Welcome to Gaia! ::

hahahaha! "the business end" lol! baby download complete.


the internet has already changed human society immensely in ten years...in ways i don't think anybody could have predicted.

virual reality is also on my wishlist, i can't believe it is still in its infancy compared to all the other aspects of computing like graphics, games, adsl etc...although here's a chilling thought perhaps virtual reality has been around for a long time and we are all just part of its fabric...

there was a very suspect "documentary" about time travel on tv a while ago, they looked at theories of time, Newton and the linear concept of time, Einsteins theories etc. they expressed that even if it were possible to build a time machine you would never be able to travel back in time further than the point the machine had been invented (i can't remember why) so they finished the show with the hypothesis that people of the future wishing to travel back to points in history would be able to experience only a simulation of the past through virtual reality. this virtual reality would however be so advanced that everything in it would have such amazing AI that the characters (people) would be both self aware and unaware that they were only virtual...and they pointed out this could already be the case.


...then of course there is quantum physics to think about...existentialism seems quite simplistic by comparison...

Virtual Reality is a lot closer than you think. From what I hear, there's now a vest that has been produced, that compresses in different places, in response to electronic signals.

It's original purpose was for doctors to be able to diagnose patients over the internet (like being able to tell if a bone is broken, or various chiropractic practices). However, they've noted that it would be great for video games too. Including FPS style games. Imagine, your character takes a bullet to the chest, and in that exact same spot on your vest, the vest compresses for a second, making you "feel" the shot!

Although, I think they may have scrapped the idea, because it's been a few years, and there's been nothing commercial yet.

And yes, the vast expanses of the internet do affect our lives, greatly. In some ways, positive, in others, negative.

An increasing number of people are finding "the love of my life" on the interent, even I had found a woman on the internet that I still have deep feelings for (but lets not get into that). Without the internet, I wouldn't have ever met her.

People are learning things they've always wanted to know, or just interesting things that they may never NEED to know, but it's still fun to know.

But there's, of course, the negative side, like all of the illegal porn sites, hackers, identity theives, child abductors, scammers, and so on.

Virtual Reality is already in use in a few sectors and I recall that there have been medical prototypes of surgery emulations which could help doctors a great deal in saving lives for instance! smile For the military, it is already in use primarily for aviation practice which in the past could only be done through actual practice which amounts to quite a high number of resources used, which now are saved thanks to emulation, and perhaps if it's further developed it can have many other useful applications in practice that can potentially hurt a human bein such as perhaps driving (though some real experience might be necessary with all the unpredictable factors perhaps =P).

And about the negative sides of the internet. When you add "common people" or commercial interest into an equation (which in the past was Scientist + Data from experiments, Serious Discussion = The Internet) things will be able to become potentially negative. Yet there is so much good that entails the internet out-weighing the bad, primarily the freedom and how we can look at things from so many perspectives rather than just usually 1 (regulated by media and societal view in the past largely, think Democratic Authoritarianism).

I know that the good outweighs the bad. But the fact is, the bad is still there. I personally wouldn't recommend letting ANYONE under 18 use a computer, without close supervision. It only takes one wrong click.

YES! That's the one!