Testing RL Space Hatibats in SL

This *seemed* the best place to post this, so here goes...

I saw this article today entitled "Spaceships That Think" today:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/09/29/5128.aspx

The article discusses ways to get people thinking about new ways to live on other planets - and live better on our home planet as well, using the internet to develop technologies that could be tested in virtual space and on Earth.

The article specifically mentions building and testing concepts in Second Life, perhaps through contests:

"And even before the technologies are tested in the real world, they could be put through their paces in virtual environments such as Second Life, she said. Just as cyber-avatars are programmed to interact as if they were real people, cyber-robots could be programmed to interact as if they were real robots taking on an exploration task.

The winners of a virtual technology competition in the virtual world could be rewarded "through a competive-gaming structure" - perhaps denominated in Linden Dollars, the coin of the realm in Second Life. "

This is a project/concept that I would LOVE to take part in, if it ever happens. I have no idea if something is planned, but if anyone else has any information, or would be interested in taking part in a such projects, please post here. I'm not trying to start or organize anything myself at this time as I'm currently busy with other projects, but I'd love to see some discussion and see who else might be interested - then we can see what happens.

I'm already an active, long-time builder and scripter in SL, have partially developed my own space game, and have a keen fascination in AI, so this would really be my cup of tea. How about anyone else??

the first thing that comes to mind is that this is a very interesting idea. It goes without saying that this might be exciting to begin developing.

But, after all that wears off, I'm always skeptical about wasting build and scripting time on something that might be better suited to something outside of SL. We need to think about the pros and cons of beginning a large programming project in SL. From the article, I doubt that the author nor the lady has spent much time building and programming in SL.

First, the pros. Some are obvious. SL excells at collaborative design. If you're simply wondering how much area a giant solar array would need, what the floating robot who dusts them off every morning would look like, or where the windows would be on the living quarters, SL will suit you very well.

Cons. Astronauts and explorers alike have been doing just fine with simple boxes, tubes and domes for living. Their asthetic and layout depends soley on the specific mission at hand and the equipment they take with them. This isn't something that is modeled well in SL.

It never really comes down to "How does this look?" It comes down to the most influential questions of "How do we pack that up into X by X by X" and "How much does that material weigh?" or "Does this material take care of radiation or do we need an additional system?"

As far as deciding whether certain designs were liveable, whether certain robots merely look like they could perform a task, and whether or not the designs worked for a particular body in space is a WHOLE different story. SL is completely limited in terms of programming capacity and capability. The whole SLS world is less than robust.

I wouldn't bother trying to script any AI in SL. Nor would I try to hash out any simple movement, identification or objective fetching script either unless I was putting together a show for "awareness" or some stunt like that.

Finally, I think collaboration is great but sometimes the design of certain things simply cannot be tested without strapping on a suit and living, working or breathing the darn thing That's why all of those small independent researchers create their own extraterestrial living pods in deserts and tundras and live in them on weekends. They start with a design and then find out that most of it was frivolous, some of it was dangerous and most will be scrapped due to weight and size restrictions.

Aside from all of that negativity, SL could serve as a great platform to communicate Mission Objectives and Needs Assessment graphically. You could simply build objects to represent graphical things on a list. Like icons to represent things like air system, waste system, light system, power system. See if you've forgotten anything you need, slide them up and down a scale of importance to spark conversation.

My only reservation is that I'm sure, based on the article, that they have plenty of conversation. They aren't short on ideas, they simply need experts to start working together (pro bono preferrably) and they need rich entreprenuers to get fired up so they can donate money for plywood and coffee. This all seems so much bigger than SL.

Build a flying saucer and throw a party!
~Lefty