Real people in virtual worlds: a viral update?
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The idea of real people interacting in virtual worlds has been a staple of SF writing at least since the 1980s. There have been networked multi-player games at least since the 1970s, and of course such games have become a big deal in recent years. And more and more, the meetings that I'm involved in have some or all participants joining via internet-based virtual meeting software, like Skype, Zoom, Chime, etc.
Those services have started to add a few VR-ish features, like Zoom's "Virtual Background" — here's me in the woods:
Or at sea:
And the virtual background can be a video as well as a still picture.
But so far, this is a trick that applies to an individual participant's video panel — the popular virtual-meeting applications don't yet have a way for a group to hold their discussion in a shared virtual space, as in current video games or applications like vrchat.
And when participants' avatars (realistic or otherwise) can sit or move in a shared space, with appropriate directional audio and so on, we'll be able to have virtual seminars, virtual workshops, virtual corridor conversations — and most important, virtual dinner parties!
One positive outcome of the growing panic over COVID-19 will be to hasten the deployment of these technologies.
Update — Zoom also allows "large meetings" with up to 1,000 participants, for an extra charge, so that large classes and conference sessions are in principle possible. I haven't tried this feature, but there's no reason in principle for it not to work.
Update 2 — See "Minecraft Penn" (4/5/2020). And for a more modern virtual encounter space, see Mozilla's Hubs, whose social scene construction tool is, of course, Spoke.
mg said,
March 6, 2020 @ 10:46 am
This year's Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI – the big AIDS/HIV conference of each year) just announced at the last minute that the conference will now be virtual.
http://www.croiconference.org/march-6-2020-important-croi-update
Jerry Friedman said,
March 6, 2020 @ 12:27 pm
The earliest story I know of in which real people interact in a technological virtual world is "He Who Shapes", by Roger Zelazny, published in 1965, in which the interaction was designed for psychotherapy. It was a favorite of my youth—I don't know whether I dare to reread it. Anyway, I'm not saying virtual reality was a staple of SF back then, and I'm fully prepared for the antedating.
Speaking of multi-player games, the first thing we see the therapist doing is treating someone who's immersed in a fantasy world, though not a game.
Steve Morrison said,
March 6, 2020 @ 2:08 pm
Arthur C. Clarke had virtual reality games called “sagas” in his 1956 novel The City and the Stars.
Gregory Kusnick said,
March 6, 2020 @ 2:53 pm
Wikipedia lists VR-themed stories going back to the 1930s.
Even Gibson's notion of a virtual space inhabited by outlaw hackers was anticipated by Vernor Vinge in True Names (1981) and by John M. Ford in Web of Angels (1980).
Viseguy said,
March 6, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
I shall henceforth think of you as Obi-Wan Liberman. (Which is pretty much what I've thought of you heretofore.)
Julian said,
March 7, 2020 @ 12:24 pm
Waiting for the virtual peripatetic philosophy discussion while strolling around the stoa at Athens. Wearing virtual togas, of course.
Jerry Friedman said,
March 8, 2020 @ 9:35 pm
Steve Morrison and Gregory Kusnick: Thanks for the additional VR stories. I've read The City and the Stars, but that was a long time ago.
KeithB said,
March 11, 2020 @ 10:06 am
There is also Bradbury's "The Veldt" though the interaction was not all that virtual. 8^)
Henry Morgan said,
March 12, 2020 @ 11:34 pm
I am also Waiting for the debate of virtual peripatetic theory while strolling around in Athens ' stoa of example sporting virtual togas.
Andrew (not the same one) said,
March 13, 2020 @ 10:27 am
Jerry: Virtual worlds play an important part in the work of Neal Stephenson: first Snow Crash (mentioned at the Wikipedia page which Gregory Kusnick links), then Reamde, and most recently Fall: or, Dodge in Hell (which is a sequel to Reamde, among other things).
Ivan Ivonovich said,
March 15, 2020 @ 12:40 pm
" There have been networked multi-player games at least since the 1970s, and of course such games have become a big deal in recent years. And more and more, the meetings that I'm involved in have some or all participants joining via internet-based virtual meeting software, like Skype, Zoom, Chime, etc."
I am curious if an extended isolation because of the coronavirus will make virtual friends the norm in the future.
Ivan said,
March 15, 2020 @ 12:57 pm
" There have been networked multi-player games at least since the 1970s, and of course such games have become a big deal in recent years. And more and more, the meetings that I'm involved in have some or all participants joining via internet-based virtual meeting software, like Skype, Zoom, Chime, etc."
I am curious if an extended isolation because of the coronavirus will make virtual friends the norm in the future.
Ivan Ivonovich said,
March 15, 2020 @ 1:16 pm
Ivan Ivonovich