starch131 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} starch131) wrote,@ 2006-03-22 16:09:00 |
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This is a placeholder to remind me that I need to talk about a few things:
-Hotkeys
I love hotkeys. They're like little shortcuts in the games and allow me to do things at a speed definitely not possible with a simple mouse scroll and click. I wonder who was the first to implement the hotkey design. I know games had buttons, but I don't believe binding them to keys on the keyboard or joystick buttons was a feature until maybe the mid 90s? I think the most important thing about hotkeys is that it allows the user to become closer to leveling the playing field against the ai of the computer. I'm talking RTS games here. When you think about how a computer can virtually simultaneously send commands to 2 fleets waiting outside it's base to attack yours, and the user is restricted to using their mouse to select and command each ship, you have a decisive advantage for the ai.
Also, it gives the player an advantage over other players once they can memorize into muscle memory the various hotkey commands and a practical order for using them. Needless to say, I love hotkeys.
-AT&T video
We watched Connections: AT&T's Visions of the Future in my mass media class last week and the way it describes a utopian society built upon the quick and free flow of information was fun to watch. The movie was made in 1993 so a few of the things that were mentioned in the video have already begun to take shape in one way or another. One example were videophone devices that could translate languages. Another of the technical highlights of the video were portable handheld devices that could act as mini-machines that sure did remind me an awful lot like a future version of a PDA. Perhaps the most interesting piece of technology that they displayed in the video was a personal 'internet secretary' that could order chinese food, download information from around the world, contact clients, act as liaisons for out of office clients, and do just about anything that a normal person could do. Only these secretaries weren't real people and existed only online.
-Thoughts on the future of technology in society in lieu of ExistenZ and this AT&T movie.
Something I am somewhat frightened by is the abandonment of this world. People are already migrating to virtual worlds, and my fear is that when virtual worlds begin to mimic the real world to such a degree that a utopian society could be created within them, that people will willingly abandon the real world and instead insert themselves into the virtual worlds. Admittedly, not everyone will migrate, for I believe a large enough portion of society would opt to stay in the virtual world full time given the chance, and in the process give up their bodies to decay. I see a world full of opium addicted peasants who sit idly around all day and only 'work' long enough to afford more opium... only in my fear replace opium with realistic virtual worlds.
-Hotkeys
I love hotkeys. They're like little shortcuts in the games and allow me to do things at a speed definitely not possible with a simple mouse scroll and click. I wonder who was the first to implement the hotkey design. I know games had buttons, but I don't believe binding them to keys on the keyboard or joystick buttons was a feature until maybe the mid 90s? I think the most important thing about hotkeys is that it allows the user to become closer to leveling the playing field against the ai of the computer. I'm talking RTS games here. When you think about how a computer can virtually simultaneously send commands to 2 fleets waiting outside it's base to attack yours, and the user is restricted to using their mouse to select and command each ship, you have a decisive advantage for the ai.
Also, it gives the player an advantage over other players once they can memorize into muscle memory the various hotkey commands and a practical order for using them. Needless to say, I love hotkeys.
-AT&T video
We watched Connections: AT&T's Visions of the Future in my mass media class last week and the way it describes a utopian society built upon the quick and free flow of information was fun to watch. The movie was made in 1993 so a few of the things that were mentioned in the video have already begun to take shape in one way or another. One example were videophone devices that could translate languages. Another of the technical highlights of the video were portable handheld devices that could act as mini-machines that sure did remind me an awful lot like a future version of a PDA. Perhaps the most interesting piece of technology that they displayed in the video was a personal 'internet secretary' that could order chinese food, download information from around the world, contact clients, act as liaisons for out of office clients, and do just about anything that a normal person could do. Only these secretaries weren't real people and existed only online.
-Thoughts on the future of technology in society in lieu of ExistenZ and this AT&T movie.
Something I am somewhat frightened by is the abandonment of this world. People are already migrating to virtual worlds, and my fear is that when virtual worlds begin to mimic the real world to such a degree that a utopian society could be created within them, that people will willingly abandon the real world and instead insert themselves into the virtual worlds. Admittedly, not everyone will migrate, for I believe a large enough portion of society would opt to stay in the virtual world full time given the chance, and in the process give up their bodies to decay. I see a world full of opium addicted peasants who sit idly around all day and only 'work' long enough to afford more opium... only in my fear replace opium with realistic virtual worlds.
