Bruce Damer's keynote at the Presence 2008 conference, Aula Magna, University of Padua (Oct...

The Virtual World

CyberSpaceStreetSpaceOuterSpace

and BioSpace

Projecting Human Presence

into

IThe Origins and Evolution of

the Virtual Worldin CyberSpace

Projecting into Virtual Worldscirca 25,000 BCE

Projecting virtual worldsThrough The Lanterna Magika (1671)

Then through the Edison Kinetoscope

in 1894

A shared experience: the Cinema replaced the earlier

Kinetoscope Parlors

…Then in 1962

For the first time,Human Presence is represented in

a digital virtual world on the screen

of a PDP-1 computer running Spacewar

Space War! in ActionSpace War Film Clip

…and in 1974, Human presence enters shared 3D virtual worlds in Maze War

Maze War in ActionMaze War Film Clip

…then in 1986 affordable personal computers are connected to dial-up networks

And Lucasfilm’s Habitat (and avatars) were born

Worlds Chat, 1995: where Avatars and Virtual Worlds first materialized on the Internet

Also in that year Steven Spielberg created the marriage of virtual worlds and Hollywood with Starbright World

1998: With the colonization of Internet social virtual worlds a new medium was born

1996

Alphaworld: 1,000,000 objects in two years

Explosion of Social Virtual Worlds platforms(Book Avatars by Damer – 1997)

Beginnings of Multiplayer Gaming Worlds

2003-present: Second Generation Social Virtual Worlds

Creation of the first large scale event in avatar cyberspace: Avatars98 Cyberconference

Elements: single large meeting spaceavatars, chat, web cams, streaming voice, bots

Visual and functional elements of Avatars98

Enhancing presence withimproved design: Avatars 99 & 2000

Enhancing presence withthe design of spaces: Avatars 99 & 2000

…and establishing presence through common media archetypes: Avatars2001

Other late 1990s experiments with mixed mode presence: Datafusion “videotars”

And in 1999, creating immersion through story in the Virtual Walk on the Moon with

Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart

Rusty Schweickart in Cyber Space - 1999

Rusty Schweickart in Outer Space - 1969

Rusty became our historical actor and narrator to commemorate the 30th

anniversary of the Apollo XI moon landing

IIExtending Human Presence

in OuterSpace through CyberSpace

A decade of work bringing virtual worlds as a presence tool to the space community

The beginnings of becoming Tele-presenton other worlds: Lunakhod, 1970s

An “avatar on Mars”, height of mast camera tuned to height of a human to embody presence for

mission operations: 2004

“Mars has now become a place”– Michael Sims, MER mission team co-investigator

DriveOnMars: DigitalSpace’s simulator/experience for the public (2004)

Dawes CraterAs photographed by

Apollo XV

DigitalSpace virtual worlds for enhancing robotic mission designers’ presence

Design challenge: traverse steep crater

wall’s on the Lunar south

pole, drill

Traditional NASA design process: spreadsheets, some CAD

DigitalSpace drive-able simulation: establishing key issues (navigation, thermal load)

Human presence in technologically enabled environments: extra-vehicular activities (EVAs)

Spacewalk simulations as cognitive enhancement training tools

Lastly, extending human presence into the solar system to the next destination: asteroids

IIIAvatars walk from

Cyberspace out into StreetSpace

2003: Avatars meet Fashion(Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, with Daria Dorosh, Galen Brandt and Steve DiPaola)

2006: The iDoublet ProjectAvatars walking out into StreetSpace

Inspiration

Designing and Building a Cybergarment

Finding Materials

Constructing

Finishing

Next phase: 2007-08, Cyberwearz “virtual” garment clothing my Second Life avatar

…and instrumention: SunSpots with tracking to motion-capture garment-to-avatar…

…project is continuing.

IVAnd Finally, can Virtual

Worlds evolve into a BioSpace?

Early exemplar: Karl Sims’ Evolving Virtual Creatures (1991-4)

Artificial Life: Concept begins in the 1940s, field named in the 1980s,

progress through the 1990s, 2000s

Creatures with genomes evolving in the simulated physics of a Connection Machine.

Evolving Virtual Creatures

1997, Banff Canada:Digital Burgess, A quest for life’s algorithmic origins

in the “Cambrian Explosion”, Biota.org

(Only at the very beginning of this thinking)

The EvoGrid: Creating an Origin of Artificial Life Virtual World Entities to Chemical Creatures?

EvoGrid The MovieA Thought Experiment

EvoGrid:Philosophical Implications

Will biologists (one day) declare these synthetic biological environments “worthy of study as a living system”?

Would an EvoGrid and harnessing the power of evolution become a tool for Humanity in the 21st Century? Would it become a mechanism for life’s expanded presence into the Solar System or for the survival and extension of life on Earth?

How does a successful origin of life simulation affect our sense of God, our presence in the Universe and the future of life?

New Book: Divine Action and Natural Selection

Damer: The God Detector

Upcoming book (launch October 27th, 2008)

(Only at the very beginning of this thinking)

Thank you, from Bruce & Galen

Resources and Acknowledgements Avatars Conferences, Contact Consortium: http://www.ccon.orgDigitalSpace 3D simulations and all (open) source code at: http://www.digitalspace.comProject EvoGrid at: http://www.biota.org http://www.evogrid.orgCyberwearz: http://www.cyberwearz.comHistory of virtual worlds: http://www.vwtimeline.org

We would also like to thank NASA and many others for funding support for this work. Other acknowledgements for this presentation include: Chip Morningstar/Lucasfilm, Rusty Schweickart, Daria Dorosh/The Fashion Institute of Technology, Daniel Kottke, DigiBarn Computer Museum, the team at DM3D Studios, Peter Newman, Ryan Norkus, Exploring Life’s Origins Project, Chimp65 Productions, Scientific American Frontiers, Richard Gordon, Peachpit Press, Ron Creel, Exploratorium San Francisco.