Ming the Mechanic:
The path to the Metaverse

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 The path to the Metaverse2006-05-09 23:12
7 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

10 years ago it looked to me like the net ought to be going 3D within a couple of years. You know, Cyberspace, where you could fly around in landscapes of data somehow, or virtual realities. But nothing much really happened, other than that the virtual worlds that are there have added more features. But now some people are calling the vision for the 3D web "The Metaverse" and my friends at the Accelerating Studies Foundation have organized a Metaverse Roadmap Summit. Article from cNet here.
PALO ALTO, Calif.--With the spread of online games, virtual worlds and services like Google Earth and MySpace.com, people may soon be spending more time, communicating more and shopping more in complex 3D Web environments.

That's why several dozen of the most influential figures in video game design, geospatial engineering, high-tech research, software development, social networking, telecommunications and other fields gathered here Friday and Saturday for the first Metaverse Roadmap Summit.

The proliferation of social networking sites, online games and virtual worlds may lead to complex 3D Web environments.
Bottom line:

The notion of the so-called metaverse attracted dozens influential tech figures to conceive a path to an Internet dominated by 3D technology, social spaces and economies.

The event, held at the SRI International and produced by the Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF), was the initial step toward what organizers and attendees alike hope will be a coherent path to the so-called metaverse--an Internet dominated by 3D technology, social spaces and economies.

As such, the invite-only group spent the two days in a series of talks, small breakout discussions and group presentations--all in the pursuit of consensus about what the metaverse, or some would say 3D Web, will look like in 10 years.

In the end, organizers will sift through hours of recordings of the various discussions and plan to produce a public document by the end of the summer that will lay out what they believe were the overriding conclusions and directions of the event. First, though, attendees will pore over two drafts of the document in the coming months to weigh in on the organizers' take on the so-called road map.

Ultimately, the ASF hopes to produce regular small Metaverse Roadmap gatherings, as well as full summits at least every two years.

In the meantime, the organizers have their work cut out for them because agreement about the metaverse of 2016 was hard to find.
Hey, I want it, so you've better agree on something. For that matter, I want more than three dimensions. That's already too little in the real world. So whereas the 2D desktop metaphor we've been stuck with in computers is certainly inadequate, it isn't necessarily terribly much better if it gets expanded to be 3D cities with buildings and rooms with stuff in them. I'd like at least 5D please.


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7 comments

10 May 2006 @ 12:43 by swanny : 5D...
5D ???? hmmmmmm
well they say time is the fourth dimension in an architectural or artistic sense
or a masculine model perhaps but 5D hmmmmm would 5D be like "quality" or beauty
or truth.... but those are kind of subjectives .....
is there an objective basis for 5D no not money but hmmmmm "value"? or "truth value" perhaps.... perhaps you could elaborate?
4D is actually pretty mechanical and you're the mechanic... so... going beyond mechanics are you becoming "Ming the Magician"....

like the indiekarma thing.... may be paying you as we speak.

thanks

ed  



10 May 2006 @ 19:15 by ming : 5D
Well, it doesn't have to be restrained to the way it works in the physical world. Yes, we could say that time is the 4th dimension, although it sort of is a half dimension in our world, as we only can move in one direction in it, at a constant speed. But in our minds it qualifies as a 4th dimension, as we can organize things at any point in time.

But what I'm thinking is that we already associate things in multiple dimensions in ways that don't correspond to the physical universe. Like, if I know a bunch of people, I'd like the option of having everything that happened in relation to a certain person be grouped together. So, people is a dimension in that regard. Physical place is a dimension. Or 3, if we go by the physical universe way of doing it. Various abstract subjects form dimensions too. Everything that has to do with "Beauty" or "The Internet" or "Rock Climbing" would be at different points in one or several dimensions. I'd like to be able to access everything on a certain subject at the same time. The physical world provides no such facility. It allows me to access whatever's in the same room at the same time, but nothing much more fancy than that. Although there are some shortcuts in the physical world. The TV might be on, and I can see what's going on at another place and/or time. But I want more flexibility.  



11 May 2006 @ 21:14 by swanny : 24D
Its be rumbling around in my head for a while that we are
actually living in a world of about or precisely 24 Dimensions
or Pseudodimensions. This is because with the advent of the 24
standard time zones of 1900 AD or so by Sir Sanford Flemming it solved some problems but created other ones. If one looks thus at each time zone as a kind
of distinct temporal reality, which in fact it tends to be, then
comprehending these in a global sense one can't deny that there are
in a sense 24 current dimensions to contend with instead of the
supposed 3 or 4 which is normally considered. Most if not all
tend to dismiss this apparent situation as we are generally most
fixated or concerned with the local dimension or zone we happen to be in. Yet with the internet the apparent situation becomes more augmented and what you get is a global crossing of dimensions and zones as the internet tends to obscure the lines of distinction. Swatch a swiss watch company I think has actually concieved of "internet time" to handle this but it is perhaps and oversimplification of the norm or concern.  



11 May 2006 @ 21:32 by swanny : ?D
3 or 4D may not be enough for most or all but 24D is to many for most or all
as studies indicate that the most amount of stimulous a human can deal with at
the same time is about 7 or 8 before they black out. I mean on paper 24D no problem but in "reality" and effect ? well Sanford was a Scottish Canadian Railway "Engineer" by the way.  



11 May 2006 @ 22:03 by swanny : 6D comprimise
If this is the situation then I would opt for or advise the use of a 6D or
6 standard time zone max instead of the current 24, as although 24 might say increase the speed and global standard of living it is hell on the global quality and enjoyment of life.
Wow I just realized the "global scope" of the situation as actual cities and states and nations ie dimensions have developed around these time zones and the "rushed" state of the world is the result. The world would be less "frantic" if there were less time zones or there ensuing dimensions but the buildup around them would be hard to parcel as the model is now a reality. The solution to a less frantic and more "natural" society or new civilization would though seem to lie in the paring down of these dimensions or zones. The standards may go down thus but I suspect the quality would increase.  



15 May 2006 @ 04:53 by taranga @80.168.175.1 : 5D +
have i missed something or are we just talking about a relational database with an intuative graphical interface?  


15 May 2006 @ 14:32 by swanny : Time and Dimension
I suppose the idea is perhaps that time and dimension or space are
interrelated and linked. By parceling time into 24 zones those zones in effect creat dimensions or temporal dimension that are not just psychological but have
reality and effect in the real. The internet tends to make this reality somewhat
more....??? apparent. They are talking very seriously now about the transporter
aka Star Trek as being a reality. This work is being done in the Quantum Information and communications field. I just sense that before that is undertaken though this to many dimension or zone problem has to be simplified because I don't think the modern pace or tempo of life is suitable to humans and surely not to and for most diminishing species and hence must be slowed down.  



Other stories in
2014-09-27 00:04: You must be an expert by now
2014-09-26 15:15: Brevity
2011-11-06 21:33: Counting what counts
2011-01-23 13:46: Authenticity
2010-08-23 01:31: Semantic Pauses
2010-06-27 02:28: Doubt
2009-10-25 17:04: Opinions, perceptions and intuition
2009-10-15 08:32: Abstraction
2008-06-29 16:47: Complicated and Complex
2008-02-20 16:39: The universe as a virtual reality



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