From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <86h9fl14ln.fsf@cmarib.ramside> Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2016 11:32:40 +0200 Message-ID: From: hiro <23hiro@gmail.com> To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Subject: Re: [9fans] The Plan 9/"right" way to do Facebook Topicbox-Message-UUID: 8c63016e-ead9-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 It's not social to send HTML mails to this mailing list. I don't like your typesetting. On 4/1/16, Giacomo Tesio wrote: > While funny in it's visionary shape, I'm seriously scared about this > matter. > > Take for example Google's material design: any software that successfully > mimic the physical world (paper layers in particular) is going to bland our > perception of its "virtuality". Our mind is going to accept it as a > physical tool. Now, we "know that a programmable computer is no more and no > less than an extremely handy device for realizing any conceivable mechanism > without changing a single wire", but are we sure we really want to remove > the awareness of the wires? > > Google glasses scare me even more: we are going to look the world through > some one else eyes. In the long run, our brain will start to accept the > virtual baloons like the other physical entities that really exists. > > We are already trained to be suspicious about the truth even when it's > clearly evident, now we can even start to ignore the information from the > physical world, while accepting the virtual information that someone else > feed us. > > > > Giacomo > > > > 2016-04-01 22:00 GMT+02:00 : > >> lucio@proxima.alt.za writes: >> >> > I don't even remember the name of the feature, but I used a tool way >> > back in the very early days of a public Internet (it was called a MOO, >> >> > Given a browser-style interface with 3D capabilities, it would address >> > social networking considerably better than Facebook (with which I have >> >> > For that is what social media provide: a world-wide stage on which you >> > perform selections from your real life and any fantasy life you choose >> >> Very interesting. I was envisioning a system which would (at least on >> its GUI side) present information in the form of a Web page, like >> Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I hadn't thought of abandoning the Web page, >> altogether, for some other kind of "social space" browser. I wonder >> what that might be like. >> >> [Disclaimer: This is NOT a formal or serious proposal for a new Plan 9 >> file system. (Not yet, at least.) It's just an exploration of some >> potentially possible possibilities.] >> >> For a social network to be useful, it must provide some intuitive >> mapping between information in the virtual world and its real-life >> referents. (In contemporary social networks, these take the form of >> person/place names, mugshots, and interactive maps with balloon icons.) >> The space which humans are most familiar with navigating, of course, is >> meatspace - the physical, brick-and-mortar world. It makes sense, then, >> that the most intuitive interface would offer some kind of three- >> dimensional virtual reality. The simplest, most intuitive mapping >> between virtual space and meatspace would probably be to visually >> "overlay" information from the virtual space onto meatspace. Technology >> (mostly in the form of various head-mounted glasses or goggles) already >> exists which allows a person to see what's around them, while projecting >> information ontop of what they see. A device such as this has generally >> been called an "eye tap". But it has a problem: when you turn your >> head, the display turns with it. In order for the UI to be as intuitive >> as the physical world, it would have to maintain orientation with its >> physical environment. Tracking motion of the user's head could be done >> using accellerometers, a la Oculus Rift. Imagine a Rift with two video >> cameras on its front (to provide a binocular view on the physical world) >> that overlays a digital world ontop of the real world you see. Virtual >> arrows could guide you where you need to go without needing directions. >> When you get near your favorite Chinese restaurant, a balloon could >> appear in your view, giving you access to information about it. When >> GPS magic detects that a friend of yours is nearby, an friendly-looking >> arrow appears, indicating the general direction and approximate distance >> to him or her. >> >> In order for a virtual world to be useful, however, simply mimicking the >> physical world won't do; its physics must differ from the physics of the >> real world in some useful way. If your favorite restaurant is two miles >> from your present location, for example, you won't want to walk two >> miles to find its virtual balloon. :) Navigating the virtual space >> would require some way to stretch/pan space and time, allowing the user >> to "fly" about and move forward/backward in time within the virtual >> world, before restoring the overlay to match normal space/time. You >> would, for example, be able to hike the trail I hiked yesterday, even >> after I got back from hiking it. If I recorded GPS waypoints and/or >> stereoscopic video along the way, you could hike right along with me, >> having a conversation with my avatar about your favorite edible plants. >> Then, I could "rewind" time and watch your hike & conversation as well >> (assuming that you decided to share it with me). >> >> An ability to stretch/shrink distances in virtual space enables use of >> non-Euclidean volumes, as well. Imagine "dimension compression" >> technology as seen in the (sci-fi) movie Ultraviolet, or in the TARDIS >> of Dr. Who. ("It's bigger on the inside!") You could stuff as many >> files as you want into a single filing cabinet, have a filing cabinet >> with a potentially infinite number of drawers, or stuff as many filing >> cabinets as you want into a police call box which shrinks down and stows >> neatly inside a virtual watch that you wear on your virtual wrist. Want >> to send a FAX? Press a button on your virtual watch, and out pops your >> personal TARDIS. Reach inside it, grab your virtual FAX machine, grab >> the document you want to send, and feed it through. (You can fast- >> forward time, if you like, so you don't have to wait for each page to >> scan.) When you're done, just hit the "poof" button on your virtual >> watch, and everything neatly folds itself back inside. >> >> Such a non-Euclidean 4-dimensional space full of nested objects could >> certainly be represented as a file system. Omero and Olive >> (technically, o/mero and o/live) from the Octopus project over at LSUB >> already allow one to represent a two-dimensional GUI as a file system. >> (All or part of a GUI on one machine can be tar(1)ed up and untarred on >> another machine, reproducing the same GUI.) It stands to reason that >> such an approach could be extended to allow representation of a greater >> number of widgets, with real-life social signifigance, in a space with >> more than two dimensions. >> >> In a sense, social networking Web pages could be considered flattened, >> stripped-down projections of such an n-dimensional social space into the >> medium of the 2D document. >> >> > Where to? I think we're destined eventually to become bubbles of >> > information in a purely virtual organism that "may" instantiate itself >> > as a physical entity as the context demands, and that technology is >> >> I'm not sure if we will become entirely virtual. That would require us >> to give up sex. :) I don't think we humans will give up such things so >> easily. >> >> -- >> +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ >> | human | >> |Any sufficiently high intelligence is indistinguishable from insanity.| >> +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ >> >> >