From: bkuo@girtab.usc.edu (Benjamin Kuo)
Subject: Re: Virtual war and news media (was Re: MUDs and Magic)
Date: 14 Oct 91 01:52:27 GMT
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA



I'm not sure how relevant this is, as this newsgroup is getting trimmed a
little too quickly at our site to reference backwards much, but anyway:
In mentioning "virtual war," someone might want to look up "War Games", Los
Angeles Times; Monday, October 7, 1991; Zorpette, Glenn.

It mentions simulated training vehicles, which are: "on a synthetic battlefield
that exists only in the network connecting them," and so forth in general
terms describing (but not mentioning specifically) a "virtual world".

In fact, a person by the name of Col. Jack Thorpe, special assistant for
simulation at DARPA, in a paragraph talking about the advanced software which
introduces unpredicitability etc. says "The day is not far off, when you have
bad guys roaming the network looking for a fight."

Sounds much like a MUD... Quote, "Several battles can be fought simultaneously,
and like denizens of different parallel worlds, combatants in different skir-
mishes are completely unaware of the other conflicts unfolding on the same
network."

I thought this reference might be interesting in the current line of
conversation...

Benjamin Kuo


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  I was contacted by a reporter for the BALTIMORE SUN
asking for my opinion about something called Operation Odin, otherwise
known as the "Magic Carpet."  Allegedly, a 3D VR mockup of Kuwait and
Iraq was being prepared for installation in Gen. Schwartzkopf's command
center, but was not completed in time before the end of the blitzkrieg.
Anyone with further information about this, please come forward, if your
info is in the public domain.  If not, prudence is advised. 

[By the way, does anyone else feel exasperation at our supposedly modern,
sophisticated officer corps continuing to use cliched expressions like
the "good guys" and the "bad guys"?  Man, I feel like I'm back in the
Middle Ages, with Believers and Heathens...! -- Bob Jacobson]