Virtuality (Eventually Featuring Spiders, If We Want Them... So, Folks, The Real Question is, Do We Want Them?)
Disclaimer and Rules of Engagement. It turns out to be the case that I enjoy writing this blog, for now at least. It also turns out to be the case that I have very little time to spend on it. [Case in point, I dashed off this little entry about two weeks ago, and between family obligations (I'm not complaining), doing the taxes and several workdays of 15 hours or more, I haven't had a moment to get back to this until now.] I've looked over what I've typed below. There are rough spots. I'm probably never going to correct them. I'm going to go to bed, and never look back.
Cue stream of consciousness furthering the virtual reality "thread" started below in the No Spiders post (read that post's content related to Star Wars Galaxies before proceeding):
When will the day come that a luxurious second home in version 87 of SWG will be as great a getaway or, coming at it from different angles, as prestigious or, alternatively, as good an investment, as a real-world second home by some real world lake? When will someone, hurt badly in a real-world accident, "pick up and move" to full-time residence in a virtual space where his avatar is uncrippled. Could the virtual space for such a person be tied into the real world, and vice versa, in such a way, by streaming exchange of data and corresponding rendering, that his avatar could walk among us in the real space, and we could walk with him in the virtual space? An idiosyncracy-mending two-way simulcast.
As people spend more time in virtual spaces, will we retool the physical rules of those spaces, or the capabilities of the avatars in it (See "City of Heroes" game), to deliberately deviate from (read: improve on) the path of slavishly modelling and simulating reality, as if reality "got it right" and was so worthy of mimicing "just so". Would such improvements eventually make a robust and well-designed virtual world a strongly preferable place to live, or will they suggest to us improvements some of which we'll realize we have the technology to actually implement in real space as well.
At what point, and I think the answer is "already", will it be right to recognize that "reality" is defined by the physical world as well as the growing square mileage of virtual ones.
When will a single currency be valid in both real and virtual spaces? When will I log into a virtual space, to see or experience something someone has created there, and pay for it, in the virtual space, by drawing on an account that services both real and virtual spaces? When will I earn real-world (or both-world) dollars for something I do or sell in a virtual place?
How should property rights work in a virtual space where nothing but sentiency itself need be scarce (and that, for how long)?
Currently, the several virtual worlds (e.g., SWG, Everquest, City of Heroes) are distinct, compartmentalized, and proprietary. You log into one of these specific spaces, and engage with it. Will a time come when the alternate virtual worlds are more like just really robust websites... Your interface (currently a keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone and monitor... but surely this will improve) is connected to the Internet, and you choose the site with the content you want. Will the "browser", coding standards and our perceptions adjust, and expand, so that "going online" may come to mean logging into a more immersive virtual space and acting/ sensing in it through an avatar, or just going to some "flat" site, like CNN.com currently is?
Or, from another angle, when will the "canvas" of some virtual world space be "open", like the web is now? For example, I can register a domain name and build a website at the corresponding URL, putting almost anything there I want. I can go to some web sites and modify their content (e.g., message boards). When will I be able to register a plot of virtual land in virtual space, build whatever I want there - a virtual house instead of a flat website, fill it with whatever I wish...invite my friends over to give me house gifts and paint on the walls with me...
Cue stream of consciousness furthering the virtual reality "thread" started below in the No Spiders post (read that post's content related to Star Wars Galaxies before proceeding):
When will the day come that a luxurious second home in version 87 of SWG will be as great a getaway or, coming at it from different angles, as prestigious or, alternatively, as good an investment, as a real-world second home by some real world lake? When will someone, hurt badly in a real-world accident, "pick up and move" to full-time residence in a virtual space where his avatar is uncrippled. Could the virtual space for such a person be tied into the real world, and vice versa, in such a way, by streaming exchange of data and corresponding rendering, that his avatar could walk among us in the real space, and we could walk with him in the virtual space? An idiosyncracy-mending two-way simulcast.
As people spend more time in virtual spaces, will we retool the physical rules of those spaces, or the capabilities of the avatars in it (See "City of Heroes" game), to deliberately deviate from (read: improve on) the path of slavishly modelling and simulating reality, as if reality "got it right" and was so worthy of mimicing "just so". Would such improvements eventually make a robust and well-designed virtual world a strongly preferable place to live, or will they suggest to us improvements some of which we'll realize we have the technology to actually implement in real space as well.
At what point, and I think the answer is "already", will it be right to recognize that "reality" is defined by the physical world as well as the growing square mileage of virtual ones.
When will a single currency be valid in both real and virtual spaces? When will I log into a virtual space, to see or experience something someone has created there, and pay for it, in the virtual space, by drawing on an account that services both real and virtual spaces? When will I earn real-world (or both-world) dollars for something I do or sell in a virtual place?
How should property rights work in a virtual space where nothing but sentiency itself need be scarce (and that, for how long)?
Currently, the several virtual worlds (e.g., SWG, Everquest, City of Heroes) are distinct, compartmentalized, and proprietary. You log into one of these specific spaces, and engage with it. Will a time come when the alternate virtual worlds are more like just really robust websites... Your interface (currently a keyboard, mouse, speakers, microphone and monitor... but surely this will improve) is connected to the Internet, and you choose the site with the content you want. Will the "browser", coding standards and our perceptions adjust, and expand, so that "going online" may come to mean logging into a more immersive virtual space and acting/ sensing in it through an avatar, or just going to some "flat" site, like CNN.com currently is?
Or, from another angle, when will the "canvas" of some virtual world space be "open", like the web is now? For example, I can register a domain name and build a website at the corresponding URL, putting almost anything there I want. I can go to some web sites and modify their content (e.g., message boards). When will I be able to register a plot of virtual land in virtual space, build whatever I want there - a virtual house instead of a flat website, fill it with whatever I wish...invite my friends over to give me house gifts and paint on the walls with me...
posted by Genki na Pengin at 11:03 PM
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