From: john1@ED.AC.UK Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: Silicon Graphics appoints VR Evangelist Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 10:09:13 GMT Bob Jacobson "picked some bones" with the SGI statement. Among them: >>While very exciting, VR hype has far exceeded the ability of the >>current technology to deliver, resulting in tremendous concern about >>the practicality and safety of this new technology. >Does it help to keep reiterating this point? Haven't we been contrite >long enough? It's time for some strokes for what we have accomplished. > .......We're in the marketplace and must start delivering, not tinkering >in > the lab to achieve the 99th percentile of perfection. This is pretty rich given that Bob seems to have strenously denied (both through this medium and public meetings) that there have ever been any problems. When was this "contriteness", or does he mean the rest of us "running around in labs" trying to sort out the legacy left by the massive explosion of virtual promise ("promise you virtually anything") in the early 1990s. It is good that SGI is taking a very positive role, but its also very pleasing that they are proposing a healthy degree of skepticism about where VR may and may-not reap gains, rather than launching into an ill-focused VR-promotion exercise. John Wann (must go and have a tinker in the lab) ********************************************************* Dr John P. Wann or < J.P.Wann@rdg.ac.uk> ********************************************************** Edinburgh Virtual Environment Lab. - Now sited at: (Wann, Mon-Williams) (Rushton, Hawkes) Department of Psychology AND Department of Psychology University of Reading University of Edinburgh PO Box 238 7 George Square Reading RG6 6AL Edinburgh EH8 9JZ +44 1734 318532 +44 131 650 3426 Fx +44 1734 316604 +44 131 650 3461 ***********************************************************