My Flash Story

Towards Future Evolution – Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality or V.R. technology allows the user to interact with computer-simulated environment, be it real or imaginary. Most of the nowadays V.R. environments are experienced by visual and sound. But in recent years the systems in medical and gaming applications have evolved, allowing the user to interacet with the virtual environment via the standard tools such as mouse and keyboard, or through multimodal devices like wired gloves and Polhemus boom arm. But in reality it is very difficult to create a high-fidelity V.R. experience, due to the limitations of processing power, image resolution and communication bandwith. However the limitations will be overcome as processor, imaging and data communication become more effective and powerfull.

Most of the times V.R. is used to show a wide veriety of applications. The development of CAD software, head mounted displays, graphic hardware acceleration and other technology have helped popularize the notion. Michael Heim identifies in his book “The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality” seven concepts of V.R. – interraction, simulation, artificiality, immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication.

The origin of the term can be tracked back to the french poet, actor, playwright and director Antonin Artaud. In his work “The Theater and Its Double”, the author talks about a Virtual Reality where “characters, objects and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy’s visionary internal dramas“. The term has also been used in “The Judas Mandala“, a science-fiction book from 1982 by Damien Broderick, but the usage is different from the one of Antonin Artaud.  The concept of V.R. gained popurality in the mass-media by films like “Brainstorm” and “The Lawnmower Man“. On the other hand the “culprit” for the V.R. research boom in the 1990’s was the book “Virtual Reality” a non-fiction by Howard Rheingold. This book helped to “tame” the subject, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and entusiasts.

Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an “Experience Theatre” that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. In 1962 he made a prototype called “Sensorama“, along with five short  films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple scenes (sight, sound, smell and touch). Even today the “Sensorama” is still operational. In 1968 Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproul built the first V.R. and augmented reality head mounted display system – very “primative” machine nowadays, but considered one of the great breakthroughs in V.R. Now, it is still unclear where the future of V.R. is heading. But we know that soon the graphics displayed in the HMD will soon reach a point of near realism and the audio systems will move into a new realm of three dimensional sounds. For now, sound and sight are the two senses which best lend themselves to high quality simulation. But there are attempts to stimulate smell. Given the fact, a full sensory immersion beyond basic tactile feedback, sight, sound, and smell is unlikely to be a goal in the idustry.  But recently there has been a breaktrough in simulating smells – Japan’s NTT Communication has just finished testing an Internet-connected odor-delivery system to be used by retailers and restaurants to attract customers.Will this experiment be successful or not it is too early to judge. But as bew trials and data are gathered, Shunichi Hamada (deputy manager of NTT’s Future Communication’s Section) says he is sure the technology “will take communications to a new level in content richness, compared to today’s communications, which only offers images and sounds”.

In order to engage the sense of taste, the brain has to be directly manipulated. This will guide V.R. into the real of simulated reality like the head-plugs in The Matrix. Although no serious form has been developed, SONY has made the first step. On 7 April 2005, the company gave an announcement infront of the public, that they had filed for and received a patent for the idea of the non-invasive beaming of different frequencies and patterns of ultrasonic waves directly into the brain to recreate all of the five senses. It has been proven that this is completely possible.

It has long been feared that Virtual Reality will be the last invention of humans, as once simulations become cheaper and more widespread, no one will ever want to leave their “perfect” fantasies. Satirists, however, have nodded towards humans’ aversion to catheters and starvation.

Towards Future Evolution – Artificial Inteligence

What is Intelligence? Artificial intelligence is difficult to describe because as humans, We still have not clearly defined what intelligence is. What is it that makes us, or any entity intelligent? Is it simply the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge? Is it consciousness? If so, can computer software be intelligent, a robot self aware?

The idea of “thinking machines” is found as early as Greek mythology, for example the golden robots of Hephaestus and Pygmalion’s Galatea. It was widely believed that artificial beings had been created by Geber, Judah Loew and Paracelsus. The stories of this creatures pose the same problems as the artificial intelligence – hope, fears and ethical concerns.

One of the most known stories for artificial life – “Frankestein” by Mary Shelly (partly inspired by the story of Paracelsus) considers a key issue in the ethics of artificial intelligence – can a sentient machine feel? If it can feel, does this mean it has the same rights as a human being? This problem known as “robot rights”, is being considered by futurists like those from the California’s Institute for the Future, but many critics still believe that this discussion is premature.

Another problem considered by fururist and writers is the effect of A.I. (artificial intelligence) on society. In movies A.I. has been seen as a servant (R2D2 – Star Wars), a friend (Andrew – Bicentennial Man), transhumanism and extension to human abilities(Ghost in the Shell) and even a ruthless warrior (Terminator). Scientists have discussed consequences as – enhancement of human ability and experience, decreased demand for human labour and a need for redefinition of human identity and basic values.

More and more futurists argue that A.I. will transcend the limits of progress and fundamentally transform humanity.  By using Morre’s Law, Ray Kurzweil was able to calculate that desktop computers will have the exactly same process power as the human brain by the year of 2029, and by 2045 A.I. will reach a stage that will allow it to self-improve at a rate that we can not imagine a.k.a. “Technological Singularity” (Vernor Vinge). The scientist Eward Frenkin says that A.I. is the next step of evolution, an idea mentioned first by Samuel Butler in “Darwin Among the Machines” and later expanded by George Byson in his book of the same name in 1998.

Another question for scientist is the philosophy of A.I. By claiming to be able to recreate the capabilities of the human mind, it is both a challange and an insipiration for philosophy. To what extent machines can be inteligent? Is there a limit to intelligence? Is there a cardinal distinction between A.I. and human intelligence? Can and should a machine have a mind and consciousness? Here are several theories :

–Turing’s “polite convention”: If a machine acts as intelligently as a human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being. (Basis of Turing test)

–The Dartmouth proposal: Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely  described that a machine can be made to stimulate it. (Darmouth Conference 1956 – represents the position of most A.I. researchers)

–Newell and Simon’s physical symbol system hypothesis: A physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means of general intelligent action. (The essence of intelligence is symbol manipulation)

–Godel’s incompleteness theorem: A formal system can not prove all true statements. (There are limits to what machines can do)

–Searle’s stron A.I. hypothesis: The appropriatly programmed computer with the right inputs and outputs would thereby have a mind in exactly the same sense human beings have minds. (Look inside the computer and try to find where the “mind” might be.)

–The artificial brain argument: The brain can be stimulated. (Hans Moravec, Ray Kurzweil and others have discussed that is technologically possible to copy the brain directly into hardware and software, and that such imitation will be identical to the original. This argument combines the idea that a suitable powerful machine can stimulate any process, with the materialist idea that the mind is the result of physical process in the brain.)

Still, most of the questions need an answer. The near future is still a bit unclear. Will we be able to successfully produce an intelligent and sentient machine? What will it be – a friend, a slave, or a warrior? Is humanity ready to take the next step toward Evolution? Only time will tell.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!