I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. VR and AR are both valid and valuable, but suit different needs. Yes, both are here, just not well distributed yet. The advantage AR has is that it fits nicely onto our phones. I personally can’t imagine a virtual world on a phone due to the high demand of data download. An AR overlay is significantly more portable than a rich 3d world with it’s intense graphics. That’s not to say it won’t happen. We all remember large graphics bringing 2d websites to a grinding halt in the early days. Our technology had to catch up.
I’m just sayin’ facebook’s user base is humongous due to that fact that it takes very little effort to learn how to use it. That doesn’t mean virtual worlds will die and drop off the face of the technology landscape. They are widely used for other purposes, and provide a rich “you are there” interface that cannot and will not be displaced by AR or social networking. That’s all I’m sayin’. : ) From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Eric Scoles Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 9:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Av Rights I'm increasingly thinking that SL-style virtual worlds may never be mainstream in the way that web-based social networking is. I'm thinking most people will bypass that adoption phase and go straight to augmented reality. I also think the successful future path for Second Life / Linden Labs is in interfacing somehow with Augmented Reality. (And the real path to absolute dominance for Facebook is to project into Augmented Reality, not retail. But that's another thought for another time.) I realize both of these ideas arguably miss at least part of the point of Second Life in that the SL avatar is an avatar -- you can hide behind it, and certainly some (prob. a lot of) people do that with their SL (or WoW) avatars. But what Facebook has taught me is the degree to which people are willing to expose themselves. Too, Augmented Reality is sort of dimensionally contextual (tessar-contextual?) in that people and places may look different depending on the network-identity of the person looking at them. So you can be different things to different people, depending on how they're connected to you. And if there's a gateway to VR from AR, you can be in virtual places that are connected to or overlayed onto LR [Literal Reality]. (I was going to call it 'RR' for 'Real Reality', but I don't want to pick a fight.) Up until recently I would have thought this level of augmented reality was years away, but I gather it's pretty much just not very well distributed yet, to paraphrase the Chairman. You can already be AugReal with an iPhone or Android phone; the Apps For That are as far away as people's imaginations, at this point. On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 9:26 AM, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: Well, the user base has a lot to do with that. The learning curve for facebook (and it’s games) is minimal. Second Life is still disorienting for all but the most enthusiastic adopters. As immersive websites become more prevalent, virtual worlds will become more mainstream. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Henn Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 8:38 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Av Rights At least one reason for this is that facebook and Zynga are making gobs of money, whereas Second Life has seen its revenues plummet and has had to close three of its endeavors. Money talks, and all. David On Tue, 2010-10-26 at 23:06 -0500, Sal Armoniac wrote: Just goes to show you that Face Book is taken more seriously than Second Life. ;) On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 7:08 PM, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: Interesting … http://bit.ly/8ZRbw5 “Under Italian law the virtual burglar's actions are considered "aggravated entry" and can draw penalties of up to five years in prison.” From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alicia Henn Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 5:00 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Av Rights http://www.jmir.org/2010/3/e28/ This is an interesting article on rights for avatars. It seems reasonable and yet ludicrous at the same time. My officemate and I have had a great time expanding on it. - Alicia Get Your Paws off of My Pixels: Personal Identity and Avatars as Self Mark Alan Graber1,2, MD; Abraham David Graber3, BA ABSTRACT There is an astounding silence in the peer-reviewed literature regarding what rights a person ought to expect to retain when being represented by an avatar rather than a biological body. Before one can have meaningful ethical discussions about informed consent in virtual worlds, avatar bodily integrity, and so on, the status of avatars vis-à-vis the self must first be decided. We argue that as another manifestation of the individual, an individual’s avatar should have rights analogous to those of a biological body. Our strategy will be to show that (1) possessing a physical body is not a necessary condition for possessing rights; (2) rights are already extended to representations of a person to which no biological consciousness is attached; and (3) when imbued with intentionality, some prostheses become “self.” We will then argue that avatars meet all of the conditions necessary to be protected by rights similar to those enjoyed by a biological body. The structure of our argument will take the form of a conditional. We will argue that if a user considers an avatar an extension of the self, then the avatar has rights analogous to the rights of the user. Finally, we will discuss and resolve some of the objections to our position including conflicts that may arise when more than one individual considers an avatar to be part of the self. (J Med Internet Res 2010;12(3):e28) doi:10.2196/jmir.1299 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:r-spec%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:r-spec%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:r-spec%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:r-spec%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:r-spec%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- -- eric scoles | [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en.
