From: mapleson@cee.hw.ac.uk (Ian CR Mapleson) Subject: Re: SOC: Make everyone on earth SEE things your way. Really? Date: Thu, 7 Sep 95 09:54 BST From mapleson@cee.hw.ac.uk (Ian CR Mapleson) cyberoid@u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) writes: > A prominent full-page advertisement by Silicon Graphics Inc. in the > WALL STREET JOURNAL caught my eye. No, more than that: it glared at > me with an eye of its own, a Big Brotheresque image that offers me I agree with your sentiments. It does sound rather ominous. My question would be this, however: to what extent do you think the designers and creators of the hardware which SGI produces agree with the sentiments as espoused by that advert? I've talked to many people at Silicon Graphics at various times (eg. Michael T. Jones, head of the Advanced Graphics Division) and they certainly don't seem to me to be people who would like that advert's implied message. I think this may be a case where the PR people went a bit OTT. > As we in the virtual worlds field know too well, no computing machine > available today outputs more than pretty pictures and sound. ... This, however, I cannot agree with. I doubt Lockheed would describe it's Onyx-based flight simulator as pretty pictures! :D I also doubt those using virtual therapy systems would agree either, also anyone who has played Vampire XDV-7. :D See: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/sgistuff/ultra64/dvl/paradigm/paradigm.html > ... In these conditions, for > most individuals, computer-generated pictures may very well come to > stand in for what is happening the real world. It's a fearsome > thought. This, on the other hand, IS something I'm concerned with. My dissertation was on the side effects of playing Doom, and I observed many interesting things. But every day I see things which are far more important in the sense of the above paragraph. An example: there is currently a TV advert running in the UK for a particular cat food. The ad depicts a 'cat from next door' visiting the hero of the advert (another cat) and trying out the product. At the end of the ad, the speaker insults the hero cat, which frowns in response. In fact, I saw something like 5 or 6 moments in the ad where digital video imaging (DVI) was used to make the cat appear to frown, grin, turn its head, etc. This is the same technique that was used in 'Jurassic Park'. It's related to 'morphing' but is more sophisticated. Food for thought: how many viewers even realise that they're seeing computer-modified images like this? Very few, I bet. I've been involved with computer graphics for ten years and have fiddled with high-end SGI hardware, yet I can spot the computer-modifed parts of some modern TV adverts often only because the depicted behaviour seems, or most definitely IS, 'odd' (like a frowning cat, or a car that 'uncrushes' itself in reverse from a smushed cube into a brand new vehicle). I've been thinking for a while that perhaps, for TV commercials, a small 'CGI' logo should appear somewhere whenever the image the viewer is seeing has been computer generated or modified (perhaps even two different types: CGI for completely computer generated images, CGM for images that are modified using computers). > ... There is behind these > expressions a righteous fear of delusion, of literally "losing our > collective mind." ... This is why I applaud companies like Id Software, who's plans to release an editor with their next game (Quake) will enable _individuals_ to create their *own* virtual worlds, enabling them to express their own imaginations and not the collective imagination of a company (an oft-said remark on alt.games.quake is, "Quit complaining about Quake being RPG-style! If you don't like RPGs, change it to what you DO like!"). There is much scope like this for people to not become part of a virtual norm. The massive variety of add-on levels that people worldwide have created for Doom is a good indicator of this. Ordinary people *want* to experiment. It's a pity that advertising and marketing people, because of who they are, often have a different 'normalised' worldview. The release of Quake will be the first time that the public will be able to create their own fully 3D, properly modelled, virtual worlds, in which a theoretically unlimited number of people can explore. I will be interested to see what people create and exactly what people do with their worlds... > ... Also, > a line must be drawn between a company and the message its ad agency > promulgates. ... This is what I meant by my first paragraph. > What do others think? If you've seen the advertisement, what thoughts > and feelings did it inspire in you? I can sum mine up with an extract or two from a little essay I typed up a while ago: ***************************************** Two totally opposite examples: - the fields of entertainment, education, communication and medicine will benefit greatly. Games will go through the roof in terms of graphical quality (thus the focus of my dissertation). Simulation and training techniques will improve massively. Medical cures will be very effective (eg. curing phobias). Education will explode (general multi-media, etc.). And so on. - the ability to fake images, lie visually and 'fool the camera' will be very easy to do, with the hardware available to anyone. How can a court use a video as evidence if, with the standard computer hardware of the day available off-the-shelf from your local store, it is possible to fake an image that is PIXEL FOR PIXEL identical with a recorded video image? With today's computing resources, police forces _already_ need special software to be able to tell if an image is genuine or a well-done fake. Think about the movie 'Forest Gump' for a moment. Some people who saw that film thought it was a drama documentary because they believed the scenes where Mr. Gump meets various presidents and celebrities were from genuine archive footage. Further things to ponder as you sip your coffee, tea, whatever: - military VR torture would be very effective. This is one of things that William Gibson said to me when I asked him about the ramifications of realistic VR. Imagine someone in a laser helmet being forced to see a simulation of being repeatedly dropped from a great height and then raised again, or seeing horrifying monsters, or gruesome scenes of appalling violence, etc. - Who owns the copyright on a modified/fake image? - Virtual war? (remotely controlled planes, etc. The pilots use local VR controllers to fly planes that are hundreds of miles away. If the plane is destroyed, you still have your valuable pilot intact). - virtual murder. This is a complex issue and relates to social interaction within massively networked game environments. I might write something on this another time, but basically it's about what legally happens if someone causes the death of another person in a VR world because of the kind of fear/fright/panic effect mentioned in my dissertation. ***************************************** And also: ***************************************** How long before we begin to see computer-generated films of fake assassinations, murders, etc. on the news without even realising it? Could _you_ tell the difference? I am pretty much convinced that altered film clips have already been used in TV broadcasts (I recently saw a TV report on one channel showing an MP talking to reporters. A sarcastic comment can quite clearly be heard in the background, which temporarily flusters the MP. The same item was covered by a different channel later on in the evening. In _their_ report, the heckling crowd member's comment was not audible *at all* and the occurence wasn't even mentioned, whereas the previous TV channel pointed it out since they thought it was rather funny. Question: was the heckling edited from the broadcast on the second channel? Seemed like it to me). If a secret service released a video of an assassination, would you believe it was a genuine film? I won't anymore because it's just too easy to fake and alter things now. I *certainly* won't take contraversial video films for granted after 1996 (ie. after RE3 is released). ***************************************** Well, speach over. Comments welcome. :) Ian. PS. Don't get me wrong, btw; I want to help create the most realistic games I possibly can. But I don't want my game's players to get their brains fried! :D My idea of a reasonable-quality future VR game would be (123K 581x419 GIF):- http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/depot/alien.gif -- The Doom Help Service (DHS). Co-ordinator of rec.games.computer.doom.help (home of the DHS). WWW addresses: Home page: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/ DHS: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/doom/doom.html Help Archive: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/doom/doomhelp.zip Dissertation: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/diss/diss.html SGI Info: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/sgistuff/sgindex.html Ultra 64 Info: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~mapleson/sgistuff/ultra64/ultra64.html