Difference between revisions of "Geoscope"

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[[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.
 
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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.
 
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The idea of a simulated reality raises several questions:
 
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* Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
 
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* Is there any difference between a '''simulated reality''' and a "real" one?
 
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* How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?
 
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== Fuller's Geoscope ==
 
== Fuller's Geoscope ==
 
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."''
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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."''
  
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== Our ideas for Simulated Reality and Geoscope ==
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== Our Geoscope ideas ==
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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.
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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.
  
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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.
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=== Requirements ===
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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 many criteria that an environment must satisfy before it can be a candidate for the one to be used by the [[project]].
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*[[Self containment]] ''- editable from within, and developed from within with no downtime''
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*Collaborative ''- unified space that all can collaborate on in real time''
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*Free and open source
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*[[Prototype/Archetype]] ''- Fully OO where all classes are instances "in the field"''
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*P2P ''- not reliant on centralised servers for maintaining the global shared space''
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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.
  
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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.
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=== Content ===
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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.
  
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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.
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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.
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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.
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== Simulated Reality ==
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[[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 ==

Revision as of 00:49, 14 July 2008

Fuller's Geoscope

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.

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 many 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

See also

Youtube

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