From: stevey@cs.washington.edu (Stephen Yegge)
Subject: Re: Sex & Violence in VR
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 20:32:14 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Apr9.203214.12644@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering Dept., Univ. of Washington, Seattle


tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu (Tom Maddox) writes:
:
	[Large amounts of un-needed quotes deleted by moderator(Mark) ]
: 
:         I find very amusing the notion that anyone would feel moral outrage 
: about vr research going into virtual sex, given the equanimity with which 
: AI and vr researchers in particular have taken military money.
: 
:        "Sure, I'm a serious researcher.  I do Death Machine Simulations--
:no sex, no sirree because that would be *dirty*."
:
:        In fact, those serious researchers will respond to institutional needs
:(killing, commanding, controlling, for instance; healing also, to be sure), not
:to our individual human ones, because institutions pay the freight on research.
: 
:        Folks out in the Gibsonian "Street," however, will undoubtedly put the
:technologies thus developed to new and innaresting uses; as I've said, I believe
:vr porn will be one of them.
: 
: 
: -- 
:                                 Tom Maddox
:                         tmaddox@u.washington.edu
:                 "Writing is reading and reading is writing."
:                                 A. S. Byatt


And let's not forget games.  People will fork out astonishing amounts of
money to kill a dragon in 'real life' :)  I have a feeling that the
entertainment market will be doing a great deal of the funding for VR
research, in a sense.  Don't you agree?


Steve Yegge
stevey@cs.washington.edu

BTW, has anyone on this group played Ultima Underworld?  Sheesh, I'm having
NIGHTMARES about it already...closest thing to VR *I've* every come across.