When I first visited the virtual world Second Life it was an underwhelming experience – vast empty spaces, lots of grey polygons while things loaded, and awkward controls.
But it seems things have come a long way since then, as this video shows. This is Blue Galaxy, a beautiful virtual island inside Second Life that is reminiscent of the planet Pandora from the Avatar movie. Maybe it’s time for another visit? (but make sure you have some beefy graphics hardware!)
Welcome, Human 2.0.
We may not realize it, but the Internet has given us superhuman abilities. We acquire new capabilities each year, and technology lets us to do things that would have seemed impossible 30 years ago.
Here are ten superpowers that you and I have today:
This short (20 minute) film, “Play”, by David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman, explores a world where the lines between augmented reality, virtual worlds and computer games have become so blurred that people begin to lose track of reality. Drawing on themes explored by films like The Matrix, Surrogates and Total Recall, this film is fascinating, thought-provoking and just a little disturbing.
With more and more things to remember every day, will we trust computers to back up our brains? Find out in this interview with Sunil Vemuri. (read more...)
Patents have spread from products to processes, algorithms and even genes. This documentary examines the dangers to society of patenting everything. (read more...)
Like all images on the site, the topic icons are based on images used under Creative Commons or in the public domain. Originals can be found from the following links. Thanks to wecand, philosophy_rebel, maniya, victornuno, splityarn, barnetcouncil, istio, jeremymates, botheredbybees and leonardodavinci.
@
Tags: 