Its all fun and games, until somebody gets hurt. That what my friends and I would say to each other when we were kids and about to do something stupid and dangerous. Like wrestling while climbing trees or using homemade bike ramps to jump over neighborhood friends. Sure virtual worlds and games are fun until something more important comes along. This is starting to change.
There is a revolution of sorts occurring, and the revolution has to do with the remarkable success of some MMORPGs and the increasing popularity of virtual communities. There is a remarkable amount of time and energy put into these the environments, and a growing number of us would rather be in the VU than the RU. The question then becomes how to get people to be productive while being virtual, and this is where the revolution takes place.
Its all about patterns. We humans see patterns everywhere. Patterns in language, patterns in biology, patterns in design, patterns in motion, patterns in sewing. We create patterns through our behavior and how we solve problems. Because we are self-aware, we can recognize and learn how we develop these patterns, and subsequently, we can teach ways to create new patterns. We develop patterns in our virtual communities and our games. The leveling treadmill creates a very recognizable pattern in many of todays games and team combat games like Planetside create an array of attack and defend patterns.
Lets say we want to study a pandemic emergency, and try to contain the breakout of a new virulent virus strain. These types of simulations already exist to show containment speeds and mortality rates, what they lack is insight into the effectiveness of containment steps and quarantine. Introduce the simulation into the virtual world and allow communities to apply variances to the model, and patterns begin to develop. As the masses collectively think through a problem, knowledge is gained.
We can apply the same model to traffic systems. Care to be an air-traffic controller for a virtual airport? How about changing the settings of all the traffic lights in Times Square during rush hour to try and improve traffic flow? Or be a virtual passenger on a newly designed monorail system? How about attending a virtual concert in a newly designed arena to help understand traffic patterns? We could even have a bladder meter that lets you know when to go wait in line at the virtual bathroom.
In all seriousness, there are many great uses for these technologies, and we've only just begun to scratch the surface. NASA is already studying the challenges of colonizing the moon and the stresses of a year long manned flight to Mars. I have a feeling many of us will experience these feats in virtual worlds long before the missions themselves get anywhere near completed.
Google and NASA pair up for virtual space exploration
Reacting to the recent increases in mining accidents, mining companies are beginning to virtualize many aspects of mining, and are already having some success. I imagine at some point, miners will no longer need to enter and descend into dangerous mine shafts.
The Future of Mining
Of course home and personal use of virtual world technology is going to phenomenal. I think it still has a way to go. Here is a semi-decent, if not hysterically funny, effort that might be better at simulating motion sickness.
VirtuSphere ("its a prototype")
I saw something similar to the Expresso Bike in a gym a few years back. It was a stairmaster machine with a video console of a snowmobile race attached. The faster I stepped on the stairmaster, the faster my snowmobile went. I played that game for about 45 minutes trying to win the snowmobile race. I had never used a stairmaster before, so it was about 2 weeks before I could tie my shoes or walk without a painful limp. Great concept though, and something we will certainly be seeing more of.
All of this fun isn't just reserved for the macro world either, there will be plenty going on in the micro world as well, especially in the area of medical research and treatment. Virtual surgery is already a valuable teaching aid, but soon surgeries will be virtualized in real time, with robotic instruments performing the actual tasks of micro-surgery. Nanotube technology and the construction of micro instruments and tools will provide a whole new miniature perspective for us to experience since we will need to work at the molecular level.
Hopefully by then there will be implants available so that I don't have to carry this bulky laptop around anymore.
Recent Comments