For those who don't know who Pete Ashdown is, you should read this article from Wired. He's trying to take Orrin Hatch's (represents Utah) seat in the Senate. Ashdown makes some good points.
Ashdown: Right now, there is nobody I can point to in the entire Congress that has a good grip on technology. I think the majority of them depend heavily on their interns for their messaging and e-mail needs. None of them know anything about computers beyond turning on the power button.
Having somebody in there with technology expertise will provide immense clout for Utah and good leadership for this country, because what we've seen in countries like India and China is that when you get technocrats into office, you get better, more advanced public policy. You get an eye toward the future.
Right now in Congress -- and especially Senator Hatch -- is grappling with the last 30 years and trying to understand it. Dennis Hastert comes out and says, "Well, we don't understand how to monitor instant messaging." It's ridiculous. We need people there that have the expertise, ability and knowledge to push this country forward on technology because it's such an important part of our lives...............
too bad Ashdown's polls aren't doing so great: only around 25%------------------------------------
In other news, I've signed up for my last semester's classes. My 1rst class is called "Building Virtual Worlds":Premise
On-line Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are a new type of ‘place’: an alternative to physical space, where people shop, learn, are entertained, and socialize. They provides unprecedented opportunities to architects, social scientists, archeologists, historians, journalists, computer scientists, game designers, and other professionals, to create and inhabit web-accessible virtual worlds. Such worlds can be re-creations of physical worlds and culturally-significant human experiences as they have existed in past civilizations (like 1950s West Oakland or Medieval Cairo); or future settlements, yet to be built (as architectural CAD does); or they can be imaginary worlds, in the form of games like World of Warcraft and Lineage; or alternative realities, like SecondLife. Such worlds have once been the province of science fiction (see, for example, Neil Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash; or William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer). Advances in computing, telecommunication, and our experience with the Web have made such worlds increasingly prevalent, real, and economically viable. Video games are a multi Billion dollar industry, which encompasses dozens of disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide. On-line shopping, education, entertainment, and other human activities that have traditionally taken place in physical venues are migrating to cyberspace. Cyberspace, therefore, could and should be designed according to the same principle that guide the design of physical spaces, including form-related aspects (what does it look like?), social aspects (what kinds of social and cultural interactions does it support?), and phenomenological (what does it feel like ‘being’ in Cyberspace?). At the same time, natural and man-made rules that govern physical space do not always apply in Cyberspace—there is no gravity, no rain, solid objects can be intersected, great distances can be traversed instantly, and there is no one acceptable body of law that governs activities in such worlds. The design of virtual worlds, therefore, needs to reconcile the familiar with the possible, and result in places that are appropriate for their intended function and inhabitants.
Objectives
This course examines both the theoretical and technical aspects of creating virtual worlds. Specifically, the course combines architectural place-making theory, on-line games technology, and cultural/social issues into a comprehensive and innovative whole. It provides students with the opportunity to learn how to create web-accessible, immersive, interactive, inhabitable worlds that can accommodate many visitors, and respond to some aspects of their lives, such cultural heritage, education, commerce, or entertainment.
My 2nd class has not yet posted the course description, but it will probably be discussing issues of technology in today's politics. It's called "The Mediated Republic". You can read the professors blog here, "The Technoprogressive".
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Lots of thoughts left, but so little time to ramble...
Continuing with the theme of British un-speak:
I dare you to submit the course description for "Buiding Virtual Worlds" to Slashdot, just to see how many people claim that it's nothing but bullshit.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm trying to imply any value judgment; it's just that I've seen this sort of spiel presented to engineers before, and they always call bullshit.
Well, would you say there's something to the notion that the realms of real and unreal (virtual) are losing their distinctions? If so, is there something to be learned from a reflection upon that idea?
ReplyDelete1) If you try hard enough, you can make the argument that virtual worlds have always existed. E.g., written correspondence; messages in bottles; confessionals; inaccurate historical records; metaphysical and scientific theories; delusions and mistaken beliefs in general -- all of these things 'exist in effect, but not in reality'. (And that's bracketing the issue of whether our own senses create virtual worlds.) It seems to me that the difference between those examples and the contemporary electronic ones is primarily a matter of latency (i.e., how fast can changes propagate and be noticed?). Of course, latency in our virtual worlds is decreasing. But the last time I checked, WoW addicts were still a bunch of geeks with no life, and when I order something from Amazon, I expect to receive a fully kickable shipment from them. We're not quite in the Matrix yet.
ReplyDelete2) You mention "reflection" on the idea of virtual worlds; however, this presupposes that your mode of reflection has value. This very premise is, for personal reasons, one that I question (and one which many/most engineers have already dismissed out of hand). For an amusing caricature of the war between lit-crits and engineers, check out Cryptonomicon, p.99 to the end of the chapter (mass market paperback edition, and don't worry, it won't really spoil anything).
Oh, I should also say that, despite my tone, I'm not trying to crap all over your interests. It's just my tendency to act ornery when I'm in a debating frame of mind.
ReplyDelete