Swivel 3D (S400 4151543-3848), It's a world without He used an off-the-shelf graphics program called . IGHT BEFORE MY EYESJaron Lanier built an artificial reality and then climbed world in color. It was a wild arabesque developed by VPL, to draw a floor plan of his world as into it. Jaron Lanier is one of the principal visionaries of cyberspace (WER and star-shaped tiles. On that he limitation, a floor - large green, brown and maroon polygons #64) or, as he prefers to call it, "Virtual Reality." One night recently I went gems perched on top and twirling built chalk obelisk pedestals with immense ruby dreams. Rdown to his offices in Redwood City, CA, to gather up illustrations for the following large green fronds unlimited as were several orange flames issuing out of them. In the center interview with him . It was an historic evening, for the first time someone created ifyou thought about it, but worked that looked more like immense green tapeworms It's also a world an instant fantasy world and crawled into it. l went in after hinr using the usual Mac painting nicely as fern plants ifyou didn't. He drew all these other illustrations. In about two There are about 20 groups (primarily in the States) working on building virtual tools while I was photographing the hardware and that's shared. his floppy over to Chuck, the realities . Last issue we reported on the progress of the group at NASA which had hours he was done making a new world. He rushed loading it into virtual reality. succeeded in putting together a system of helmet, glove, and a monochrome three- hacker on the Silicon Graphics machines, who began AN dimensional "stick" reality. A group in North Carolina has also come up with his instant world. Very soon he was on he ` advanced models, in color, - Jaron put on his helmet and entered slowly writhing into a new position INTERVIEW carpeted floor, sprawled with his mouth open, Jaron Lanier is the guy behind the dataglove that NASA uses. The dataglove re- newly hatched, and unnamed uni- to explore- some hidden aspect of his tiny, WITH produces your real hand into a virtual hand by means offlexible fiber-optic cables the layers ofpatterns on his verse. He found that he could get in between attached to a lightweight glove you slip your real hand into When you point, your stars and the green and floor and sort of float between the maroon JARON LANIER virtual hand points . It's very elegant Lanier's company, VPL, is developing the con- carpet looking for un- . brown polygons. He was wormingover . the cept of the glove into a whole bodysuit. The clothing so far is not elegant . It's made found a perspectives and exclaiming in delight when he bulky by cumbersome cables growing off the imbs and the back. . usual expected, The rest of us stood around curious view he hadn't One by one VPL has a production model of a virtual-reality goggle, which they are calling "eye- and watched the monitor to see what he saw. Each of us phones." The night Fwas there they were trying out the first one off their very we took turns trying on the magical goggles. fine stupor, stalking in small production line (one-per-day capability). The goggles seem to need much would put it on and slowly melt as if in a tuning. They haven't gotten to the point where they are able to adjust them easily laid out on the carpet, or slow motion until we wound up exploring any orgreatly, so when a new person puts them on there is some time spent fiddling. huddled in the corner constrained from Jaron's girlfriend, My eyes do not align properly in the best of times, so they were unable to adjust further by the actual walls of the room . demonstra- the vertical alignment of the stereo images. l had to strain to make the 30 image still wearing a blue bodysuit from an earlier when she dis_ work (which I often have to do with stereoscopic images). The goggles are also tion, let out quiet yelps of amazement hollow and heavy, leaving an indented line in your forehead when you take them off. - covered that the chalk pedestals were and see the bottoms- I had considered the NASA wire-frame worlds as "state-of-the-art" and was not that you could go up inside them world record for the ' expecting the field to advance so far so quickly. The'virtual worlds VPL has created of the rubiesl "This is the Guinness squealed. You have to are in full technicolor with shaded, contoured surfaces! They are far from photo- craziest virtual world yetl" Jaron of the research to date has been graphic quality, yet there is a sense ofcompleteness. It seems a real world, in the keep in mind that most sense thafa Disney cartoon seems real. ("Real" is going to become one of the most done by the military, ; relative words well have.) Overall, I'd say the impression is ofbeing a.'toon in Toon- Jaron's girlfriend on die floor It was la-te, 11:30 pm.-The blue figure of land. The visual quality of the world shown on the outside monitors is attractive - "the right place;" moving ., was Strangely rotating, slowly trying to find about the resolution ofyour run-of-the-mill computer animation. The qualityinside the floor, too, twrkg his massive . to a distant, internal logic. Jaron was on the goggle is quite a bit less, little fuzzier, and without the same color subtlety. -~- aura ofpsychedelics.  a rastafarian dreadlocks. The room had the leftover The images look me about like what I'd see on small color TV that had seen had visit to his tiny to a "Well, I'm addicted,"uI suggested after I'd my better days. The virtual-reality images are produced two Silicon Graphics com- by dreamland. puters about the size of oversize luggage - one for each eye. Jaron asked softly. "Look what "Please don't use that word with this," When I arrived in the evening, Lanier was working on his "reality built for twa ." that some mushrooms." The ensuing conversation revealed fine-tuning it for an upcoming publicdemo for the Pacific Bell telephone company. happened to girlfriend, have done schalady .research in of his old friends, as well as his In this world two people wear body suits with datagloves, goggles, and ear phones their research careers uses ofpyschoactive drugs, only to have The virtual space they are a triangular room with a poster-size PacBell logo , legitimate amused in is ofthe substances as illegal. He was highly around halted by the reclassification hovering in one corner, and a cluster ofsmall multicolored triangles buzzing were appearing in this issue along. that some ofthem, like Terence McKenna, the place like a hyperactive TinkerbelL You can reach out and grab the cluster, yank become illegal," : "I'm really worried that virtual realities may it to where you want, and release it like a bird. So can the other person, and when with his interview she does, you see her do it in the virtual world. You see the other person as a. Jaron sighed. .' , computer-generated figure, a female called Joan, but she could be represented in be that powerful. I'm runnin I m inclined to agree that virtual realities may form, points out in this interview never saw who or what . . nowhere else have l.seenbowtha""' ' almost any as Jaron . (I this interview at its fun length, because certainty.). . described, l looked like. Virtual mirrors are a future power so accurately and compassionately As impressive as this demo /didn't really perceive the magic of what fanon is Here's one of them . was, are the visionaries of the next 8eneration7. , speculating about''until he showed me the first personal instant world. When I first Where major'univer- The wearer of this VPL bodysuit a high-school diploma even though a forme Jaion Lanier is 29, without is transported into an alternative, arrived at 8:30 in the evening, Jaron said he wanted to make up world - research, and a dec6cated musician who . Fiber- sities are unable to keep up with his computer-generated .world a crazy, imaginative world.,He claimed that they had been so busy inventing hard- guitar. He is interviewed by Adam cables running through the suit wanted to pyla a guitar without t~physical optic ware and developing the software that he hadn't had any time to fool around mak- Persian,and rs gloves (far left) produce signals writer and translator in Portuguese, French and ing worlds since they got the system going in the last few weeks. He immediately when flexed Stacks -Kevin Kelly . sat down at his Mac and began creating it , and Barbara .

ADAM HEILBRUN : The word "virtual" is that's convincing, and there's some tech- ple working in Virtual Reality a chance computer jargon. Could you clarify it nology involved in accomplishing that, to jostle about these different possibi- for those unfamiliar with the concept? but that's a good metaphor. When you lities before we decide definitely what put them on you suddenly see a world things are called and exactly what they'll JARON LANIER : I know, I don't like it that surrounds you - you see the vir- do . But this is a very plausible setup either ; too tech-y, but so far I have not tual world. It's fully three-dimensional that I'm describing. been able to come up with anything and it surrounds you . As you move. better. "Virtual" means something that You wear gloves on your hands. These your head to look around, the images exists only as an electronic representa- allow you to reach out and feel things that you see inside the eyeglasses are tion, which has no other concrete ex- - that aren't really there. The inside of shifted in such a way that an illusion of istence. It's as if it were there even if it the surface of the glove has tactile movement is created - you moving isn't. It's not necessarily the right word . stimulators so that when the Home while the virtual world is standing still, I like it better than "artificial :' I like Reality Engine can tell that your hand is , I it better than "synthetic: "Shared The images come from a powerful touching a virtual object (even though Dream;' "Telereality" - I don't know. special computer which I like to call the there's no object there) you'll actually I don't like it. I think it sounds nerdy Home Reality Engine . It will be sitting feel the object . ' but nothing better's come along. I don't there in your room and will plug into function of the gloves is know what to call it. Some people call the phone outlet . I'll say some more The second allow you to interact ; it "cyberspace" after William Gibson, , words about the Home Reality Engine that they actually an object but I think that's dreadful. It's very in a second, but let's stay with the with objects. You can pickup would limiting and even more computery. glasses for now. ' and do things with it; just like you with a real object . You can pick up a computer Virtual Reality is not a . We , , At the end of the stems they have little virtual baseball and throw it. So it allows are speaking about a technology that headphone speakers very much like a you to do things to the world; uses computerized clothing to synthe- Walkman, which allow you to hear the size shared reality. It recreates our re- sounds of the virtual world. There's It does more than that ; the glove also lationship with the physical world in a nothing too unusual there; they're just , measures how your hand is moving . new plane, no more, no less. It doesn't exactly like your everyday Walkman This is very important so that in the vir- affect the subjective world;,it doesn't speakers. The sounds you hear on them tual world you can see a version of your have anything to do directly with what's are a little bit unusual in that they're hand to see your movements. It's !m- going on inside your brain. It only has t8 Processed to have three-dimensional portant that you wear clothing that not do with whatyour sense organs per- quality; theycome from certain : only transfers sensations to you but ceive. The physical world, the thing on directions . measures what your body is doing. The the other side of your sense organs, is computer that's running the Virtual other thing too; received through these five holes, the The glasses do one Reality will use your body's movements that can eyes, and the ears, and thenose, and they, have sensors in them ' to control whatever body you choose sense your facial expression. This is " the mouth; and the;skin. They're not , ' to have in Virtual Reality, which might very important because you are a part_ . holes, actually, and there are many _ _ .be human or might be something quite Reality and the clothing---- more senses than five but that's the of the Virtual -different. You might very well be a' sense as much as old model, so we'll'just stick with that you wear has to ;mountain range or a galaxy or a pebble ' it can about your body. It uses that in- to scan the room that,sit' in on the floor. Or a piano : . I've con"" has a lot of jobs to do. It has to be, re- capability formation to control the virtual version . will youryo glasses. The very first, sidered being a piano. I'm interested in aintingthe graphics that your eyes see, and so Before you enter the Virtual Reality of your body, which both you and other P thin that you'll see when you put on being musical instruments quite a lot.' ' and calculating the, sounds that your .,: ,; g . - might very well be a you'll see a pile of clothing that you people perceive as being you in the Virtual RealItydothing for the first ntime You rY Also, you can have musical instruments ears hear, and calculating the textures,; have to Put on iri'order to perceive a an alternate version of Virtual Reality. that playreality, in all kinds of ways aide skin feels, all the time quickly; will simply be galaxy different world thaai the physical world.'' thatyour s out mountain'range or acarted sound in Virtual Reality.' world is realistic: . the physical room that you a : So, for instance, you might choose from making enough so that the The clothing onsistsgconsists mostly of pair in. So, for instance, if you are in your liv-you become a cat in Virtual Reality. Or' . That's another' wayof describing arbi- That's a very big task. It has to com- on the floor. of glasses and a pair of gloves. Exactly ; to d yopu put on Virtual Reality Or a pebble, trary physics . With a saxophone you'll municate with other Hgme Reality En-.; ing room an clothin there will be it's too earl ' ' anythl'ng realY.what If You're a cat You might your living g ~Y so that clothing'-. let's suppose that vari- very well be wired, so to speak, so that' be able to play cities and -dancing lights, ines in other peoples houses ~ a ` ion 0 to say. There are a lot of different room has a couch, and it has a set of :r p in real world the ` and you'll be able to play the herding of ou can share realities with other pen- ations th aware possible and its reallyY - . . ,when you smile the . Ya ; . window, it has two buffaloes made of crystal. and you'll be a very big task. It's quite' shelves, and it has a . too earlyto predict which well be the cat that You are in Virtual Realitysmiles. Ple`. and that's all tese considere d bel ng piano. r change makes a doorways,' it has a chair; it hhas . minimal kind of As your eyes dart around looking, the able to play your'own body and ec'ial computer and it most o00ular ones A things and it has certain dimensions' - eyes of the cat dart around u well.' yourself as you play the saxophone . You Macintosh look like a,.little speck. '` Virtual Reality outfic'would have a .. a and ceiling). When you t on have a could become a comet in the sky one (walls pair of glasses and a glove. And so the eye glasses also When you first put on your thing you'll see is moment and then gradually unfold into AH: your glasses the first function in'sensing your face. . and become aware of the ofyour living room The glasses allow you to perceive the a spider that's bigger than the planet' clothing an alternate version EngineJ are you pre-. , . Wherever visual world of Virtual Reality. Instead The headset, the eyeglasses - they're down at all your friends Home Reality with the same dimensions that looks there` of having transparent lenses, they have ; sometimes called eyephones - you sentedtividt something analogous to there is a thing in the living room from high above. is to say ..; visual displays that are rather like small - have to remember that we're witness- the Macintosh desktop, that will be something in the Virtual world: ' three-dimensional televisions. They're ing the birth of a culture here, so a lot . Then, of course, there's the Home; a work space with tools in it? Where there's a chair, in the living room terms aren't really settled down into Reality Engine, a computer, that by 1989 will be asomething in the Virtual' much more sophisticated than small of JL; What will probably happen is that there course. They have to pre- , being a particular way just yet . I think., standards is very powerful but in the- : ., world. It probably won't be a chair- it televisions, of the Home Reality Engine will have a sent a three-dimensional world to you > we have to give the community of pen- future will just be,a regular computer. It

I 10 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW FALL 1989

AH: Mechanically, how do you go about very well might be a chair. though. The some of us. You'll certainly make your playing back your memory? Home Reality Engine will just do a sub- own after a while. it stitution. The reason for this is that But the thing that you have to remember JL: What would you actually do! See, will prevent you from bumping into is that Virtual Reality is a much broader that's a very personal decision. You anything . idea than. say, the Macintosh. Its, pur- have to understand that in the Virtual person might have very The point is that in Virtual Reality there's pose will be general communication Reality. each tools that, might no need for a single metaphor. whereas with other people, not so much getting personal idiosyncratic invisible to others, but it's the there is a need for a single design meta- sorts of work done. The Macintosh was even be that you affect by using . phor in a computer. We are used to conceived as a way of automating desk- shared reality counts . That's what's switching contexts in real life. It's nor- . type of work, so they used the desk- , your tools that the most important thing. And it's nice mall to be in your living room in which top metaphor. It was quite appropriate ' see other's tools too; it's you behave one way and in which you : and obviously it's been very successful ; ' to each but it will be fun. ratherdo certain things, and then go to work, ' it was a cultural match , intimate do something totally dif- say, and you Virtual Reality is conceived of as an ex- My way of having my memories might the beach and you're my ferent, you go to Pansion of reality, the Provision of al- be . . . I think I'll keep them behind of mind, . ' in an utterly different state ternate realities for people en masse in ear. I imagine reaching behind my ear into a temple and you're in' my eyes and you go which to share experiences, and so the and pulling them out in front of of mind. All those wear-wear still different state types metaphors that come up are and then I'll suddenly find myself different streams of " ' of . -places are really things like cars, travel, different coun- ing bifocals where i wasn't before . In the an overall ` : life that we associate with tries, different cultures. For instance, lower half of the bifocalsI see the virtual " the upper environment. ' you might very well have a virtual car world as it is shared and in . of There's simply no need for one unified ' ` that you ride around in even though half I'm looking into, my memories arent real bifocals, of paradigm for experiencing the physical '- physically you're in one place. It would the past. These ' course. From now on whenever I refer world,'and there's no need for one in . go through different territories in Vir- virtual Virtual~Reality either. Virtual Reality is " tual Reality so that you could get around to anything, fm talking about not like the next way computers will be; ' them - or transporter booths, perhaps. things, not physical things. it's much much broaderthan the idea , , go you could have geographical meta-, , There may be amachine that looks like evolve a, of a computer. A computer is a specific phors. There might very well the one at the optometrist's where you "tool. Virtual Reality Is an alternate real- new geography, let's say - a fictitious can flick little lenses into place; there itY and you shouldn't carry over into planet With new continents that you : floating out . visi- will be this machine that's a "reality built for twerone limitations that are find new'realities: if you looked behind you there was this In her Virtual Reallty,the can dive into to in front of me, and each of the lenses I and brigllhter but they' still be in y tor wears a body suit wklsonly computers . biggerer Saturn and so forth, in order What necessary for tomake sense you'll only can flick into p so I can still rely on my, huge planet head and right hand activated. - . In the earl ViAual Realities theit context, the Home Reality En- visitor It'san absurd Ilmitadjon. Because what my history. One will say, which remember to perceive that, she looks like to the other be able to see the Virtual Reality when aspects of internal memories, sensations. It is were synthesizing here is reality itself wasnt- - 'ne was generating those immersed in the virtual room you're In Its'Later, there will be more "Well filter out everything .that. , things in context. , . . particular isolatedmachine; was generating the images' you saw in displayed on the monitor ' andnot justa histicated ones where you' can blend in this room:' Another will say. "Filter , . simplifying ' sop Of course, I'in somewhat glasses Itwas generating the sounds there are lot more possibilities than Physical objects so out anything that wasnt' with this other al .- Y-our - . Virtual objectsI and - things because I'm only using the visu earphones. It was with the Macintosh. And another will say,Filter"Filter you heard in your thatyou tan live in a mixed reality for - person :' metaphor now. I'll have the same thin8 felt inside involve music:'~ generating the textures you Virtual Reality will have the equivalent a while and be able to see yourphysical out anything that didn't sonic memories. Then, if for tactile' and the glove. It can simply store these like of directories in computers, but they as if you were wearing . and so forth. When I flick all these filters' bring into environment I see something I want, to other computer information. There directories, of course . nonphylical ob~' into place, I have a narrower and nor-` ''' old any wont look like sunglasses butalso have the present reality, or if I see an . play back, exactly, .- viewof my history, so fmlooking; + they are. You can `" There may be giant trellises, trellises a jects mixed in it. Thai will be a later ' '' rower memory that lwant to relive in a dif- Experience , . and of it. Another filter I what you experienced, mile'smiles across, that are perfectly stage. We're already* developing tech-"', `~ at less less /million way with the people that fm.., , store ' that order it in dif-' ferent becomes something you can ' lightweight, you can 'pull Yoyourself ` nology to do that but It's an ordero of ' ' might flick into Pplacelace will we can either pull some- all currently with, in a computer file. . , through, that carry with them sorts , more complex to pull off. fereni ways: I might want to orderit reach what you experienced. 'r< magnitude thin out of. it (simply . I experienced it, or"" 8 rather cold. . ; '~ ~" f-different ob ecu', a veritable museum chronologically as and pull it out into the current .I know that mighti sound In Virtual Reality any tool is possible and memory horrible of different obobjects that you might ex- ; , f mt wantto have it play back sorted all climb into the I'm the first one to criticize this Experience becomes, will Wonderful tools: in , circumstance)tance)orwe can those that . there. be some - according' to its geographical distance' ' of informatl-- +^" human ' lore. Youmight fiaveone of ex- memo -either way. It doesnt matter. substitution Virtual Reality your memory can be space. ' ry n in itself can store shows upin' 'yourroom. You might very in the virtual geographic get ', experience, . I think information sometsomething You ternalized. Because your experience is AH How did ally o'f these memories of the'' well haveawhole buncli6f little buckets, that . is a dreadful concept. It robs us computer-generated'. y_ou can simply Then I have a little device, a knob from your mind into the Virtual Reality! whenever you put one, of those richness of life. It robs us of the act of a ccomputeromPuter file . and can la back our I can turn to go forwards and backwardsf. in " yourself % save it and. -so You- . P. Y . Y L: TheY never were in my mind. You moment and the mystery buckets on Yyour,. head you find own through mymemories and flick filters the joy ofeach it 'ld-- o exincePere anytime from your they're memories.of external real- simply true that ` inside another world, another universe, The filters might also see, of the next. But is ` erspective. Given that, you can organ-- at the same time. experiencing a few the internal There will be things like that P icy. Let's say you're -'the external experience, not ize your experience and use your ex- ` change the ways the filters look. For in-' and perhaps moments in Virtual Reality nce but the external exPer- AH:." Willi these buckets 6e things that externalized memory stance;one object might make only cer- J ex perience, useyour you'rere sitting onntthehe rings ofof Saturn Reality,Ro is' a computer created yourself or will they . tam kinds of things bigger and brighter. " Y fence of Virtual you've initself, as the basis for what you would turns you on. Now what's . find musical m- whatever file. And it's that simple come as a software package? ' call The Finder in the, Macintosh. That ' Like if I only want to order for you to- happened is that in whole thing ;' ' will be quite a dif(erent thing. You can . struments from the past, I mightgo `' perceived, in Now the reason that the )L: There wilt be some starter ones. perceive everything you great your packet or, forwards and backwards through my works is that your brain spends a The would have been created over ' keep whole universes in orderto perceive thatt you were looking out and, , history and the instrument's will be par- deal of its efforts on making you believe time communally by the community of~, behind your ear and pull them, out into the vastness of spaceace and that ticularllly easy to see because they' be users. They would have been started by look through them any,time,

I 12 WHOLE,EARrH REVIEW FALL 1989

through have a world where you can change it, at all, so you can have all these tools. which people experience life different realities at different how do you change it? Do you just talk Once you have all these tools, you can radically through different to it and does it become the way you start, using whatever body you choose times, through ritual, has tended say it should be? Or do you do some- to have in Virtual Reality, to use the things. Western civilization but, because Virtual thing else? Now, there are real limits to tools to change the world very quickly to reject them I do not think that it how you can change the world by talk- all kinds of ways. Then, you have this Reality is a gadget, in ultimate gadget . ing. For instance, imagine that you were . idea of being able to improvise reality. will be rejected . It's the in many trying to teach a robot to fix a car That's the thing that excites me the It's the culmination of gadgetry into engine and you tell the robot, "Okay most about it. ways. I think that it will bring back western experience something that has now, connect this piece to that piece, AH: What does the interface look like? been lost. Why that is so, is a big topic. turn this bolt and so forth:" Well, you If I wanted to turn this cup green, what can do that to a degree but you can't would I do to make it green? It will bring back a sense of the shared really do that with a person. You have mystical altered sense of reality that is JL: Okay, here's the deal . There's no to show them . You can't run the world so important in basically every other one way. There would be a'million ways with language . Language is very limited. civilization and culture prior to big pa- to change the cup green. You could Language is a very very narrow stream triarchal power; I hope that that might make up new ones and you could change through the plain of reality. It leaves out lead to some sense of tolerance and that one over there. See, the tools that a great deal. It's not so much it leaves understanding . But there's more to it you use to change reality are somewhat things out as that language comes as a than that . I often worry about whether private. It's the result of the change stream of little discrete symbols and the it's a good technology or a bad tech- in reality that's the more social thing. world is made of continuity and gesture. nology. I have a little benchmark I use People will be somewhat idiosyncratic . Language can suggest things about the for that . I believe that if a technology , about that. world, but no painting could ever be increases human power or even human fully described by words, nor can reality. Now the way you turn the cup green intelligence and that's its sole effect, would probably be with some kind of then it's simply an evil technology at The way that you can probe the reality little coloring device, The kind of color birth. We're already both powerful is with a special kind of physics that can Jaron Lanier tests his homemade vir- ing device that I'm going to have is a little enough and smart enough to accom- only exist in Virtual Reality, It's what tual reality by strapping VPL's goggles- wand thing, a little prism that I pick up, plish a great deal. All of our problems on and crawling under the floor I call Absolute Physics. For some time of I turn it and it reflects the rainbow of are self-brought at this point. If the his fantasy room, shown below his now I've been working on software that on my eyes . Whenever the color looks' ` technology, on the other has design screen . will able to make Absolute Physics hand, a be right I'll'squeeze it and whatever it's tendency to increase human communi- that in a consistent work in Virtual Reality you're reality in the at least the way I think about Virtual ` pointed at will turn into that color. cation, human sharing, then I think it's first place. What you are able per- ° Reality. I'm pretty might, to sure that it will turn Coming back to the physical world for a That will be my personal one; you a good one overall, even though there ceive of the physical world actually is out to be a not-very-important aspect second, there are only a very few things want something completely different ' might be many ways it could be used very fragmentary. A of what your i :. of . It would take whili to explain lot it a in the physical world thatyoucan change AH: We are witnessing a breakup of__ badly. My chronic examples of these . nervous system accomplishes is covering ., but I suppose I should! why, fast enough to use as forms of commu- consensus reality in the external world are that the television is bad but that up the gaps in your perception Vir- In There area few special thin about nication . Mostly it's your tongue, and to right now. The political repercussions the telephone is good . I could go on Other tual Reality this natural tendency. of the k people are the Virtual Reality to keep in mind, the a lesser degree the rest of your body. seem rather, frightening aslargesegments about that forever. brain 'works in our favor. As soon ' party as things that make it important. One is `' Your body is basically the extent of the, of society have no commoigl rocsit d 0 life of the there's a threshold, the brain will tend " I do hope that Virtual Reality will pro- in that it's areality in which anything can physical world that you can communicate shared assumptions about real . p . people.,lt f to think of either the physical world or .' P . , , y vide more meeting between be Possible*, provided its part of the' with in real time, but you can communi- Virtual Reality further undermine , the virtual world as beingg the reality not has a tendency to bring, up empathy Virtual.- Reality, Other j external world. It's a world without limi- cate with it as fast as you think. That's reality? f+ you're inside of, But as soon as ; consensus ; and reduce violence, although there's the ration, aiworid unlimited as dreams:' the way the body is. But then, beyond brain thinks the virtual world is the as : It's a complicated question with,..,, , certainly no panacea ultimately.,Peoplc people are the unique It's also a world that's shared like the`' thatyou can change the physical world 1L reality you are inside of, all of a sudden many, many angles to it Let me just, , . simply have to grow up and that could physical world. It's as shared and o6= but you need tools. You can suddenly Its as if all the technology works betterat as cover few, One is that it's .important take a long time, too long. things' that, will . I'cive?el, y as the physical world is, change a room from being dark to light a ,, All variety of perceptual illusions come-. , ta no to understand thatat notions of consensus` of intent- , more, no less. Exactly how shared or ` ' by turning the switch because the switch There are some other levels into play to cover up the flaws in the reality are'of a different order than what Reality starts but"',"'animate Virtual Reality real that is, is open -t, question, is there. Technology in the physical world tion too, You see, Virtual technology. All of a sudden the world : Virtual Reality is Consensus reality in-'~, medium just like television, or., whatever the physical world has Virtual, mostly functions to extend the human . out as a astonish- becomes much mo re vivid than it should- volves a series of subjective realities and ; writtenI language, but and make it RealityY has as well. The thing that's re-` body one way or another so that it can computers or be. Youperceive things that aren't there. Virtual Reality only addresses objective to a certain markabl beautiful to me about Virtual be used as a medium for human action: once it gets to be used ingly You perceive the resistance of objects Y reality, that is, the shared reality th'at is ' medium and 'Unpredictable' Reality is that you can make up reality The problem is that the kinds of tools ; y degree, it ceases to be a that actually have no mass as you try to external the senses. But there isinter4 ' another reality that we in Virtual Reality and share it with other that you can have are yery limited . You to simply becomes and push on them, and things of that kind .,, action oetween the two on many levels. can inhabit. When it crosses over that amazing. peo pIe. It's likee having a collaboradve ;, can't have a light switch that turns day, I boundary it' becomes another reality. I AH Shouldn't you be able to talk within lucid dream. It's like having shared hallu- toni ht or a knob that makes the roam'' Another angle is that idealistically Y ' .where environment? Current hope that Virtual .Reality will pro- think of it as acting I~lke a sponge R your voice-recog- cinations, except you can compose suddenly grow or shrink in size. You can might st: ' that from the phy- ; nition technology isn't very impressive.' them like works of art ; you can com have tools that can cofor your face but videan experience of comfort with '; - h absorbs humanactjvity can change multiple realities for'a lot of people sical reality plane into the Virtual Reality . JL: Well you should be able to and it ' pose the external world in, any way at .' you cant have tools that western civilization. an experience planes . To the that that happens' would be nice thing but it's not cen- all as an act of communication. , you from one species to another. Basi- in degree a . Most socl- there is a very beneficial asymmetry tral all. fact, it's cally, all that absolute physics is, is a which is otherwise rejected at In pretty superfluous, The question is : well, given that you ` When Virtual Real- physics that has any kind of causality eties on earth have some method by that comes into play. I 14 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW FALL 1989

in language or physical predictable and amazing. Personality that you'd find to death as far as society is concerned. since form will be reality or any other very large human They cease to function as a responsible will be accentuated form will be so non- pursuit. or social person during the time that so cheap; since will be quite you give us some idea of they're simply perceiving media. precious, personality AH: Could accentuated. the state of current prototypes and opposite. Now, Virtual Reality is just the down the road until I'll have a A good experiment to do is to observe how far First of all, it's a network like the tele- in my own home? television . They virtual reality device phone where there's no central point of somebody watching . Then watch some- early right now. We're origin of information. But, much more look like a zombie JL: Well, it's very the telephone and they look same stage with Virtual Reality importantly, since nothing is made of body using in the The difference is that one computer science was in the very physical matter, since it's all just made animated . that medium and the other is a We're about in the same of computer information, no one has . is a social earliest days. . In the social medium science was back in any advantage over anyone else in their broadcast medium place computer interacting with people. Virtual 1960 perhaps. The systems ability to create any particular thing they're 1958 or that, more so than any rather large and special- within it. So there's no need for a stu- Reality is like being built were has been, including, I be- institutions could afford dio. There might be occasional needs medium ever purpose. Only things like spoken language. And them. But that will be changing, and it for one. if somebody has a bigger com- lieve, you'll see people activated and ani- changing much faster than it did puter to generate a certain kind of effect, so will be When people get social and see computers. The first headset, the or certainly if somebody's assembled mated. with especially in a context that were invented in 1969 by people of a certain talent or reputation. each other, eyeglasses, let's say, "illuminating" in a who was also the But in general there's no built-in differ- will be so, Ivan Sutherland, . Virtual Reality is the ultimate of Computer Graphics. Ac- ence from'one person to another in sense . . founder or race distinctions or any Marvin Minsky, the founder of . terms of ability to create. lack of class tually, other form of pretense since all form is Artificial Intelligence, did make a pair in going to be This means that there's variable. When people's personalities 1965, but the person who really got of different forms. such a profusion meet. freed of all pretense of that kind the whole thing going was Ivan Suther- movie studios that get in- There will be in the virtual plane, I think that will be land. The glove was originally invented Virtual Realities, but volved in making an extraordinary toolfor increasing by Tom Zimmerman. The current glove I think more there will be little entre- Early attempts to monitor the move, communication and empathy. In that was designed by Young Harvill. Both who will be like Reality Trou- menu of a hand hang on the wall of preneurs sense it might have a good effect of those people are from VPL. VPL, forming a fossil ity sponges up good energy badours who will travel about spinning record of the from the is growing up watching,Tom andferry, on politics. all of the basic components data-gloves evolution. realities, if anything. What'll happen a Right now, physical plane, then what you get in Vir- cartoons, where in an alternative reality what the purpose although in rather will such an enormous You can't really ask I've described exist, ' foal Reality is beautiful art, beautiful you can see somebody squashed by a that there be too . "things" will be- of Virtual Reality is because it's just crude forms. The overall system works dance, beautiful creativity,, beautiful steamroller and then pop up and varietyof form that Virtual Reality big. You can ask what the purpose of although in a rather crude form. The dreams to share, beautiful adventures ., again. f think having absorbed so come cheap. Basically, In a Whole except for a chair is because it's a small enough best ones are behind locked doors in When Virtual Reality soaks up bad en- ofthat kindofimageryhasnumbed everything is in infinite supply. much thing to have purpose.-Some-things defense contracting companies and YOU can't really as1C __ the physical one mysterious thing called creativity. a ergY from plane, what us. We have become a generation that big that they become the - - no bearing to any real . And time, certainly, and health, and - are just so probably have get is some decrease, however small, fn is unaware of the pain ofothers. the problem. subject. The that are really still inside context, or they become conversation about the what the purpose of violence and hurt on the physical plane JL other things . ,Vircual Reality is a,very different external a most fun one that's working as a com- in exchange for events on the Virtual your body. But In terms of AH: That is what we mean by situation than movies or television. I'm plete system is the one at NASA Ames, Virtual, Reality is plane which, while they might be uglier,- things, they're infinite' and wonderful paradigm shift. , , going to say something roundabout : = which is called the View Lab. It was put are of and abundant and ever-varied and all'all` have an no consequence whatsoever ' but JL: I think Virtual Reality will McGreevy and Scott because it's just . it comes back' to exactly the point equally valuable because they all can together by Mike too because they're virtual. effectthatof enhancing and, in a sense, derful sur= ' you're bringing up.~ Moves. s and television made as easily. Fishes VPL has so be completing the culture. My view is. fun BS: Unless they're syndicated, in which are,, first of all, broadcast media, soone prises in store, but part of the biS:-You can ask what what really is of value, what reallyY' has been abnormally dis- case they are educational propaganda. facility has to generate the material that So our culture is not telling just yet. ` will stand out as a foreground againsi a forced by being incredibly molded by And don't theyhave consequence in that you see. Furthermore. it's very expen- . be able to experience the purpose of a chair' background in Virtual Reality is quite , - technology, but when technology was ' You'll start to 'hety furtherruta. blizehiian?te partcpts :itlsve,o generate this materiaos very,, ; Reality within a few years. There .` different than what stands out in the young. I mean, televisiontelev is a weird Virtual IS a few people are in a Position to do it, . Reality rooms at univer- because it's small ' JL' ,,WeII physical reality is tragic in chat heal world. In the physical world anomaly that will be remembered as a will be Virtual Therefore, the material becomes su r- P Y students can do projects in. it's mandatory. Virtual Reality is multiple mere excess or novelty will often make bizarre technology in the 20th century,' sities that enou naturally remote and universal. It has a- be rather spectacular gh thingg to have channel. People can choose and switch y something stand out A thousand-dollar Ronald Rea an could only exist in ' I think there will numbing effect on peopletand i reduces g anda 8 will be tacky which Virtual Reality plane they're on- out in the physicalsisal world. have to remember that amusement park rides that empathy. Television ultimately reduces,i bill will stand television . We a purpose, : - . They can also simply take off their- absolutely bubble. and not really worth bothering with. p. . empathy In the Virtual world there. is we're living in a very peculiar because people five in a world . toyed with the idea of opening a . . clothing if they want to get out of it. no difference between a thousand- Virtual Reality, by creating a technology fve m which they can't act or have re- Reality Parlour that would be a . It's easy to take the physical world for, dollar bill and a one-dollar bill; they are ` that's general enough to be rather like . Virtual or meet eeach other. The shocking more civilized. It would be granted and forget that you're inside it. - g simplysi two different graphic designs and reality was before there was technology, little bit - statistics about the number of hours salon scene where people_ (Well, that's a hard comment toexplain.) they are both as plentiful .as you can of completes a cycle. I chink the . sort of like a that people in the United States spend= sore conversations It's harder to forget that you're inside having Virtual Reality are " could have Virtual Reality watchingw television explain. I think, - make them. reasons for of Virtual Reality and therefore it's hard,- " there °' and have wild experiences, but they all too Much about are the life-of the party ' everything. There's recreation., er to our actions in the Other people would be collaborative. It wouldn't be 'suffer it You can simply take, are the-- education, theres expression, there's . - world and our lack of empathy,,When in Virtual Reality, Other peoplepeop park, some dumb the clothing off:- pure work, there's therapy - all of like,an amusement a person chooses to spend that much unique'things that will animate Virtual . : just you to the same things . experience designed to get AH: One of the images that haunts me time watching television, it's equivalent Reality and make,it astonishingly un- ` . those things. All of

we've got our machine . It will be a me. physical work! as a means of human ac- question too. There are the lost deal with us. . . . drink a certain soft drink and see a cer- Right now it's rather expensive, but at really make mistakes on a cadaver. There - is really the strongest precedent. cheap way to mory arts, the memory palaces . Most tion tain movie and buy certain clothes, but the turn of the century I don't think it are people that are actively pursuing the western cultures relied on ima- had JL: Yeah, that's certainly a horrible Virtual Salon. I think will be. You'll pay for the time that you this. There's Dr. Joe Rosen at Stanford of Oh, so much more. Some people rather would be a Realities, these imagined thought. I tell you, the most vivid ex- Dr. Chase, who are both gined Virtual attached a stereo camera to a set of that would be very nice . Perhaps we'll use it in very much the same way the and Robert memories Virtual Reality is the ex- palaces that people hung their eyeglasses with stereo television sets as perience of see something like that in a few years. telephone was introduced . I see the looking at the problem from different Because after in as artworks. People would memorize Some engineers from perience of leaving it. I hope so. I think so. telephone, from a business point of angles . Joe Rosen might also be familiar early as 1955. palaces in order to have a way of periscope- having been in the reality that is man- view, as being an extremely analogous to some people as the inventor of the their Philco had it rigged up in a remembering things, and before Guten- camera made, with all the limitations and rela- A few,years is a little bit vague, but I kind of technology. Now telephones nerve chip, but that's another story. like setup. There was a stereo have to because there are so many berg that was a very important thing. It building . You tive lack of mystery inherent in that, be are so cheap that you go ahead and on the top floor of a Another area is having miniature robots as primary as music or to behold nature is directly beholding unknowns . But in three to five years, . telephone was absolutely could look out through it from inside buy them . Originally, the that could enter the human body. They particular culture . ; it's directly beholding a let's say, these things will be around. the arts of war to a the building. k had a limited degree of Aphrodite company continued to own the equip- would have microcameras and tiny hands. vanished be- that's intense in a way that just They'll be too expensive to have in The memory arts sort of tracking, so you could have the feeling beauty ment and made the money off of You would transfer your actions to the obsolete. have been perceived before your home, but a lot of people will be cause they were rendered of looking over the side of the building . could never your phone bill . robot and the robot would transfer its Virtual to compare physical able to experience them through those But they were remarkably like That was a big thrill back then. It we had something perceptions to you so that you'd have one of the biggest ' . institutions and businesses. On the - In a few years we will see medical Vir- Reality. probably stiN would be now. reality to. That's us, a other hand, Mattel has licensed the tual Realities, where handicapped peo- the sensation of being inside the patient's gifts that Virtual Reality gives microsurgery, There BARBARA STACKS : When I think about of physical reality. data glove from VPL and is marketing ple can experience full-motion inter- body performing So many things come to mind about renewed appreciation are actually people now working on what kind ofold age is going to be . an inexpensive version as a Nintendo action with others, where people with that. Our attempts to change the phy- what to say. I'm the society that's going in the And so, I'm not sure controller. movement disabilities or paralysis will this technology. I'm sure none of sical world. We have raped the physical feasible in a Virtual going to sure bad things will happen with be able to experience a complete body. current projects will be the ones that we don't have Virtual way it is gosrg, I feel like I'm world because Reality; there will be some pain that it In terms of actually having them in work, but it is already something that attempt be locked into a very small room. I( I Reality. Technology is just our part in because it will be a big your home, I see it as being roughly Another medical use is having surgery people are attempting to do, and I'm am, I want to be locked into that room plays a to use the physical world as a means of can be cruel. But around the turn of the century when simulators so surgeons can enjoythe I machines that I love. It thing and the world sure that we'll see that sometime . action . The physical world resists it and with a lot of same benefits that pilots do and learn be con- I think overall it will actually have a that will start to happen. Itwont be think that it will be' working by the have the ugliness that we will liven up our old age to therefore we tendency to enhance people's sensitivity so,much that you buy a set of reality without putting lives at risk. Of course, end of the century, Virtual Reality nected with people who are spread all live,with all the time. But nature, towards preserving the clthing as that it will be through the surgeons can do that with cadavers, over the world. But on the other hand, towards AH: Are there any historic images that is the ideal medium for that type of have a point of phone company, They'll own the'dothing but it's not the same thing. A cadaver` ; good justification for keep- earth, because they'll come to mind that set the stage? °' action . Architecture and technology in it will be a itself or they'll own parts of it and isn't the same thing as a body that really us up because after all, , comparison . general - our attempts to modify the ing locked you'll own other parts. reacts, that can really bleed. You can't JL : Oh many, many. God, that's a huge

experiment, idea and a path wrongly taken. So it's really a grand and I think it will be a lot of fun. Of course communication without symbols already happens con- Communication without symbols communica- scantly. First of all, the clearest example of receiving The direct tion that is nonsymbolic is to commune with nature. ARON LANIER: Let's suppose that you could have a time machine walk perception you have when nature tommunitates to you as you go back to the earliest creatures who developed language, our need in the forest is simply prior,iolbeyondsymbols . There's no ancestors at same point,' and give them Virtual Reality clothing. that. . ' Would they have ever developed language?Isuspect not, because as toprove without symbols is when soon as you, can change the world in anyway, that is a mode of ex-- An example of communicating outwards to your arm . prsiones of utter power and eloquence ; it makes description. seem one moves onesown body. You don't send a symbol own , a little bit limited. or to your hand; you communicate prior to symbols to your intense body. The most beautiful example that now exists of an There's in idea that I'm very interested in called post-symbolic of communicating outward without symbols is in lucid dream- communication. Thii means that when you're able to improvise sort you dream lucidly you are aware that you're dreaming reality as you, can in.Virtual Reality, and when that's shared with' ing. When control the dream. Its rather like Virtual Reality except other people; you dont really need to describe the world any more and you Its no' shared . The `means by which you communicate to your . because you cansimply, make arty contingency. You don't really'' that dream are without symbols. There you are spinning the world, spin need to describe an action because you can create any action. ' in the world without symbols, simply making it be. and tall to be played bback, treated, improvised at n ng atrythiog i working on awhole description of what it might be like, your beck I've been I can point to the direction of what it might be like in the general are the purified examples, some P'url'rea in-' description is simply narrow. Now, of course those , to communicate without, symbols. It has a different rhythm, For it's almost by definition impossible to make completely alreadyexist .,But, of sense, but its narrowness, it does examples of eons ymbolic communication that . stance, in symbolic, communication, you have the notion of question Now, description is interesting because,. in communica v compelling examples. I'll give you a few, though. the °' course, all of life is deeply imbued with rio nsymbolic ' and answer and this kind of repartee which defines the flow of bringg possibilities for poetry that probably done exist in book' tion. A book has its nonsymbolic aspaspects ; I mean, a book is a communication . In Virtual RealkY, sincepeople are collaboratively If we think of an experience where you're describing something to fullness ofpost-symbolic communicationco where you. can !just create prior' to be'ing a book that can be decoded as a.bearer. ' changing a shared reality as'a means of communication, what you'll someone else - let's suppose you're describing what it's like to live experience as a whole,all the time. On the other hand, in creating as an object ofcol- of symbols . have is nodes of relative snticquality vs. periods of very dynamic in the East Coast in these grungy violent. cities and how you have a . experience as a whole,' you have this possibility of a kind thing isnt> quality. There will be this rhythm between when the world is being completely different set of expectations vs. living in what seem to laboration that you really cant have with symbols, where peep , , Everything'ng has symbolic. ' and nonsYmbo lit aspects to 'it. A The idea', changed quickly and when it sort of settles down . That rhythm is., ' be the rather safe and lovely but rather bland andaimless cities of can be simultaneously molding a shared real ity a symbol; it's just that you cann use anything as a symbol. is also a thing' in and something like what a sentence 'is in language. In spoken language - California _= now to describe those things .~"'. I just did that. I just '~ describe, and that's appropriate . . of symbol is a 'use for a thing, buteverything _, I realize these things are. hard to sentences like ` you have the phenomenon of searching for the next word and ' came up with some brief symbolic descriptions of what cities in that is itself beyond of itself,; eveeverything.has aprimary thingness. (Twisty What I'm trying to describe is communication Post-symbolic urn's; . ;" thing will happen in Virtual York and California are like; In Virtual RealityReality there's the of what led me to the search for going, Llm ' -; The same description . The idea might turn out to be wrong; it might, turn out that are par!, . - through an interval of spacing out ' possibility of simply playing back ones memory with the person communication!) Reality, where people will go that communication without symbols and description is justa silly . from the reality, preparing their next change to the shared world. from the other city inside it. When you have external reality at

118 WHOLE EARTH REVIEW FALL 1989'