NextVerso.ORG

In my everyday life, I work on Virtual Assistants. They are software of course, but we believe that is possible to spread in them some kind of “intelligence” and -most relevant in our approach- some humanity. I’m not talking about general AI or Turing test: I mean a sort of search engine, that understand your queries and give to you something more than a basic list of potential answers.

If you remember, SnowCrash’s Librarian was not able to do deductions. He was “just” able to access the whole world knowledge, but just as a fast and semantic search engine and not as a general, “post-singularitarian” AI (or, better, AGI). So, after all, SnowCrash’s Librarian is something that we could call Wikipedia, plus a 3D enviroment.

Now, look at this video about virtual assistants.

Let me say: YES, she is a software with a 3D appearance, vocal synthesis and all the knowledge stored in Wikipedia. She is something really close to the SnowCrash’s Librarian. , especially if you put her inside a world like SecondLife. In particular if the Librarian live inside a specific “room”, designed to host you -as avatar- also.

She has a fully animated 3D body, with speech. She is hosted in a special 3D space and she can run video, images, etc. And YES, she is software. Every movement or word is a script, and YES she can ask something to Wikipedia, and show you the answer.

Well… she does not really understand the question or the answer, but it doesn’t mean that she is not able to handle it! Last but not least, this virtual assistant we have made works on FLASH! There are enough technologies to transform it in a sort of holocron room (or conversational user interface if you prefer) and put it on every blog!

How this concerns the NextVerso?

The main limit about Virtual Assistants and robots in SecondLife is related to “collisions and perception of space”. What we are proposing is to come through boundaries of 3D objects rules and explore the nextverso in form of script.

It is something similar to Neo watching the Matrix as green characters’ fall. He is a script, watching a world of scripts.

From Teleport to Stargate

Foreword:
One of the most visionary features of a NextVerso, amongst flying and teleportation - which were banned in the SnowCrash Metaverse but are permitted in Second Life - is not only the bare creation of object, but also the Kiss of Life itself, then letting everything evolve under local physical rules.

This post is aimed to draw a possible evolution of virtual worlds’ (i.e. Second Life) physics. A metaverse with these features would have a great appeal in the field of simulation and unique characteristics when searching for new ways in social interactions.

Welcome in Ne[x]tVerso! (more…)

Neil Stephenson invented the word “metaverse” -in italian metaverso- to introduce a virtual space where people lives, works, and meet the rest of humanity. In his book, SnowCrash…

The story takes place in Los Angeles, in the area formerly known as the United States, during the early 21st century. In this hypothetical future reality, the United States Federal Government has ceded most of its power to private organizations and entrepreneurs.[1] Franchising, individual sovereignty and automobiles reign supreme (along with drug trafficking, violent crime, and traffic congestion). Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace in gated, sovereign housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads rather than the competitors’, and all mail delivery is by hired courier. The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds, where they transact business that is by and large irrelevant to the booming, dynamic society around them.