From: bluefire@well.com (Bob Jacobson) Subject: Re: MISC: First use of "avatars", "virtual worlds" Date: 29 Jan 1997 09:57:57 GMT Message-ID: <5cn6v5$5dh@was.hooked.net> Organization: The Well, San Francisco, CA In article <32e3c9ee.5638828@news.airmail.net>, Jeff Fox wrote: >Did "Habitat" count as a "virutal world"? I'm pretty sure you used an >"avatar" on QLINK's "Habitat". Habitat was indeed a virtual world but only one variety. The twist is that the virtual world exists not on the screen, or at least not wholly on the screen, but in the head. The virtual world cues presented via computer technology (in this case, but we could just as well be talking about a cave painting or a novel) produce cognitive transformations that we know as "worlds." Avi Bar-Zeev has it right: the virtual world is the point at which imagery meets and interacts with the mind. I think I did a paper at one of the VR WORLD conferences in which I spoke of the second interface, the one behind the screen. Avi was the one who thought this one up, however, if I remember correctly. Bob Jacobson SRI Consulting Menlo Park, CA -- bluefire@well.com (Bob Jacobson)