Crater
Lunar Analog to Shackleton
Elevation map produced
by measurements team
Direct versus “spiral” traverse into
the crater
RLEP2 Rover, DigitalSpace/NASA MSFC, Ames
Research Center 2006
Movie of RLEP2 Rover slope/rock encounter simulation
Building a Moonbase Tele-robotically –
DigitalSpace/Raytheon 2004-2005
Mining the Earth – DigitalSpace/Xstrata Nickel
2006-2007
Digital Spaces
Open Source Integrated Modeling and Simulation
DSS Open Source Framework
High performance 3D graphics, cross
platform
 Industrial strength, vertical
applications
 Physics, CAD, collaborative and
synchronized simulation
 Multi-user, streams, research,
pedagogical functions
 “Linux” of 3D, LGPL licensed for
commercial applications
 www.digitalspace.com
www.digitalspaces.org
DigitalSpace
DSS modular
plug-in
architecture
Future Technology
exoBiota: Life’s Journey into the Cosmos
Life’s Journey
LifeSpace
CyberSpace OuterSpace
LifeSpace
4 bya of life on Earth, going between energy levels
LifeSpace
Ocean to land, structure building, atmosphere transforming
LifeSpace
Hominids, structure building and transforming the atmosphere
Are we appropriately adapted organisms to live outside of
the Earth’s biosphere?
19th Century Pressure Vessel Voyages
Digital Biota Conferences: Digital Burgess
(Banff, Canada, 1997)
Digital Biota Conferences: Digital Burgess
(Banff, Canada, 1997)
Growing gardens in cyberspace
(Nerve Garden, 1997)
Evolving virtual creatures
(Karl Sims)
Evolving virtual creatures
(Karl Sims)
1994 Movie of Sims’ Creatures
Life’s Journey
Hyper-evolution
Life’s Journey
Hyper-evolution
Life’s Journey
Breakout! From Cyberspace to Outer Space
The greatest technological innovation of human civilization is the creation of
Cyberspace. Cyberspace provides not only the tools to tie together billions of
human beings, power economies and further knowledge, it is also an
experimental space for an exponential leap of another sort: evolution. As life on
Earth moved from the oceans to the land and then to the air, we see that with
sufficient energy and complexity, evolution will project itself into any place
capable of supporting it. The field of artificial life provided a hint that evolutionary
processes could take place inside compute space. With the arrival of massively
multiplayer online games, we now have virtual worlds with rich behaviors,
billions of objects and the minds and hands of millions of users which could
serve as a primordial soup for a next generation of artificial evolution. Beyond
this, modeling and simulation of the whole solar system could produce a virtual
laboratory for the development and experimentation with self replicating,
evolving robotics capable of living on the surfaces of planets, rocky asteroids
and icy objects.
Life’s Journey
Cyberspace can provide the digital primordial soup to hyper-accelerate the
trial-and-error process of natural selection and create working models for
better spacecraft to take us beyond the Earth, as well as suggesting methods
to engineer exo-Terrestrial life forms that can seed the solar system and
provide the infrastructure to synergistically cohabit with humans. And if human
civilization fails (as it might well) then we will have established a foothold for a
complex form of Earth life to break out from the certain doom of the planet's
gravity well. If we do survive and are able to journey forward and encounter
other successful sentient civilizations, we may find that they also had to find
ways to re-invent their own biological systems to extend beyond their own
evolutionary crucible.
Life’s Journey
And why do we need to think about all this? Today's spacecraft are based squarely
on 19th century concepts which use rigid pressure vessels, valves and fragile
elements such as wiring and solar collectors. As experience with Apollo, Shuttle
and 25 years of space stations show, these are not reliable designs for long term
human space travel. For crews to survive long journeys we need to move beyond
the steam engine to ships that can repair themselves. These ships will be more
like collections of living organs with human beings as a symbiotic brain. And when
humans return to the Moon or go on to Mars, they will find their stay limited by the
available resources they carry along or are able to produce locally. For people to
live for long periods off the Earth we need to create a whole new form of biology
suited for life out in the solar system, a kind of exo-Terrestrial life. This new kind of
life will be able to live in a hard vacuum, collect solar radiation, crack down and
digest the elements of orbiting rocky and icy objects and even adapt to
environments such as the Martian poles.
Past Future Vision
And Finally we come to The End
…or Back to the Beginning
Bonus!
(This has been a vision of cyberspace for a long time)
“Escape” in Finite State Fantasies (1976) by Rich Didday
“The Personal Computer, Use it, Don’t let it use you!
Future of Social Virtual Worlds
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discussion
Make a buck, sustain high development and content
creation costs
Creating inclusive community experiences,
sustainable companies
Distributed vs centralized content
Shared realities, political organization
New medium of artistic expression
Learning spaces, research environments
Open source?
Your thoughts?