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Originally posted by timdgreat
well even if it wasnt ur idea dave, its still really weird. |
You really think it's that weird? You've obviously not read much cyberpunk -- If you like weird read some William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Neal Stephenson, or Jeff Noon. I'm sure that this will be the future of the Internet. People in those stories spend their whole lives inside virtual worlds, or the 'metaverse'.
Even 'Star Trek' has Holodecks! But it also has Quark's more seedy but profitable Holosuites and I think real life is going to mirror this.
The Internet has been a great force for good. The Serbian opposition put their radio station B92 on the Net when the government shut down their broadcasts, and the Zapatistas effectively disseminated news and influenced world opinion via the Net.
Just as the Internet can be used for good, it can also be used for pornography and gambling. I see VR going the same way.
We've already seen the the first virtual Star Trek conference this year. Last year Arthur C Clarke appeared as a hologram to an audience in America from his home in Sri Lanka. They are great uses for videoconferencing technology and virtual reality will make them better still.
The U.S. Army re-fought crucial tank battles of the first Persian Gulf War using realistic tank simulators linked by computer; drug designers wrestle large molecules into place on simulations of the body's receptor sites; architects walk their clients through buildings that have not yet been built. Doctors can examine patients remotely, teachers can teach students from the other side of the globe.
But for every great use of Augmented Reality Tourism there will be the more grubby and squalid uses.
Did you see the film 'Strange Days' in which people used data-discs containing recorded memories and emotions of murderers killing prostitutes.
I just found this news story on Ananova which I'm sure is something that will be successful though pretty unsavoury:
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Ananova:
Virtual hunters to kill for real?
A Texan wants to give virtual hunters the chance to kill things for real with the click of a mouse.
John Lockwood has already hooked up guns to the internet to let people shoot targets on his Texas ranch.
Now he wants to let fans shoot live game through his website, live-shot.com, reports the New York Post.
Mr Lockwood intends to have the remote hunts running early next year with hunters paying up to £40 an hour.
They will be be able to use their computer mouse to operate a camera and rifle pointed at a game feeder set up to attract animals.
Hunters would have to pay more if they kill an animal - up to £1,000 for a buck deer, although there is no guarantee they will see any game.
"I've gotten hate mail calling me a sick, despicable redneck," said Mr Lockwood, 39, a lifelong hunter.
"But the technology for hunters keeps evolving, from bowhunting to high-powered rifles. This is just another step forward, another tactical advantage."
Kevin Armstrong, president of the New York Bowhunters Association, was not impressed.
"Sitting remotely and pushing a button to kill another animal is nothing but perverse 21st-century slaughter," he said.
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