Augmented Reality Tourism (Ancestor Programs)

[Dave]

Ancestor Programs

Did anyone see the BBC science documentary programme ‘Horizon’ shown tonight (18/12/03) called ‘Time Trip’?

It discussed time travel physics in general, from Newton, through Einstein and on to String Theory. It said that time travel to the future was possible at close to light speed, but dismissed time travel to the past. Fairly run of the mill ideas.

In it’s final conclusions, it proposed that in the future, computing power would be so fast, cheap, powerful and freely available that people would time travel to the past by making virtual reality ‘ancestor programs’.

These 'ancestor programs' would be identical to the real world in every way. The time travellers would make multiple versions of the same past each slightly different; in other words, alternative realities.

These programs would be so common, that most ‘people’ ‘alive’ would actually be artificial constructs, with the ‘real’ people as guests. The ‘real’ people would be a very, very small minority of the whole population.

So, that it would be impossible to tell if a person was real or virtual, and consequently, it is impossible to tell if we ourselves are living in an ‘ancestor program’ right now.

I'm sure these people have watched 'The Matrix' too many times!

 

[timdgreat]

ack, Tim's head spins wildly and then he falls over out of his chair:rolly2:

 

[bryony]

whoa!

Wait, I didn't get it. Please run that by me again? *head spinning*:rolly2:

 

[Dave]

I'll try and explain it again

Just imagine it like everybody in the future having their own 'Matrix'-like place where they could go for recreation after a day at work, or maybe to escape from a world they don't like. Every real person would live in at least one of these constructed worlds, populated by simulacrums.

These simulacrums would be constructed within different historical scenarios using so much computing power that they would be real people in every exact detail, but they would not have been born, they would still have been created. The worlds in which they live would also be exact in every minute detail.

Now, how do you know if you are in the 'real' world, or living in an artificially created world? Maybe you are simulacrum yourself.

 

[timdgreat]

, dave u have some creepy ideas:errrr: :rolly2:

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by timdgreat
dave u have some creepy ideas

Not my idea, but thanks anyway.

I think I can answer my own question anyway. I'm certain that I'm not living in an 'Ancestor Program' because if someone designed 'our' world they would have made it a lot better.

Think of the '1st Matrix'; they made a perfect world didn't they?

Yes, I know that people weren't happy and they had to make it again imperfect, but that is slightly different, they were real people plugged into machines, I'm talking about complete holographic simulations (like the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager or Rimmer in Red Dwarf.)

My daughter plays the People Simulator EA Game 'The Sims' and it's various expansion packs. Now they have wonderful lives. They seem to have a lot of kitchen fires and the babies grow up unusually fast, but apart from that they all have great jobs and girlfriends, fantastic holidays, become superstars, and make magic spells.

If you were to design a world to relax and play in, would you design one like 'The Sims' or would you design one with poverty, hunger, famine, wars, global warming, aids, sars, nuclear weapons, etc etc?

 

[Dave]

I'm not sure that you still understand what I'm talking about, but I found this website (via Slashdot and the BBC). It is the same thing, though they are call it 'Augmented Reality' (AR) technology or LIFEPLUS or Augmented Reality Tourism.

http://ligwww.epfl.ch/Projects/lifeplus.html

Objectives
The goal of LIFEPLUS is to push the limits of current Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, exploring the processes of narrative design of fictional spaces (e.g.frescos) where users can experience a high degree of realistic interactive immersion. Based on a captured/real-time video of a real scene, the project is oriented in enhancing these scenes by allowing the possibility to render realistic 3D simulations of virtual flora and fauna (humans, animals and plants) in real-time. According to its key mobile AR technology, visitors are provided with a see-through Head-Mounted-Display (HMD), headphones and mobile computing equipment. A tracking system determines their location within the site and audio-visual information is presented to them in context with their exploration, superimposed on their current view of the site. LIFEPLUS will extend that system and provide key new technologies to render lively, real-time animations and simulations of ancient virtual life (3D human crowds, animals and plants).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3954659.stm
http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/10/31/180247.shtml?tid=126&tid=10

The old-fashioned audio tour of historical places could soon be replaced with computer-generated images that bring the site to life.

Obviously it is not the the 'Matrix' yet, as all you need to do is reach up and remove your headset!

 

[timdgreat]

well even if it wasnt ur idea dave, its still really weird:rolly2:

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by timdgreat
well even if it wasnt ur idea dave, its still really weird.

You really think it's that weird? You've obviously not read much cyberpunk -- If you like weird read some William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Neal Stephenson, or Jeff Noon. I'm sure that this will be the future of the Internet. People in those stories spend their whole lives inside virtual worlds, or the 'metaverse'.

Even 'Star Trek' has Holodecks! But it also has Quark's more seedy but profitable Holosuites and I think real life is going to mirror this.

The Internet has been a great force for good. The Serbian opposition put their radio station B92 on the Net when the government shut down their broadcasts, and the Zapatistas effectively disseminated news and influenced world opinion via the Net.

Just as the Internet can be used for good, it can also be used for pornography and gambling. I see VR going the same way.

We've already seen the the first virtual Star Trek conference this year. Last year Arthur C Clarke appeared as a hologram to an audience in America from his home in Sri Lanka. They are great uses for videoconferencing technology and virtual reality will make them better still.

The U.S. Army re-fought crucial tank battles of the first Persian Gulf War using realistic tank simulators linked by computer; drug designers wrestle large molecules into place on simulations of the body's receptor sites; architects walk their clients through buildings that have not yet been built. Doctors can examine patients remotely, teachers can teach students from the other side of the globe.

But for every great use of Augmented Reality Tourism there will be the more grubby and squalid uses.

Did you see the film 'Strange Days' in which people used data-discs containing recorded memories and emotions of murderers killing prostitutes.

I just found this news story on Ananova which I'm sure is something that will be successful though pretty unsavoury:

Ananova:

Virtual hunters to kill for real?

A Texan wants to give virtual hunters the chance to kill things for real with the click of a mouse.

John Lockwood has already hooked up guns to the internet to let people shoot targets on his Texas ranch.

Now he wants to let fans shoot live game through his website, live-shot.com, reports the New York Post.

Mr Lockwood intends to have the remote hunts running early next year with hunters paying up to £40 an hour.

They will be be able to use their computer mouse to operate a camera and rifle pointed at a game feeder set up to attract animals.

Hunters would have to pay more if they kill an animal - up to £1,000 for a buck deer, although there is no guarantee they will see any game.

"I've gotten hate mail calling me a sick, despicable redneck," said Mr Lockwood, 39, a lifelong hunter.

"But the technology for hunters keeps evolving, from bowhunting to high-powered rifles. This is just another step forward, another tactical advantage."

Kevin Armstrong, president of the New York Bowhunters Association, was not impressed.

"Sitting remotely and pushing a button to kill another animal is nothing but perverse 21st-century slaughter," he said.

 

[Dave]

Now you really can speak to the dead...

Macabre, but this use of augmented reality tourism is almost exactly that the one that began this thread -- an ancestor program...

from technovelgy.com

Augmented Reality Cemetary Tour

An Augmented Reality tour of Atlanta's Oakland cemetary will let the dead speak to visitors. In a recent trial run, users carried laptops in backpacks and used game controllers to navigate the cemetary.

At specific grave sites, visitors listened to the voices of the first person buried in Oakland, a child who lived during the Civil War and a local historian who died in 2000. The historian's voice was the real thing; the others (obviously) were dubbed.

More at:

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/wo/wo_delio021505.asp

All it needs more is for the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the time period of the dead person.