From: sellis@un-geocities.com (Sean Ellis) Subject: Re: SOC: Virtual Reality and ethics Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 08:14:08 GMT Message-ID: <3422304e.1562807@news-reader.bt.net> Organization: My Own Behalf Evonne Cheung wrote: >I want to know what other people's opinions are on the topic of >Virtual Reality and its ethics. Is it really necessary to create this >'virtual' world and who will look after it? Virtual Worlds, plural. It's not like we're exploring some alternative dimension here, it's just technology, and there are many people out there using many different virtual worlds. There are a whole series of reasons why people build virtual worlds: commerce, simulation, advertising, entertainment. For some real-life case studies, fire up your web browser and have a look at http://www.superscape.com/case/index.htm (At this point I'll admit my bias - I work for Superscape VR.) >Shouldn't we be more >concerned with the present reality than creating another 'reality' for >us to mind? VR is like any other medium in which fiction is possible. TV, for example. While it is laudable to argue that TV should be reserved for reporting on weighty matters of news, or for education, enormous sums are spent on programmes that are simply fiction. The same is true for VR. The bias in commercial VR at the moment appears to be toward simulation (certainly from my point of view), although the best selling games these days have the 3-dimensional interactivity that characterises VR (eg Quake, Tomb Raider). >Should there be censorship? A knotty question regardless of the medium, and worthy of a whole essay by itself! >I am not opposing the idea of having a virtual world, but there are >issues we have to look at before we actually get down and boogie with >it. A quick question - have you ever actually experienced VR? It seems like you could incorporate a section in your essay on the difference between the media's perception of VR (Lawnmower Man, VR5) with what it actually is like. Just my 2 cents worth. Sean sellis@un-geocities.com |||||||| 012345678 Proportiometer(TM) ######## ^ [Non spammers: Delete "un-" after @ in reply-to field]