Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: Who says what to whom (was Re: VR Protocols.) Message-ID: <9397@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 17 Oct 90 04:48:12 GMT References: <8370@milton.u.washington <8511@milto <8842@milton.u.washington.edu> Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 32 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu wex@pws.bull.com (Buckaroo Banzai) writes: > >I could go on, but the point, I think, is made: we carry enormous baggage >inside our heads. We will inevitably bring this baggage into cyberspace. >If we build our VRs too unlike users' expectations, they will be unable to >use them. The "danger", I think, comes from a close, but inexact, approximation of reality. If the approximation is very good, then there will be little dissonance with expectation. But this is also true if we create a "reality" in which _none_ of the expected rules hold good. It is the middle case, where things that look like they should work, don't, that causes the most dissatisfaction. >Remember that we are a strange bunch of enthusiasts, willing to >try anything. Before we get the average mechanical engineer to use one of >these things every day, we're going to have to do a lot of adapting (to him). Before I could use a car, everyday, I had to do a lot of adapting to it. It is a highly useful skill with a high payoff for success, so I was willing to invest the effort. Don't assume that the M.E. won't invest the effort to acclimate to a lot of counter-intuitive behavior if the reward is sufficient. Our systems need first to be useful; easy can come later. Example: give me a V.R. in which I can develop an intuition for topological theory, and I will invest incredible effort to get past the barriers implicit in your interface, because the present tools for learning topology do _not_ grant me an intuition, and it frustrates me immensely. Kent, the man from xanth.