Re: storing visiblity info. in VRML (fwd)

Steven Piasecki (sm3_14@SIRIUS.COM)
Thu, 7 Sep 95 17:37:01 -0700

>>
>> This is my problem with the metaverse conceptualized in Snow Crash- it
>> constricts us to an already known paradigm- this reality (TR) The really
>> wonderful aspect of VR is that it can trancend some of these paradigms
>> (driving down streets with addresses, using trolleys, motorcycles, etc) Why
>> should I be forced to drive through a virtual housing development or
>> comercial strip? Why couldn't I be able to teleport wherever I wanted? And
>> why do I have to be forced into a ground plane and horizon line? It is my
>> fear that the more people conceptualize the metaverse as an extension of TR,
>> the more it will be corrupted by TR. Let go of the ground and the concept of
>> real estate- VR is limitless. Unreal estate is a better description.
>
>There is of course the problem of how people will get around in VR
>space. The adventurous and mystically-oriented will submit to bizzare
>forms of training, but the masses will probably demand something that
>vaguely resembles reality, if for no other reason than to get around.

unfortuneately you are probably right because it is easy to grasp

>For instance, instead of looking at
>New York City in terms of streets and address, you might look at it as
>piles of hand-sized houses heaped up in great big mounds, or strung up
>on enormous hands of human hair?

and to hack into someone else's files you'd have to use a digital scalpel to
slowly peel back the layers of dermis, tendon and muscle. or just to pop by
and say hello would require looking underneath their finger nails

>Then there are the "weird" approaches, where people do weird things in
>order to gain access to rather ordinary information. For instance, to
>look up a phone number we might have to roll ourselves between giant
>pieces of virtual rye bread, slithering across a generous slice of ham
>covered with mustard and mayonnaise, all the while attempting to read
>inscriptions from the entrails of lettuce leaves.

this would probably only work with the body sensor suit and olive oil
interface salad mixer- strap it on, get greased up and do your banking by
slithering across the pressure sensitive salad spinner. Of course any
illegal transaction would start it a spinnin'......

>"Why am I doing this?"

alterations in your neurons perhaps? ;)

+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+
---------->looking towards the future

in the reflection of the past<----------

sm3_14