Virtual worlds in 2013 & 2048

Witgh much talk about what would be the perfect virtual world, I wonder what people's speculations of virtual worlds and their technologies will be in the folowing dates:

2013: or about 5 years from now

2048: for you Kurzweil & Stross readers



If you need some reference:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Moore_Law_diagram_%282004%29.png




my guess/(hopes?)

2010: Retinal Projection will be available to consumers creating holographic-like images in 3D space. We design with vectors instead of legos. i mean prims. Avatars are so realistic that mainstream "behaviors" will start changing at a rapid pace. CPU's & GPU's will be almost arbitrary in their processing power of 3D environments. Upload speeds will still suck. Land/Space use bills go in the Utility category instead of Entertainment. Victorian Steampunk design will be everywhere. Real-time gramatically-correct vocal translation. Today's Poofer will be tomorrows magic.


2048: RL will play some sort of maintenance mode.... creativity is currency. the world will be magic, but it will feel like a typical day does today. Anything else will require my trillion-node brain augmentation nanoimplants that are still on special order


what can i say. its friday and im stuck at home.
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PS: edit: And with the first word in the first paragraph above, autonomous spellchecking.

Hopefully none of what you predict will happen, as virtual worlds would then pose the biggest threat to mankind's survival ever - including global warming and nuclear war.

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me. i forgot to add:

2009: Bane of human existence.

But is it ok if we let the autonomous spellchecking through?

Maybe by 2013 Conan will have finally be able to get back into Second Life.

Hopefully by then I will have reached adulthood and not need to play video games any more

i forgot to add Neurostimulation. that'll truly end it. But no one will care.

He he. I'm with you, Mate.

Truthfully, I hope that at least for my lifetime, Virtual reality and whatnot is still only an enhancement to Real life, not a replacement. The scenarios of a antisceptic, plugged in world are very disturbng to me. Once I'm gone, you maniacs can do what you want.

5 years? Probably a huge push to get worlds connected and a bunch of new worlds entering. 10 years a big slow down as they realize most people in RL don't really want to play in virtual worlds as RL is still superior for most. Lot of worlds will fail or be bought by bigger one's and a few will excel with the customers they have. They will try to push 3D world into websites. They think people actually want to interact with other people while they shop at dot com sites. They will then realize most people are harassing other people and end up dropping that idea or significantly changing it. Can you imagine going to any internet store and and trying to buy something when there are dozens of horny people about trying to get you to have virtual loving with them or trying to grief you? That is what will happen in my opinion. The only way to keep that from happening is make peoples avatars linked directly to the user so they can be held accountable. That will make most people back away and they just as well go back to 2D web.

By 2048 if the RL has not destroyed itself then virtual reality should be in place making the experience all the better. Maybe to real.

In the end society as a whole will dictate how well virtual worlds do. If society keeps getting more harsh/scary and making people not want to get out of the house then virtual worlds will explode (probably not a good thing really). However if society gets better over time and more peaceful there will be less need for virtual worlds. I hope for the later but imagine people will be people and do what is best for #1 and that is not what is best for the rest of society. However doing what is best for #1 is also causing hell in SL right now with all the greed and immaturity.

The problem with SL is LL seems to think people can regulate SL themselfs. If that was the case there would be no need for law enforcement in RL. People have shown over time they cannot get along with their own family let alone their neighbors or the rest of society/world.

That significant intolerance of others will ultimately slow the progress of virtual worlds down as it has significantly slowed down the progress of RL as well.

What will make virtual worlds not perfect is other people. Same goes for RL though.

Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Most of our most revolutionary technological and medical advances have been a result of war. Intolerance to others as sped up our advancement. If we sat around being tolerant all day, we'd still be living in thatched hovels and the only technological advances (aside from the building of thatched hovels) would be the cinnamon joss-stick and the tie-dyed t-shirt.

Don't forget the brocaided vest.

And....*shudders*...the dream catcher.

Umm, if we were not busy spending all our money on warfare and using that money for other things there would be significantly more positive return. There has been BILLIONS of USD spent in Iraq. How could those BILLIONS have been better spent? I can think of hundreds of projects to better the world that are starving for such cash.

You seem to think people would not want to invent new things if there was no war? They would just have different reasons to do so and a hell of a lot more money and resources for it.

I can think of none. Also, history has proven that war stimulates innovation - so I don't need to debate that specific point with you because it is established fact. Think how much oil money the US is getting out of Iraq now. That alone justifies the war. War, done properly, can be immensely profitable.

I almost bit the hook. Good luck with your fishing.

There was no hook - I will use an emote when I am joking. No emote = I mean what I say. I'm done now though.

By 2048 we may no longer have the need for virtual worlds. By 2048 we may have better surgery methods to make the unattractive more attractive. Better personal security to make the fearful feel safe. Better means of transport to make travel faster and cheaper. Maybe then we'll no longer feel the need to escape into virtual reality.

Just maybe...

Even better than that - we may be able to detect ugliness in the womb and therefore be able to abort ugly foeti. Ofcourse, even better again would be the ability to detect ugliness and stupidity in the womb and have developed hormonal/genetic treatments to counteract them without abortion being necessary.

And people will travel in TUBES!

The future is looking bright. I gotta wear shades!

Shades will also be much more efficient too; perhaps having a computer chip built in that will filter out ugliness too

I got me two pairs.

/me asks Brenda if it's ALWAYS antisceptic ...

/me looks at my messy life blurry edge usage, at lingerie needing a damned good wash and feeling someone's breath ... almost ... almost ...

But then I always did augment this crap reality thing with an overlay of what was in my mind ...

OH YEAH the question.

The planet will be gone by then probably. Either that or we'll be living under a one world government totalitarian state - virtual life attached to a DCC port in our heads via whatever has replaced wifi and bluetooth, state sanctioned entertainment for the masses to replace TV.

And we'll all be being farmed for our electrical output to keep this massive grid going ... and ... hang on this sounds familiar!

Well this what Second Life might look like then


With the support like this

I think that if 2012 does not end or change us all (due to popular belief) then i think virtual worlds will become ALOT bigger before they become smaller.

Spring/summer 2008 - graphics will become better, with more options such as normal maps and all directX9 features will be implemented, and emulated on openGL (as they are doing now)
A new materials system will become available (some proper texture alignment/more material options such as shiny having a value select)

The new physics system will be rolled out (Havok4) and some kind of client side physics will be made to make physics smoother, some small new features will become available aswell

Autumn/winter 2008 - Windlight (finally, and about damn time to) implements real time shadows and shading, the lighting system gets completely rewritten and this makes a HUGE difference on realism.
For physics, a puppeteering system gets developed and ragdoll physics get implemented. maybe being able to change the position of the hollowing of prims and more prim torturing options become available.

2009 - A few extra tweaks to the system get made and alot of bugs get squashed as 2008 was a buggy year (due to the lindens partying and drinking to much probably and the addition of alot of new features).
Internet broadband speed becomes a BIG problem for alot of none US countries and Second Life (and other virtual worlds at the time) notice a halt in their growth speed.

2010/2011 - new features become available on graphics cards and second life begins to (finally) catch up with some modern games in some area's while lacking in others
Prim limits go up, prim surface detail options become available and more prim torturing options, Alpha sorting finally gets fixed (after 14 years i should think it's about time!).
Physics advance. but the classic keyboard and mouse are still in use, although 75% of PC users are now using wide screen displays. Mainly popularity grows allot in these 2 years with 1 virtual world leading them all (probably Second Life) it will become like Google is now

2012 - 2025 - Advances in display screen technologies mean touch screen and holographic displays become commonplace, enabling prim sculpting and enable precise movement of avatars (no more being a klutz and bumping into doors etc). some kind of retana rendering beam enables us to "phase in" to our PC screens using some kind of technology to fully emerse ourselves in the virtual worlds, at this stage the population explodes with at least 75% of the US and UK "plugged in". Physics get intertwined with out muscles so we can control our avatars like our bodies now.

2025 - 2050, as we work on the other senses, eventually accomplishing full imersive virtual reality becomes like real life is now, only more creative, once a generation or 2 of youths have been "plugged in" people start to reliese the "real world" and start to think "wow how amazing", it starts as a small cult of people thinking "wow the real world is so kool" and then becomes more mainstream (much like the rock scene did).

2050 onwards - fuck knows what happens after this *chaos's glass ball explodes

what are your suggestions (i know i have missed out allot of things in these so called predictions, would love 2 hear your serious predictions

the first image: HELL YES

second one: Looks like a screenshot from the current mainland

All I know is that my driver's licence expires in August 2052, so I won't be able to verify after then.