(map of technological change over time)
I ran across this blog post today that echos what I said at a meeting at the National Defense University last year: we are indeed in the middle of a major revolution! "Of Grids and Webs" http://bit.ly/b8hU46
I do feel the 3D immersive environment (virtual world) movement we are currently experiencing is a major revolution that will impact our society and culture globally as dramatically as did the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions. Complexity has grown as our world has become hyper connected and collaboration in decentralized environments has not only grown, but become necessary to cope with the speed and cost of this constantly dynamic and changing environment.
User interfaces that are intuitive are moving at an incredible speed as demonstrated by the successful hacking of Kinect within only 3 hours of its release! ("US$3,000 bounty claimed for open source Kinect drivers - http://gizm.ag/cM4QkO" ) This unleases the potential for incredible creativity regarding applications of the program.
Intuitive user interfaces going mainstream is the key to mass adoption of 3D immersive environments. UIs like Kinect and Emotiv are speeding us towards that intuitive interface.
This blog article that discusses decentralization and the internet (my presentations on this the past 2 years raised sooooo many eyebrows here in DC, especially among those in DoD….) explains this very nicely.
More articles the past two days continue to point out the direction we are going:
- "Thanks to technology, it’s an increasingly digital world" http://bit.ly/bl6ddc talks about how “smart systems” or sensors are being used in ever increasing places gathering data and helping individuals and cities become more efficient in the use of resources;
- Complex adaptive systems_Robot musician jams with humans http://pulsene.ws/hSep - robots are now being designed to recognize and interact with musicians as it joins in playing jazz… Jazz is a dynamic changing and unpredictable musical form. No two performances are ever identical;
- Mergence of physical world and virtual world_“"MIT Media Lab builds game space of the future" http://bit.ly/bxToPk”. Playtime Computing combines computer graphics projected on a wall and floor, motion-capture sensors and a robot to let children (it's build for kids for now) interact with characters that move between the projection screens and the physical world. This is taking Kinect a step further, blurring the lines between our physical world and the virtual one;
- And combined with the incredible applications of presence and transference in virtual worlds as demonstrated by the host of psycho-therapeutic applications, especially where Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is concerned we begin to see its power to change not only the way we work, but the way we think and experience life. The latest neurological research into the way the brain imprints horrific events that cause PTSD and the effects of the computer game, Tetris, on nullifying it, begins to look at this component. (When it comes to traumatic flashbacks, Tetris blocks http://pulsene.ws/habA)
We are in the middle of an incredible revolution! And we are changing not only culturally, but perhaps neurologically as well. All of this continues to point to the importance of paying attention to the avatars we create and the design of the 3D immersive environments we utilize and explore. We affect and change technology, and through using it, we affect and change ourselves and our culture.
Recent Comments