Re: Thoughts on 'the long view'

[alan taylor]

dawful EAI to do so). If X3D is aiming at some middle ground
between VRML and Chrome, then it could be very cool. Ii just worry about the
negative effects of solving a set of problems by coming up with an all-new
non-backward-compatible approach. That just introduces all new hurdles, all new
plugins to download and all new confusion and re-education problems, etc. But
if that's the best way, then I guess it may be necessary.

The main thing I want - Scripting access from the HTML page, dammit. I can
do some wonderfully cool stuff with Cosmo in Netscape Navigator because of the
Livescript API, but it's not official, feels like a sneaky trick, is a little
unpredictable, and does not work _at all_ with any other browser-browser
combination. If I want to have a non-VRML button affect the color of an object
inside a VRML world, I should NOT have to compose and rely on a Java applet to
do so. I know it's possible, I make pages talk to Flash plugins every day in IE
and NN.

Whee! Let's move forward,
-Alan Taylor

Re: Just to spur some discussion

[Alan Taylor]

Hi,

I saw this too, and must admit it got me thinking - however, in
the ST universe, it seems as if every person is very intelligent and
imaginative from the very start. What a great presumption for a
storyteller! If assume your audience has some intelligence, you can leave
all kinds of avenues open. Unfortunately, most of what passes for
entertainment these days assumes I have the IQ of a pork chop.

Other thoughts - my God, what an insane amount of algorithm you'd
have to build in - AI for the characters to react "in character" to any
new situation, physics models that take into account EVERY law of physics,
from Gravity to subatomic interaction, Plus - Cartoon physics - if
stories can be assumed to have any sort of fantasy level to them (one of
the character's finger/branches burned with a bright flame, yet all he did
was whimper, not cry out in pain).

If we can deal with the monumental task of creating such a thing,
how very cool it would be - Touchrealistic (as opposed to photorealistic)
Avatars with unlimited high-level AI who reacted in unanticipated manners,
yet within the parameters of expected personality. Star Trek seems so very
unmaterialistic, but imagine the market for such a "virtual friend" or
slave or partner, what have you.

I wonder what moral distinction would be drawn by Star Trek crew
members between their holographic doctor and one of the holographic
characters from that story. Hey -  there's an interesting storyline
right there! I'll be sending off my script to UPN any day now.

Nice to get a discussion going.

-Alan

On Wed, 18 Nov 1998, John D. DeCuir wrote:

 Since I love this list and no one has posted anything in a while,
 here's a random topic thrown out.  Did anyone catch last week's
 Star Trek: Voyager?  The storyline involved a little girl who,
 among other things, likes to hang out in a holodeck.  The story
 is a child-like story involving two characters, one symbolizing
 water and the other trees.  There's also a Fire-demon as well.
 (Sorry, I forget all names).
 
 The interesting thing is that almost all of the crew reminisced
 about the same story in THEIR childhoods.  The kicker is that everyone
 had different memories, because everyone encouraged the same story
 to go in a slightly different direction.  (Janeway: When I did that
 story, so-and-so happened...  Another crewmember:  Really?  Not for
 me...) etc...
 
 This seems to me like the ultimate goal of nonlinear storytelling.
 What I still grapple with is how to ensure that all possible
 outcomes lead up to an equally satisfying story-telling experience...
 
 Comments?
   -John