The prediction, in brief:

Creators of cyberspaces have control over the direction of virtual gravity, and there are interactions to be considered between this direction and the direction of real gravity (after all, the traveller’s body is still here, in a chair) especially when major virtual body movement is involved such as flight, shrinkage, rotation, and braking. Indeed, the larger problem of motion sickness, which is the conflict between optical and inner-ear motion-information to the brain, might never be fully solved.

Predictor: Benedikt, Michael L.

Prediction, in context:

In his 1994 essay “Physics for Phantoms,” Michael Benedikt writes:”There needs to be agreement as to which way is ‘up’ in a (multi-user) virtual world, this for two reasons: First that gravitation, though it does not strictly speaking exist in cyberspace, continues to exist in our perceptual apparatus and our expectations of the form of things: any horizontal division of the visual field is a horizon, the earth is below the sky, things poised on their points or corners topple, and so on. Second, it is likely that text will appear in these worlds: signs, banners, documents. Text is orientation-sensitive for its legibility, and so, for that matter, are facial expressions and many if not most body gestures. Creators of cyberspaces have control over the direction of virtual gravity, and there are interactions to be considered between this direction and the direction of real gravity (after all, the traveller’s body is still here, in a chair) especially when major virtual body movement is involved such as flight, shrinkage, rotation, and braking. Indeed, the larger problem of motion sickness, which is the conflict between optical and inner-ear motion-information to the brain, might never be fully solved.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Virtual Communities

Name of publication: Softworlds Inc.

Title, headline, chapter name: Physics for Phantoms

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ar.utexas.edu/center/benedikt_articles/physics.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Boone, Jason Matthew