Difference between revisions of "Geoscope"

From Organic Design wiki
(3D Development Links: Croquet project a free collaborative multi-user online application environment)
(legacy)
 
(30 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[w:Simulated reality|Simulated reality]] is the proposition that reality could be simulated—often [[w:computer simulation|computer simulated]]—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" [[w:reality|reality]]. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its strongest form, the "[[w:simulation hypothesis|simulation hypothesis]]" claims it is probable that we are actually living in such a simulation.
+
{{legacy}}{{glossary}}
 
+
The ''Geoscope'' was one of [[w:Buckminster Fuller|Buckminster Fuller]]'s ideas involving a very large model of the earth which exhibits detailed and objective information about the global state of resources, wealth, economic, environmental etc. It was to be publically accessible and would serve to raise awareness of the state of the planet in the public consciousness by allowing people to have a complete picture of the whole planet as a single functioning organisation.
This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of [[w:virtual reality|virtual reality]]. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of "true" reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from "true" reality.
 
  
The idea of a simulated reality raises several questions:
+
In this site, the ''GOscope'' is a similar model of the "world organisation", but is a purely conceptual model used as a tool to aid in discussing, modeling and implementing [[Generic Organisation]] (hence ''GO''-scope). The ''GOscope'' is a description of a planet in an imaginary "[[w:The Sims|Sim world]]" dedicated to running a global network of ''generic organisations'' to satisfy generic needs of the population. Since it's purpose is purely concerned with [[Generic Organisation]], the world and its members can be extremely simplified and all its aspects and state completely defined. The world exhibits randomness in many of it's dimensions of state, but this randomness is clearly defined.
* Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
 
* Is there any difference between a '''simulated reality''' and a "real" one?
 
* How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
 
  
== Fuller's Geoscope ==
+
== Buckminster Fuller ==
 
Arnow quotes [[w:Buckminster Fuller|Fuller]] as having once said, ''"There is no energy crisis, food crisis or environmental crisis. There is only a crisis of ignorance."''
 
Arnow quotes [[w:Buckminster Fuller|Fuller]] as having once said, ''"There is no energy crisis, food crisis or environmental crisis. There is only a crisis of ignorance."''
  
Line 15: Line 11:
 
Fuller conceived of a ''Geoscope'' which might serve to ameliorate humanity's ignorance of its own condition. ''"Consequences of various world plans could be computed and projected using the accumulated history-long inventory... of data,"'' he wrote. ''"All the world would be dynamically viewable and picturable and radioable [sic] to all the world, so that common consideration... of all world problems by all world people would become a practical everyday, hour and minute event."''
 
Fuller conceived of a ''Geoscope'' which might serve to ameliorate humanity's ignorance of its own condition. ''"Consequences of various world plans could be computed and projected using the accumulated history-long inventory... of data,"'' he wrote. ''"All the world would be dynamically viewable and picturable and radioable [sic] to all the world, so that common consideration... of all world problems by all world people would become a practical everyday, hour and minute event."''
  
== Our ideas for Simulated Reality and Geoscope ==
+
== Our Geoscope ideas ==
The ideal [[interface]] for the project would be as human speech and real-world simulation. The main focus being on the ability to represent real-world situations semantically and render them in a "sims"-like 3D context. By combining this with the network's own ability to describe and simulate organisations, this allows a full "microworlds" (see [[the fifth discipline]]) version of Fuller's Geoscope.
+
The ideal [[interface]] for the project would be as human speech and real-world simulation. The main focus being on the ability to represent real-world situations semantically and render them in a "[[w:The Sims|sims]]"-like 3D context. By combining this with the network's own ability to describe and simulate organisations, this allows a full "microworlds" (see [[the fifth discipline]]) version of Fuller's Geoscope.
  
The first stage would be to have a single kind of object; a sphere which represents the centre of the infinite space. Additional spheres can be created of any size and are located with respect to each other. The space is potentially infinite in that there's no limit to the position or size of spheres. The interface allows logarithmic manipulation of position and scale.
+
This article is mainly about the graphical interface ideas of the Geoscope, for more information on the organisational and conceptual aspect, see [[Semantic Organisation]] or [[nodal network]].
  
By allowing nodal concepts to be associated with the spheres in the space, collaboration on collections of ideas within the space can begin. More complex objects could later be created and collaborated on, probably starting by adding textures to the spheres, then moving to conglomerates and general meshes. The time aspect can be added as another dimension of the space and interface allowing spheres properties to undergo change. For example adding simplified gravity for orbital motion. Ideas about the future and past could be incorporated into the collaborative content.
+
=== Requirements ===
 +
Proprietary gaming environments have been at a very sophisticated level for some time now, and some such as [[w:The Sims|The Sims]] exhibit exactly the kind of environment required by our project. There are some important [[criteria]] that an environment must satisfy before it can be a candidate for the one to be used by the [[project]].
 +
*[[Self containment]] ''- editable from within, and developed from within with no downtime''
 +
*Collaborative ''- unified space that all can collaborate on in real time''
 +
*Free and open source
 +
*[[Prototype/Archetype]] ''- Fully OO where all classes are instances "in the field"''
 +
*P2P ''- not reliant on centralised servers for maintaining the global shared space''
 +
There are a number of corporate solutions that fit all these criteria except for the free/open source one, but until recently none have fit all of them. In March 2008 the [[Croquet]] project released it's collaborative 3D browser into a pre-alpha testing state, and it meets all the criteria. It's still very "bleeding edge" technology, and in fact we haven't successfully been able to install it ourselves yet, but it's extremely promising and we're keeping a close eye on progress.
  
Note that this method of handling the time aspect does not mean that continuous processing is occurring to keep the content of the space up to date. All content is updated at the time of observation, but with caching and reuse applied across requests throughout the network.
+
=== Content ===
 +
Once we have an environment in place, we'll begin creating content for it which will be designed to mirror our current organisational structure. We'd replicate our entire system in the new environment (using bots so that work can carry on from either wiki or 3D), and begin adding physical properties to our concepts.
 +
 
 +
In addition to refining our current concepts into the physical domain, we'd also begin collaboration on generic 3D content for use with our concepts and for the 3D community in general. The kinds of physical content we'd prioritise our collaboration on are the items sued to describe real-world organisations such as simple buildings and office equipment as well as the many human actions involved in an organisation. No doubt the environment will come with a large tree of these already and it would be a matter of refining an existing taxonomy.
 +
 
 +
The idea in general is to allow users to map physical organisation prototypes to their organisational systems and then to refine those prototypes. See [[Prototype/Archetype]] for more details about this process of developing objects.
 +
 
 +
== Simulated Reality ==
 +
[[w:Simulated reality|Simulated reality]] is the proposition that reality could be simulated—often [[w:computer simulation|computer simulated]]—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" [[w:reality|reality]]. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its strongest form, the "[[w:simulation hypothesis|simulation hypothesis]]" claims it is probable that we are actually living in such a simulation.
 +
 
 +
This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of [[w:virtual reality|virtual reality]]. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of "true" reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from "true" reality.
 +
 
 +
The idea of a simulated reality raises several questions:
 +
* Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
 +
* Is there any difference between a '''simulated reality''' and a "real" one?
 +
* How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
  
 
== 3D Development Links ==
 
== 3D Development Links ==
Line 32: Line 50:
 
*[http://www.alice.org/ Alice.org] ''- An easy to use 3D story and world creator (Winodws only)''
 
*[http://www.alice.org/ Alice.org] ''- An easy to use 3D story and world creator (Winodws only)''
 
*[http://www.dedalo-3d.com/ MakeHuman]
 
*[http://www.dedalo-3d.com/ MakeHuman]
 +
 +
== Geoscope definitions ==
 +
*<s>[http://www.bfi.org/node/564 Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI):R. Buckminster Fuller's Geoscope]</s> ([https://web.archive.org/20081007102012/http://bfi.org/node/564 web archive])
 +
*[[Wikipedia:Virtual Globes]]
 +
 +
== Geoscope-like implementations ==
 +
*<s>[http://www.earthscope.com/geoscope.html EARTHscope(TM) - The BFI's implementation of the Geoscope]</s>
 +
*[http://earth.google.com/ Google Earth]
 +
*[http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ NASA Worldwind]
 +
**[http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Main_page Worldwind Wiki]
 +
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7539529.stm BBC news item] ''- UK traffic and information tracked second by second''
 +
*http://www.gapminder.org ''- See changes in GDP etc graphically over time''
 +
*[http://digg.com/2016/every-ship-in-the-world A map of every single cargo ship in the world]
 +
 +
== Youtube ==
 +
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjVG6uh8P80&feature=user Kids building Mars colony with Edusim - based on Croquet]
 +
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR3TriDV1kg&feature=user Classroom Mashup - Edusim + Smartboard + Wiimote]
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
*[[Wikipedia:Simulated reality]]
+
*[[OpenCobalt]]
*[[Wikipedia:Brain-computer interface]]
+
*[[Potential Management]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Artificial consciousnesses]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Artificial consciousnesses]]
*[[Wikipedia:Dream argument]]
+
*[https://web.archive.org/20081007102012/http://www.bfi.org/our_programs/bfi_community/geoscope BFI Community blog page on Geoscope (web archive)]
*[[Wikipedia:Virtual Globes]]
+
*[[Croquet]] ''- Excellent 3D environment meeting all the criteria of the [[project]]''
 +
*[http://www.ugotrade.com/category/interoperability-of-virtual-worlds/ Ugotrade:Interoperability of virtual worlds]
 +
*[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life] ''- this attempt fails several of the [[criteria]]''
 
*[[Sizes of things]]
 
*[[Sizes of things]]
 +
*[[Wikipedia:Brain-computer interface]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Buckminster Fuller]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Buckminster Fuller]]
 +
*[[Wikipedia:Dream argument]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Omega Point (Tipler)]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:Omega Point (Tipler)]]
 +
*[[Wikipedia:Simulated reality]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:The Sims]]
 
*[[Wikipedia:The Sims]]
[[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Nodal Applications]]
+
*[http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php Worldclock] ''- world key data and stats in realtime''
 +
*<s>[http://www.openlifegrid.com/Main/tabid/36/Default.aspx Open Life] ''- a Global Community 3D Metaverse built with open source technology from the OpenSimulator project''</s>
 +
*[http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2003/06/making_the_geoscope_a_reality.html O'Reilly:Making the Geoscope a reality]
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Vision]]

Latest revision as of 00:04, 10 February 2021

Legacy.svg Legacy: This article describes a concept that has been superseded in the course of ongoing development on the Organic Design wiki. Please do not develop this any further or base work on this concept, this is only useful for a historic record of work done. You may find a link to the currently used concept or function in this article, if not you can contact the author to find out what has taken the place of this legacy item.
Glossary.svg This page describes a concept which is part of our glossary

The Geoscope was one of Buckminster Fuller's ideas involving a very large model of the earth which exhibits detailed and objective information about the global state of resources, wealth, economic, environmental etc. It was to be publically accessible and would serve to raise awareness of the state of the planet in the public consciousness by allowing people to have a complete picture of the whole planet as a single functioning organisation.

In this site, the GOscope is a similar model of the "world organisation", but is a purely conceptual model used as a tool to aid in discussing, modeling and implementing Generic Organisation (hence GO-scope). The GOscope is a description of a planet in an imaginary "Sim world" dedicated to running a global network of generic organisations to satisfy generic needs of the population. Since it's purpose is purely concerned with Generic Organisation, the world and its members can be extremely simplified and all its aspects and state completely defined. The world exhibits randomness in many of it's dimensions of state, but this randomness is clearly defined.

Buckminster Fuller

Arnow quotes Fuller as having once said, "There is no energy crisis, food crisis or environmental crisis. There is only a crisis of ignorance."

What are the organisations for? What are their goals? How have those goals changed over time, and what's their rate of achievement? All perfectly valid and obvious questions for someone to ask of an organisation. But if you were to ask where to find these answers for your country or the world, nobody could tell you.

Fuller conceived of a Geoscope which might serve to ameliorate humanity's ignorance of its own condition. "Consequences of various world plans could be computed and projected using the accumulated history-long inventory... of data," he wrote. "All the world would be dynamically viewable and picturable and radioable [sic] to all the world, so that common consideration... of all world problems by all world people would become a practical everyday, hour and minute event."

Our Geoscope ideas

The ideal interface for the project would be as human speech and real-world simulation. The main focus being on the ability to represent real-world situations semantically and render them in a "sims"-like 3D context. By combining this with the network's own ability to describe and simulate organisations, this allows a full "microworlds" (see the fifth discipline) version of Fuller's Geoscope.

This article is mainly about the graphical interface ideas of the Geoscope, for more information on the organisational and conceptual aspect, see Semantic Organisation or nodal network.

Requirements

Proprietary gaming environments have been at a very sophisticated level for some time now, and some such as The Sims exhibit exactly the kind of environment required by our project. There are some important criteria that an environment must satisfy before it can be a candidate for the one to be used by the project.

  • Self containment - editable from within, and developed from within with no downtime
  • Collaborative - unified space that all can collaborate on in real time
  • Free and open source
  • Prototype/Archetype - Fully OO where all classes are instances "in the field"
  • P2P - not reliant on centralised servers for maintaining the global shared space

There are a number of corporate solutions that fit all these criteria except for the free/open source one, but until recently none have fit all of them. In March 2008 the Croquet project released it's collaborative 3D browser into a pre-alpha testing state, and it meets all the criteria. It's still very "bleeding edge" technology, and in fact we haven't successfully been able to install it ourselves yet, but it's extremely promising and we're keeping a close eye on progress.

Content

Once we have an environment in place, we'll begin creating content for it which will be designed to mirror our current organisational structure. We'd replicate our entire system in the new environment (using bots so that work can carry on from either wiki or 3D), and begin adding physical properties to our concepts.

In addition to refining our current concepts into the physical domain, we'd also begin collaboration on generic 3D content for use with our concepts and for the 3D community in general. The kinds of physical content we'd prioritise our collaboration on are the items sued to describe real-world organisations such as simple buildings and office equipment as well as the many human actions involved in an organisation. No doubt the environment will come with a large tree of these already and it would be a matter of refining an existing taxonomy.

The idea in general is to allow users to map physical organisation prototypes to their organisational systems and then to refine those prototypes. See Prototype/Archetype for more details about this process of developing objects.

Simulated Reality

Simulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—often computer simulated—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its strongest form, the "simulation hypothesis" claims it is probable that we are actually living in such a simulation.

This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of "true" reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from "true" reality.

The idea of a simulated reality raises several questions:

  • Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
  • Is there any difference between a simulated reality and a "real" one?
  • How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?

3D Development Links

Geoscope definitions

Geoscope-like implementations

Youtube

See also