Bill Gates Predicted Second Life Addiction in 1996

Don't forget the old p&p Shadowrun

been awhile since i've seen the episodes... recently i'd seen the one where geordi had the holodeck generate an avatar of that pretty female engineer, then it turned out her real-life personality didn't match, lol... that must've been what made me think of him instead of 'broccoli'.

Could be, I'm not a big trek fan. Barkley is certainly the best example of VR addiction, in any case.

A certain thing that long shocked me is how advanced the "VR" technology is in Star Trek with holodecks, and yet how many times it's portrayed as a fearful, frequently-malfunctioning source of personal downfall.

I know on one hand it makes for dramatic TV, but I would have thought that attitudes towards such things would have changed by then... for example, Barclay (who I like as a character) being mundane (and I prolly wouldn't have liked him as much) instead of such a deviation. But then again, addictions of one kind or another have always plagued humans, so it's not so far out of line. More "holographic societies" that literally "make their Second Lives their First" would have been a nice contrast, tho.

That's because holodeck episodes are cheap to produce, compared to full on trek. They don't need the fancy Trek sets, they can use any generic sound stage, they've got access to all the props and costumes from other series and movies... they don't have to stick to the trek style. They can shoot more scenes in parallel or start shooting them while they're working on another episode that's running into problems because they can use generic sets.

that's why i love sl forums... where else am i gonna see philosophies of future-culture scriptwriting combatting with the financial realities of television production? or as is often said (in hollywood probably more so than anywhere, they walk hand in hand, in that 'constraints provide inspiration' line. (snicker - MALARKEY, i say! lol...)

i once thought a bit about that, wondering what the 'star trek universe' was like outside of the federation culture... what was considered 'punk' then? lol... what's the clubscene like? oh my god, what movies would be like, in a 'holodeck' world - frighteningly. (how about 'the cook the thief his wife and her lover' in 3d - or 'irreversible' - shudder). what's the audience experience like; does the crowd 'drop out' of attention span like in a theater? can the audience be visible/audible to the individual, if so chosen? ('toggle audience on/off'?)

oh, and other silly stuff - who's hot, who's not... all that silly 'E! network' stuff. and of course, 'myst' will have been re-re-re-re-released in 'holorama' in sort of a 'gone with the wind' perennial title...

so there was that one episode, where they had to provide transport or something for some teen boy from a sorta klingonish culture, who was into listening into their 'punk' music - a bad episode, from what i remember. (they should've used skinny puppy for his music, i remember wishing!) there were maybe one or two other brief glimpses from a few shoreleave-on-earth episodes. same thing with star wars - in II-aotc, just a brief run-thru of a 'videogame bar' and a -diner- (fer cryin' out loud!) oh, but wait, that was 'a long time ago...' so i guess lucas is saying -he- invented everything first, lol!

okay - i just got off of work for the week (just to have to work again tomorrow morning, lol) - i've spouted off enough randomness for now, so have a good weekend, ev'rybody!