From: Craig Hubley Subject: Virtual war and news media (was Re: MUDs and Magic) Date: Sun, 13 Oct 1991 04:54:28 -0400 Organization: UTCS Public Access In article <1991Oct8.205341.19898@milton.u.washington.edu> Peter Fraterdeus writes: >In particular, I'm beginning the design of a model for virtual museums, and >will probably use the Hermetic traditions as source material.... > >Certainly interested in any comments and ideas thereon! About three years ago I read a fascinating book in prepress - title was something like "The Aesthetical Impact of Information Spaces." It covered everything from national parks to SQUIDs. Malik & Thwaites, Concordia U, Montreal. I don't know if it was ever published. Of course there is lots of other stuff written on virtual museums and archives, since many museums are getting into recording their treasures for the masses. >(BTW, the hermetic traditions are not occult, but encompass a symbolic history >of the development of human consciousness. Please no flames from >hyper-rationalists about the use or abuse of this knowledge!) I'm an hermaneut meself. At least I thought I was after 1Cyberconf - I was reminded of it at 2Cyberconf... of course I forget now what it means... :) >"Virtual Worlds for War? Great idea, maybe the military can work it out so all >conflict is simulated...." There was a somewhat less optimistic view of this at 2Cyberconf as well. Interesting paper on the effects of new media on the Gulf War reportage. Conclusions were depressing. Essentially while both sides claimed virtual victory, lots of real people got dumped through a meat grinder. This is nothing new but when image is what matters, rather than land or people, the game can continue beyond any rational hope of gain, as in Vietnam or Afghanistan... or Iraq. The only limit is exhaustion of resources, which are basically being expended as a form of power advertising. I saw a little manipulation on CNN. Of course there is the infamous "luckiest man in Iraq" sequence, but what I saw was live footage of the first Saudi troops hitting the bunkers. They were pulling out the most decrepit sadsacks I have ever seen - these guys were obviously starving and totally uninterested in fighting. Anyway, one of them had been hurt in the bombing and as two Saudi soldiers picked him up he kissed one of them. The demoralized troops were not seen again on CNN that morning, but the kiss was repeated 30 or 40 times. I saw one guy kissing, 100s cringing, and 1000s were obviously dying elsewhere. But the citizen on the home front didn't get the numbers, as newspapers in World War I used to report, he saw the prisoner kissing his liberator, over and over and over and over again. Of course propaganda is nothing new but when it is the cleverly edited truth it is more convincing. Clearly the Allies were successful at fighting the "information war" because it was so easy to restrict access to the battle zones. The war was virtual, even to the correspondents. Some of the "somewhere in the Saudi desert" footage was shot in the Riyadh Hilton parking lot!!! After the war CBS news (I think) came out with a CD-ROM of all their coverage. >"What is the sound of a virtual tree falling in a virtual forest, if there is >nobody listening?" Nothing. However, when real bombs fall they make a bang and kill people, whether those facts/images are transmitted virtually or not... My attitude towards "news" in general is that if you see something, it is being reported because it is unusual. So if I see the prisoner kissing the soldier then I will note that as an atypical response. If the news has a stabbing in my neighbourhood I will not worry much about it. But when they *stop* reporting stabbings there I will begin to worry very much. Because when something is no longer news that means it has become a common occurence! A very similar problem emerges in reports of nuclear power plant incidents. Although statistically nuclear power is far far safer than coal or oil burning, because of the risks of mining/drilling/pollution/cancer/spills, the nuclear incidents are rarer and more "newsworthy" and so get reported. Any engineer can tell you that putting up buildings, hydroelectric dams, and even installing solar panels on your roof all carry a cost in human lives per floor erected or kilowatt-hour generated. But newspapers do not report these concepts in a way we can relate to our own priorities. Perhaps VR makes it possible to move away from easily-accessible, lowest-common- denominator "human interest" stories and towards more specific, adaptable, "personal interest" stories. -- Craig Hubley -- Consultants in object-oriented technology & techniques, -- Craig Hubley & Associates -- user interface design & user productivity -- craig@gpu.utcs.Utoronto.CA UUNET!utai!utgpu!craig craig@utorgpu.BITNET craig@gpu.utcs.toronto.EDU {allegra,bnr-vpa,decvax}!utcsri!utgpu!craig 28 First Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4M 1W8 Canada (US TC) call 416-466-4097