Cyberspace Realities and Futures

 

In the last years of the 20th Century, and certainly in the first few years of the 21st, corporations and individuals alike began to look at alternative ways of getting things done. Computer and telecommunications technology was a great ally.

With transportation problems ever increasing; more and more traffic congestion, increasing travel costs, combined with the many other social and economic problems, doing almost everything online or in cyberspace; if it doesn't have to be fixed to something or physically taken somewhere, has now become the norm rather than the exception.

Many major businesses and companies conduct most of their in-house correspondence via hidden sections on corporate websites, or on intranets, whilst more and more smaller businesses are using standard e-mail and texting on a regular, 24/7 basis. Sales representatives, for instance, will use Internet-enabled mobile phones to receive the latest product information from managers, rather than physically going to the corporate head-office or branch to pick up the latest brochure, although if they also happen to have laptop computers with WiFi, they can probably download a version of the brochure anyway...

Corporate conferencing has also changed in a big way. Hundreds-of-thousands of society members and freelancers from every continent on the globe, participate in a virtual world operated by a company based in North-West Europe, and are represented in the form of 3D personas or avatars. Many of the societies are made up of individuals that own and or operate the same business or company in the real world. When inside this virtual world, these society members are able to conduct meetings, conferences, etc, in virtual real time, and in total secrecy, as participants never use their real names. If a chat-log feature is enabled, which any participant of this virtual world can do, then these conferences and meetings can also be recorded. This chat-log is actually saved automatically on one's computer. There are; at the time of writing, hundreds of these virtual worlds on the Internet, and total participation is hundreds of millions.

In another of these cyberspace arenas, many corporations are openly represented with virtual 3D buildings or landmarks and have been so for many years. Household names like Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel and even Reuters are even on there,and there are a myriad of other businesses also openly represented; some equally household names, others less well known. There are times of course, when only seeing real people will do. For this, there is live one-to-one or one-to-many video conferencing or broadcasting.

There are now many hosted video and voice chat servers/programs readily available on the internet, that allow anyone to communicate in real time with up to ten or more others, as long as all parties have a video camera or 'webcam' and microphone setup. A separate 'window' or frame for each participant, is displayed on one's display; at least this is how many such servers/programs operate, so it is possible to see everyone talking at the same time. Client programs can log conference sessions if required if sufficient drive space is available. An alternative is IP-enabled (Internet Protocol) dedicated video phones that have been available for some years, with internal storage.

What of the future. Part of it will be the emergence of Web 3.0 within the next few years or so, that will be made up of 3D 'websites' or environments, that one will interact with in the form of an avatar. The precursor to this, are of course the types of virtual worlds mentioned above. Web 3.0 enabled browsers will enable you to surf these 3D environments, just as conventional browsers enable one to surf the existing Web 2.0 standard today

As the boys played with the unit, it became more and more amazing! You could hear sounds like those that you hear in all the major casinos! The screen was in color, and it enhanced some of the games that are included in the system like Jokers Wild and 2's Wild! They could play it anywhere because you can put batteries in it!

To go to another such site, you will simply be able to enter its address from within the the one you are already in on a virtual terminal or screen, and then teleport to it. Many MMORPGs and other 3D-type games, already heavily feature teleporters, and so this will just be an extension of this.

In the very near future (and these things will happen), one thing will be certain. That the differences between cyber reality and reality, will become more and more blurred. Tomorrow will be sending your avatar down the aisle of a 3D supermarket or DIY store to order the product that you want, instead of scrolling down an endless list of thumbnails, and meeting other 3D shoppers as you go along.

Andrew Jenery http://www.spacenewsdigest.com

ajenery@hotmail.com

 

 

 

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