306 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
306 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
Article 92 of sci.virtual-worlds:
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Path: milton!randy@xanadu.com
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From: randy@xanadu.com (Randy Farmer -- A survivor of the Lost Patrol)
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Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
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Subject: Cyberspace: Getting There From Here **(LONG)**
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Summary: Repost of article posted in alt.cyberspace, by request
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Keywords: cyberspace hardware Habitat Club Caribe
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Message-ID: <1990Mar8.160311.3103@xanadu.com>
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Date: 8 Mar 90 16:03:11 GMT
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Sender: hlab@milton.acs.washington.edu
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Organization: Xanadu Operating Company, Palo Alto, CA
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Lines: 289
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Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu
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I have had a few requests to repost my article, so heregoes!
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I would really appreciate it if you sent me your thoughts on this text via
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email (to save net bandwidth), and resist the urge to fragment my thoughts
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in a followup posting with lots of '>'s. This article is meant to convey one
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thought: Cyberspace is NOT hardware. Thanks :-)
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This article originally appeared in the Journal of Computer Game Design last
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October, and is positioned as kind of primer. Those of you who received a
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copy of this at Hackers 5.0 or read it in alt.cyberspace, hit 'n' now :-).
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Cyberspace: Getting There From Here.
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(c) Copyright 1989 F. Randall Farmer
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Randy was lead C64 programmer on the fabled 'Habitat'(1) project
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for Lucasfilm Games. He has taken a hiatus from building Cyberspace
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while he works on a new telecommunications product at AMIX, a
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subsidiary of Autodesk. He can be reached via Usenet as
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randy@xanadu.com or through the Journal BBS.
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"Golden Vaporware" is a term I've heard Ted Nelson(2) use to
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describe such exciting computer projects as Xanadu, Dynabook and
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Cyberspace. I understood the term to mean Really-Great-Stuff-That-
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People-Are-(Sort-Of)-Working-On-And-Never-Ship. But now, it
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seems, "The Age Of Golden Vaporware" has arrived. Ted's Xanadu
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project is now well under way and should ship product in '90. There
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is a company called Dynabook Technologies that has released "step 2"
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of the "20 steps"(3) to Alan Kay's vision of the ultimate laptop. And
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Cyberspace has been prototyped by QuantumLink and Lucasfilm.
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These projects are likely to succeed not because they are
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exciting to us techie-geeks, but because they have solid commercial
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and technical foundations. Here I will illustrate a path from current
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software and hardware technologies to the Cyberspace that many of
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us have dreamed of for almost 20 years.
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What is Cyberspace anyway?
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"Cyberspace" is a fuzzily defined word that has been in the
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press a lot recently(4)(at least in Silicon Valley). Vernor Vinge first
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described a vision of what might now be called Cyberspace in his
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novella True Names(5). The hero of Vinges's story connected to "The
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Other Plane" using EEG electrodes placed on the forehead. The Other
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Plane was a place where complicated software systems were
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represented by familiar objects. The Max Headroom television show
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used similar representations in various episodes. Other fictional
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treatments include William Gibson's Neuromancer (6), which has
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been turned into a popular graphic adventure, and other
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"Cyberpunk" novels. Here the vision of Cyberspace is based around
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commercial and governmental network computer access, where
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"cowboys" and "wizards" break in and wreak fiscal havoc. In these
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works, Cyberspace is a metaphor for abstract concepts.
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Autodesk, maker of the best selling AutoCAD system, has
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thrown its hat into the Cyberspace ring where it joins VPL's Jaron
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Lanier and NASA-AMES. All of these products share similar base
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technologies and assumptions: two head-mounted TV monitors for
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stereo imaging, a powerful computer, and a 3D input device like
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VPL's DataGlove. They are primarily single user systems, and, in the
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case of at least Autodesk's product, probably aimed at CAD users who
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want to edit drawings in three dimensions. There are many other
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applications, but discussion is beyond the scope of this article. The
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key to all of these systems is enough computer power to do double-
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buffered stereoscopic real-time graphics at a high frame rate (say
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20-30 frames/second). This technology is expensive: in the case of
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VPL's "virtual reality" system (their special two user version) the
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price tag weighs in at $69,925. The "Eyephones" cost $9,400 and the
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glove $8,800.(7) These companies envision Cyberspace as a new kind
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of user interface.
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To me, Cyberspace is a place, not just an interface or a
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metaphor. A place where people, regardless of location, hardware, or
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purpose can get together in a participatory experience to conduct
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business, socialize, or have a good game of SpaceCombat9.6.
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Why this vision instead of the others? People. Unlike the
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interactions with artificial personalities created for computer
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adventure games, Cyberspace interactions could create relationships
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that are "greater than the sum of their parts". Here the consequences
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of individual actions take on a greater significance because they
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affect the world of, and the personal belongings of the other
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participants. Because Cyberspace will be so malleable, each
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individual can "make a dent"(8) and participate in its ongoing
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creation and adaptation.
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This is not speculation! During Habitat's beta test, several social
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institutions sprang up spontaneously: There were marriages and
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divorces, a church (complete with a real-world Greek Orthodox
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minister), a loose guild of thieves, an elected sheriff (to combat the
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thieves), a newspaper (with a rather eccentric editor), and before
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long two lawyers hung up their shingle to sort out claims. And this
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was with only about 150 people! My vision encompasses tens of
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thousands of simultaneous participants.
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How can it work?
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There are several major problems facing a large-scale
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Cyberspace system: Bandwidth, Graphic Resolution, User Interface
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Standards, Event Integrity, Data Communications Standards, and
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Computer Horsepower.
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Bandwidth is the most overrated problem. Everybody thinks
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you need to send megabytes of data every minute to each user in
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order to make Cyberspace work. This is simply not true. Habitat
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works at a mere 300 baud. The keys to keeping bandwidth down are
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distributed processing (having the local computer do most of the
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display and interface work), object oriented command messages, and
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avoiding communication intensive graphics primitives (such as those
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associated with NAPLPS, that slower-than-molasses protocol they use
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for Prodigy and other Videotex systems).
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Graphic Resolution, User Interface and Local Horsepower issues
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should all be lumped together. To be viable over time, Cyberspace
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must be designed with the "to each according to his abilities"
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principle. If a C64 with NTSC TV and joystick-only interface
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encounters a 60 megahertz 486 user with Eyephones and DataGlove,
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the interaction should be filtered so that each user can have a
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satisfying experience (e.g the C64 user doesn't see all the intricate
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detail the 486er has put into his attire, and all people walk exactly
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the same, but they can still sit, chat, and play a nice game of
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Strattagema.)
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Event Integrity is a side effect of distributed processing. Simply
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put: you can't trust the home computer. Hackers have all the time in
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the world to crack the software and make it send messages it
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shouldn't. This is akin to the long debated copy protection problem,
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but comes with its own unique solution: The Host. Since the host is
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the final arbiter of all events, it should be programmed at a very
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high level to reject bad messages.
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Data Communications Standards are key to the future viability
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of Cyberspace. A protocol is required that is efficient and forward
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looking, with hooks for future revisions (as bandwith increases) and
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data encryption. Anything that is going to be used for business will
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need to transmit its data securely for protection against espionage.
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Also, the standard needs to address such issues as Email and
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gateways to those entrenched text-only systems. I want to read my
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Usenet mail printed on a sheet of paper in my Cyberhand!
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Since the host coordinates all activity for all users, Host
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Horsepower is by far the most critical issue. For the first few years of
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operations, Cyberspace will have a single centralized host consisting
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of several connected multi-processing computers. In order to keep
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overhead to a minimum, bandwidth and database access will need to
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be tightly limited. The communications protocol will need to be
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super efficient and messages must be kept tiny. Eventually there
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will be several independent Cyberspaces, perhaps on LANs or a
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larger BBS. Of course, while you are walking around in your office
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Cyberspace, you might want to go to other Cyberspaces, so a
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distributed host model will need to be designed. By not having a
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central host keep track of everything and everyone, this distributed
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model will actually decrease the load on each host. This will allow
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Cyberspace to take on a few interesting features: 1) Each host can be
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a different kind of place, with different 'rules' (e.g. A role-playing
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Cyberhost would probably have monsters, combat rules -including
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character death- and a no-holds-barred policy about participant
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behavior whereas an office Cyberhost would have access protection
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and wouldn't allow personal combat of any type), 2) Increased
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capacity without loss of access, and 3) Faster growth.
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When will it happen?
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Rather than pin a date on my Cyberverse, I will outline a
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possible implementation path, including all of the developments
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publicly announced to date.
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Event: Spring 1989 "Habitat" A.K.A. "The Poor Man's Cyberspace"
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Ship Low End Prototype:
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Third person, 2D, Low resolution, Low bandwidth,
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multi-user Cyberspace with joystick/keyboard interface
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Purpose: Entertainment
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Event: Fall? 1990 "CyberCad"
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Ship commercial CAD version of Cyberspace Interface
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Eyephones, DataGlove/DataSuit. First person, single-user
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3D graphics (wire frame on small computers).
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Purpose: Commercial CAD
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Event: AT&T starts installing nationwide ISDN(9), promises
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installation
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by 2001 (this should drive bandwidth to 1.5gigabits/second!)
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Event: 'DataGlove, the cheap version' arrives.
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Event: 9600/19.2k baud modems <$100 dollars
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Event: A Cyberspace team defines the first Cyberspace Data and
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Communications Standards (an event they will regret later
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when this interim hack becomes the defacto standard)
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Event: 486/68040 50+ megahertz computers sell for <$1000 dollars.
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Event: (about 1995) "Cyberverse 1.0" (U.S.? Japan?)
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Ship first multi-purpose Cyberspace universe
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Eyephones optional, mouse or glove required
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Local data stored on high density media (CDROM?)
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9600baud minimum speed, LAN version available.
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(host still required)
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Event: Computers get 10X faster and 10X more memory/storage.
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Ongoing event: AT&T still installing ISDN
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Event: (about 2000) Japan completes ISDN installation, selling
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ISDN 'modems' cheap!
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Event: First 'cracker' group has successfully done measurable
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damage to the global Cyberverse.
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The back doors are all closed. Or are they?
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Event: After cursing the original Cyberdesigners for several years
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now, the Data and Comm standards are updated to support.
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multi- and distributed-host models. Massive testing required.
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Event: First suicide attributed, by the media, to a game played while
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in Cyberspace.
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Event: First combination television/phone/computer successfully
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mass marketed??
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Event: (about 2000) "Cyberverse 2.0"
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Ship distributed host version
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Supports latest user interface hardware (optionally).
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Now a host is not required.
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Event: (about 2010) AT&T finally completes ISDN. Wall size
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videophone reaching suburban markets (10-20 years late?)
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Event: Congress takes significant note of the Cyberverse, because
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trade unions (and other lobbies) note significant
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changes in the distribution of political power.
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First Cyberspace lobby arrives in Washington.
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Event:10-20% of Americans spend over 4 hours per day "on the
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Other Side". First chapter of Mothers Against Cyberspace
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forms, claims 'Junior' never goes out to playI
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(We gotta think about this stuff too, ya know!)
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Event: (the Future) "Cyberverse 3.0" A.K.A. "The Big Payoff"
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Distribute version 3.0 via Cybersoft retail outlets in Cyberspace
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100,000+baud, allowing life-like personalizations
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EEG direct input? Hologram Video? Retinal Projection?
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Full Body digitizing? Forced feedback?
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Voice input/output? World access via remote-robots?
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Farmer, you're full of Cybercrud!(10)
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Oh, yeah? A 386/CDROM version of Habitat will soon be
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released in Japan. Other foreign companies are also interested in this
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technology, and some are talking about multi-machine support,
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standards, and the future. My only fear is that the long-term nature
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of this project will cause American companies to shy away, and let
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yet another new technology be monopolized by other, more forward-
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looking nations.
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(1)Credit where credit is due: Chip Morningstar was original designer
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and leader of the Habitat project. Aric Wilmunder was the other
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primary C64 programmer. Janet Hunter did most of the Host work. I
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was also chief operator and world builder. Habitat has not yet been
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released in its complete form (it will in Japan in '90). For a taste of a
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much-scaled-down version, check out Club Caribe on QuantumLink
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(you'll need a C64 & software). Call 800-782-2278 for details.
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(2) Nelson, Theodor, Standard Public Xanadu Speech. Xanadu is the
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name of the original mega-hypertext product.
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(3) Khosla, Vinod, of Dynabook Technologies quoted in Bay Area
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Computer Currents "Dynabook! Dynamite?" Vol 7,#4 pp 22-24.
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(4) Laurel, Brenda, mentions Cyberspace in "New Interfaces for
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Interactive Entertainment" in Vol 2, #5 of The Journal of Computer
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Game Design.
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(5) Vinge, Vernor, "True Names" republished in an anthology "True
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Names and Other Dangers" (mandatory reading for would-be
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Cyberhacks)
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(6) Gibson, William, "Neuromancer" (recommended reading)
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7)Nix, Shan, interviews Jaron Lanier of VPL in The San Fransisco
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Chronicle, "Welcome to the World of Hyper-Reality" early August
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1986, pp B1,B6
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(8) ibid
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(9)ISDN:Integrated Services Digital Network: instead of converting
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digital data to analog (via modem) and back again, digital data is
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dropped directly on to phone lines. Maximum throughput of full scale
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fiber-optic ISDN is 1 to 6 gigabits/second or more. Several foreign
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countries have made ISDN a national priority.
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(10)Nelson, Theodor: Computer Lib/Dream Machines Microsoft Press
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Revised Edition 1987 pp 27-29
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Well, there you have it, my first published article :-). All comments welcome.
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Don't pay too much attention to the timeline, it's meant mostly to point
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out that there are no real technical barriers to this vision, and the future
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should only see the kind of improvments we've seen with computers: Faster,
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Bigger, and more Resolution.
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