Virtual Worlds – Page 50

October 1, 2015

Art Exhibits, Baroque Music And Ada Lovelace Day Courtesy Of Alexandrian Free Library in Second Life

The Alexandrian Free Library in Second Life is not a place, it’s a series of linked libraries and events who, well hold events ranging from book readings, music, art exhibitions and more. The agenda for the next couple of weeks is listed in this blog post.

Alexandrian Free Library Events – September 30 – October 13, 2015

ROCCA SORRENTINA
Exhibit: Discovering a Lost Kingdom
Where: Rocca Sorrentina Exhibit Hall, Rocca Sorrentina
When: August 30, 2015 – October 31, 2015
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rocca%20Sorrentina/87/163/2801
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Description:
This exhibit introduces visitors to the Kingdom of Naples at its height during the late 18th century. As a cosmopolitan and dynamic society Naples was a focal point of European economic, cultural, and political activity, and its government was a leader in political reform up until the time of the French Revolution. The work of Neapolitan thinkers had considerable impact beyond the kingdom; its artists and musicians were sought after by royal and noble patrons throughout Europe; and the Kingdom was a commercial and manufacturing hub for the Mediterranean community.

Having been created in SL to be a part of the Kingdom of Naples, Rocca Sorrentina presents this exhibit as an overview of the people, events, ideas, and natural and man-made environment that made Naples so special in the late 18th century.

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September 30, 2015

Joyce Bettencourt Captures Fascinating Chat With John Carmack At Oculus Connect 2015

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes has blogged about mobile phone footage from Joyce Bettencourt of John Carmack talking Metaverse, Second Life, Minecraft and a hell of a lot more at Oculus Connect 2015; John Carmack: “Crass Commercialization”, Not High-Mindedness, Will Lead to the Metaverse.

John Carmack, for those who aren’t familiar with the name, was the co-founder of ID Software and lead programmer on games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake amongst others. These days he’s the chief technology officer for Oculus VR … the company behind the Oculus Rift … I hope most of you are familiar with Oculus VR! Oculus offer their staff free breakfast, lunch and dinner on their campus, so they sound like a decent company to work for although with perks like that you wonder if their staff get time to go home or out for a meal. Don’t panic, they also say they have family friendly policies.

Anyway, back to the footage. This comes in at just over fifteen minutes long and would probably have been longer if it hadn’t been for the fact that Joyce’s battery on her phone died whilst filming. Modern technology hey. I hope this is legally obtained footage, I trust Joyce so we’ll dive right in and I’ll embed the video at the end of this post.

John Carmack talks about virtual reality, head tracking devices, how the technology is still evolving and you get an insight into just how technically challenging getting a compelling VR experience to work is. He also talks about virtual worlds and the metaverse and I guess that’s what most people who read this blog will be interested in.

He starts talking about virtual worlds around the two minute mark and then gets deeper into the concept of a metaverse around the four minute mark where he states that he fought against Oculus building a metaverse team because they don’t really know what they are doing well enough yet, he adds that they didn’t want to build a Second Life but better in some way. John also raises the point that what the metaverse is still a question that hasn’t really been answered.

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September 29, 2015September 30, 2015

Second Life & Reddit Are Not The Hives Of Scum And Villainy Droids You’re Looking For

Whereas some people were disappointed about NASA’s Mars Announcement yesterday, I was bloody well excited :

New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

I mean ok, it’s not like Ripley’s Alien has been found but it’s exciting enough. Indeed I was so excited that I went looking for Martian artifacts in Second Life and popped along to Reddit to read an AMA (Ask Me Anything) between Reddit Users and NASA scientists.

Now if you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last few years you may be forgiven for thinking that Second Life and Reddit are wretched hives of scum and villainy where no decent person would set foot. However if you scratch beneath the surface you find two platforms with some bloody great content.

My first space port of call was Hanna’s Martian Colony, which is a user created area with a very good science fiction vibe. I then went to the SL Planetarium which is next to the international space flight museum and also has a section about exploration of Mars from previous missions.

However, alas, I realised that despite Second Life having shows such as Virtually Speaking Science and indeed, just Virtual Speaking (which is more about politics), the NASA scientists would not be coming to Second Life to talk. I’m not sure anywhere in Second Life would be large enough to house them. Therefore I had to go to Reddit, a place I’m not really that familiar with, other than reading that it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

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September 29, 2015

Philip Rosedale Talks To Nautilus About Earth-Sized Virtual World And More

Dr. Kiki Sandofrd has posted a very interesting interview with High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale; The Man Who Created Second Life Thinks We Can Make an Earth-Sized Virtual World.

I found this a fascinating read and it exemplifies so very well how Philip has not lost his enthusiasm for virtual worlds, indeed he sounds more excited than ever about the concept. We’ll forgive Kiki for calling a company Linden Labs, this is such a common mistake that the URL Lindenlabs.com resolves to the correct website. The articles talks about how Second Life was once bigger than it is now and yet, as I’ve mentioned before, when people look to the future of virtual worlds, they can’t help but look back at Second Life and even grudgingly seem to admit, it’s not the giant flop that some paint it as.

When asked how virtual reality will change society, Philip answers :

If you look at Second Life today, as a sort of a terrarium for looking at that question, it already has. It demonstrates that we go after and exploit and enjoy the benefits of any increase in tools that enable our creativity and our commerce—and that our willingness to engage in business and in transactions with each other seems to be virtually boundless.

He says a lot more, he talks about how virtual worlds can cross boundaries and get people to talk with each other when those people would otherwise be enemies. I haven’t seen enough studies on this to have a firm opinion on it to be honest, but there is the common denominator factor. The issue is surely going to be that if virtual worlds grow as some predict, some of those common denominators will be removed.

However what’s this business about earth-sized virtual worlds, well Philip gets to that in the interview :

In a recent analysis that I did in thinking about this, I figured out that if we used all our computers—connected via broadband to the Internet—to make a virtual world, it would be as big as the landmass of Earth. You and I could go fly around in it, wander into some cave in Siberia that no one had ever been probably, write our names on the wall in there, and come back ten years later and the names would still be there.

Obviously, as soon as someone says something like that, the next question is likely to be whether virtual worlds could ever be the size of a galaxy. Indeed, that is pretty much the next question in the interview, but you will have to read the article on Nautilus to find out more.

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September 25, 2015

DJ Rockandroll Michigan Spins The Tunes In Second Life And Online

The Whidbey news and times have recently published an article about a Second Life DJ; A virtual party guy: Oak Harbor DJ touching the lives of others via online show. The article features Rich Vance, an online DJ with his own website, Briefcase Full of Rock and he also dabbles in Second Life as DJ Rockandroll Michigan.

The article has some confused ideas about how Second Life works :

Wearing a headset, he broadcasts over the Internet in real-time, making use of a site called Second Life, which lets computer-users chat, flirt, make song requests and even dance together — all virtually. Most participants live in the U.S., though some are in Europe.

Well they are in the right ballpark I guess, but it’s really the story of Rich Vance and his love of music that shines through. The article tells us that Rich is physically and mentally disabled but that he has a real passion for being a DJ and in Second Life, he gets to be that DJ.

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