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From: marc@noe.UUCP (Marc de Groot)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: LAST CALL FOR DISCUSSION:  SCI.VIRTUAL-WORLDS
Keywords: virtual worlds virtual reality artificial reality cyberspace
Message-ID: <732@noe.UUCP>
Date: 14 Dec 89 07:40:06 GMT
References: <14841@well.UUCP> <2955@ucrmath.UCR.EDU> <7236@ficc.uu.net>
Sender: usenet@noe.UUCP
Reply-To: marc@noe.UUCP (Marc de Groot)
Organization: Noe Systems, San Francisco
Lines: 41

In article <7236@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>	Do you want a virtual reality group? Yes or no:
Yes.  I want it.

>	What name should it have: please list the names you like
>	in order of preference:
>
>		sci.virtual-worlds
This is the one I want.

>		comp.virtual-worlds
No.  I want to discuss more than the computing aspects of virtual reality.
The technology of virtual reality is interdisciplinary.

>		comp.interfaces
Hmm.  Might be interesting, but obviously encompasses a lot more stuff
than virtual reality.  Pull-down menus and obnoxiously small buttons that
are hard to push would also go in this newsgroup.  Not for me.

>		comp.cyberspace
Both William Gibson and the virtual reality people (I have been told)
are unhappy with the apparent mistaking of their creations for each other's.
Cyberspace is a place where high-tech low-lifes rip off data for the mob,
in Gibson's vision.  Virtual reality is a way to expand the possible range
of one's experience.  Undoubtedly, popular usage of this misnomer will
continue.  I exhort the net.people to buck this trend by not choosing
this name.

>		misc.cyberspace
This one strikes me wrong.  It seems clear enough that the emerging
technology of virtual reality requires a great deal of application
of science.  I might argue that tech.virtual-worlds is more appropriate,
but far be it from me to suggest another hierarchy...

P. S. I just started work at VPL Research.  I don't speak for them.
This is the way *I* want it.
-- 
Marc de Groot (KG6KF)         |"...few people know what to do with a computer.
Noe Systems, San Francisco    | They decide that running an operating system
UUCP: uunet!hoptoad!noe!marc  | is a substitute for doing productive work."
Internet: marc@kg6kf.AMPR.ORG | -Chuck Moore