From: Dan Owen Subject: Re: Dancing to a Paying Piper Date: Thu, 12 Sep 91 16:36:23 PDT Hello Virtual Readers, I just wanted to express my appreciation for Jason Rice's (Hughes Training Inc.) point of view as well as his wit. I also am working in the 'lower echelons' of existing applied Computer Image Generation (CIG) technology. As the head of a ten member group of Graphics Database Modelers who are creating visual databases of various parts of the world, in varying amounts of detail, for a varitey of purposes, I have to admit that it is difficult not to take a rather sardonic attitude towards most of the postings on sci.virtual-worlds. Although most of our work here at BBN is either military or commercial aviation in nature that does not keep many of us who are working in this field from recognizing its tremendous potential either as art, as entertainment or as both. The advantage that we have over those who merely attend a never ending series of conferences or even teach classes (if such a thing is happening), of course, is that we are actually applying and extending the technology, where schedule and budget permit. I don't know of any group of people who have more desire to see peaceful applications of simulation than the members of the modeling group. Nor will I deny that many of us have made a rather Mephistophelean bargain in order to work in this field. If those who work in the sheltered halls of academe would be willing to visit us and see what we do, they would be in a better position to enlighten us with the fruits of their research and stimulate us with the ferment of their minds. Accordingly, I would like to extend a personal invitation to the members of the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HITLab) to visit us here at BBN in Bellevue. Admittedly Lake Washington provides a rather formidible barrier, but I have it on good authority that there are still one or two bridges paving the way. Here's to bridge building, Dan -------- Daniel P. Owen dowen@bbn.com Database Modeling Group Leader BBN Systems and Technologies Division Phone 1-206-746-6800 Advanced Simulation Business Unit FAX 1-206-746-1335 14100 Southeast 36th Street, Bellevue, WA 98006