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Metaverse Hardware - Run And Flail Like A Maniac, Or Lie Quietly?

Broadly speaking, there seem to be two different approaches to the Metaverse. You can lie quietly on a couch and be projected in... or you can run and flail like a maniac and control the simulation that way.

Which do you prefer?

So, in the "lying on the couch" (or in the tub) school of thought we have such examples as the method used to project an ordinary human into the Matrix:

And then you have the "run and flail in place" school of thought, exemplified by this manic performance:

Less crazed is one one my favorite examples from the recent past - the VirtuSphere human hamster ball:


(From VirtuSphere immersive virtual reality machine)

Probably the oldest version of the idea of walking in a virtual or projected world is Ray Bradbury's The Veldt.


(Bradbury: The World Children Made)

Now the hidden odorophonics were beginning to blow a wind of odor at the two people in the middle of the baked veldtland. The hot straw smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of the animals, the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air. And now the sounds - the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod, the papery rustling of vultures. A shadow passed through the sky...

"They almost got us!"

"Walls, Lydia, remember: crystal walls, that's all they are. Oh, they look real, I must admit; Africa in your parlor, but it's all dimensional superreactionary, supersensitive color film and mental-tape behind glass screens..."

More on this kind of idea:

  - 'Retina Display' SFnally Perfect (Almost)
  - Basement Holodeck With Playstation Move And EyeToy
  - Take An Infinite Walk In Flexible Spaces
  - Lumo Projector Turns Kids Rooms Into Bradbury's Veldt

Other enjoyable efforts to more quietly move in the Metaverse can be seen in these examples:

  - CirculaFloor - Smart Tile Holodeck?
  - Holo-Dek - A Unique Real-World Virtual Venue
  - Crickets Now Have 'Holodeck'
  - Google Holodeck Now Operational
  - USC's Project Holodeck

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/5/2022)

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Related News Stories - (" Virtual Person ")

Anna Indiana AI Singer-Songwriter
'She is a personality-construct, a congeries of software agents' - William Gibson, 1984

Metaverse Hardware - Run And Flail Like A Maniac, Or Lie Quietly?
'Holodeck 4 was waiting to be programmed...' - David Gerrold, 1987.

Virtual Co-Embodyment - Two People Control One Virtual Body
'...we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first.' - Robert Sheckley, 1995.

Sorry, Futurists! Tamagotchi Kids, Virtual Children Already Predicted By SF Writer in 2008
'Little Linda, a Headspace baby, was four years old now... ' - Stephen Baxter, 2008.

 

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