Cyberspace: Getting There From Here

 Article 92 of sci.virtual-worlds:

Path: milton!randy@xanadu.com

From: randy@xanadu.com (Randy Farmer -- A survivor of the Lost Patrol)

Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds

Subject: Cyberspace: Getting There From Here **(LONG)**

Summary: Repost of article posted in alt.cyberspace, by request

Keywords: cyberspace hardware Habitat Club Caribe

Message-ID: <1990Mar8.160311.3103@xanadu.com>

Date: 8 Mar 90 16:03:11 GMT

Sender: hlab@milton.acs.washington.edu

Organization: Xanadu Operating Company, Palo Alto, CA

Lines: 289

Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu

I have had a few requests to repost my article, so heregoes!

I would really appreciate it if you sent me your thoughts on this text via

email (to save net bandwidth), and resist the urge to fragment my thoughts

in a followup posting with lots of '>'s. This article is meant to convey one

thought: Cyberspace is NOT hardware. Thanks :-)

This article originally appeared in the Journal of Computer Game Design last

October, and is positioned as kind of primer. Those of you who received a

copy of this at Hackers 5.0 or read it in alt.cyberspace, hit 'n' now :-).

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               Cyberspace: Getting There From Here.

              (c) Copyright 1989 F. Randall Farmer

Randy was lead C64 programmer on the fabled 'Habitat'(1) project 

for Lucasfilm Games. He has taken a hiatus from building Cyberspace 

while he works on a new telecommunications product at AMIX, a 

subsidiary of Autodesk. He can be reached via Usenet as 

randy@xanadu.com or through the Journal BBS.

"Golden Vaporware" is a term I've heard Ted Nelson(2) use to 

describe such exciting computer projects as Xanadu, Dynabook and 

Cyberspace. I understood the term to mean Really-Great-Stuff-That-

People-Are-(Sort-Of)-Working-On-And-Never-Ship.  But now, it 

seems,  "The Age Of Golden Vaporware" has arrived. Ted's Xanadu 

project is now well under way and should ship product in '90.  There 

is a company called Dynabook Technologies that has released "step 2" 

of the "20 steps"(3) to Alan Kay's vision of the ultimate laptop.  And 

Cyberspace has been prototyped by QuantumLink and Lucasfilm.

These projects are likely to succeed not because they are 

exciting to us techie-geeks, but because they have solid commercial 

and technical foundations.  Here I will illustrate a path from current 

software and hardware technologies to the Cyberspace that many of 

us have dreamed of for almost 20 years.

What is Cyberspace anyway?

"Cyberspace" is a fuzzily defined word that has been in the 

press a lot recently(4)(at least in Silicon Valley).  Vernor Vinge first 

described a vision of what might now be called Cyberspace in his 

novella True Names(5). The hero of Vinges's story connected to "The 

Other Plane" using EEG electrodes placed on the forehead. The Other 

Plane was a place where complicated software systems were 

represented by familiar objects.  The Max Headroom television show 

used similar representations in various episodes.  Other fictional 

treatments include William Gibson's Neuromancer (6), which has 

been turned into a popular graphic adventure, and other 

"Cyberpunk" novels. Here the vision of Cyberspace is based around 

commercial and governmental network computer access, where 

"cowboys" and "wizards" break in and wreak fiscal havoc. In these 

works, Cyberspace is a metaphor for abstract concepts.

Autodesk, maker of the best selling AutoCAD system, has 

thrown its hat into the Cyberspace ring where it joins VPL's Jaron 

Lanier and NASA-AMES. All of these products share similar base 

technologies and assumptions: two head-mounted TV monitors for 

stereo imaging, a powerful computer, and a 3D input device like 

VPL's DataGlove. They are primarily single user systems, and, in the 

case of at least Autodesk's product, probably aimed at CAD users who 

want to edit drawings in three dimensions. There are many other 

applications, but discussion is beyond the scope of this article. The 

key to all of these systems is enough computer power to do  double-

buffered stereoscopic real-time graphics at a high frame rate (say 

20-30 frames/second). This technology is expensive: in the case of 

VPL's "virtual reality" system (their special two user version) the 

price tag weighs in at $69,925. The "Eyephones" cost $9,400 and the 

glove $8,800.(7) These companies envision Cyberspace as a new kind 

of user interface.

To me, Cyberspace is a place, not just an interface or a 

metaphor. A place where people, regardless of location, hardware, or 

purpose can get together in a participatory experience to conduct 

business, socialize, or have a good game of SpaceCombat9.6.

Why this vision instead of the others?  People.  Unlike the 

interactions with artificial personalities created for computer 

adventure games, Cyberspace interactions could create relationships 

that are "greater than the sum of their parts".  Here the consequences 

of individual actions take on a greater significance because they 

affect the world of, and the personal belongings of the other 

participants.  Because Cyberspace will be so malleable,  each 

individual can "make a dent"(8) and participate in its ongoing 

creation and adaptation.

This is not speculation! During Habitat's beta test, several social 

institutions sprang up spontaneously: There were marriages and 

divorces, a church (complete with a real-world Greek Orthodox 

minister), a loose guild of thieves, an elected sheriff (to combat the 

thieves), a  newspaper (with a rather eccentric editor), and before 

long two lawyers hung up their shingle to sort out claims.  And this 

was with only about 150 people! My vision encompasses tens of 

thousands of simultaneous participants.

How can it work?

There are several major problems facing a large-scale 

Cyberspace system: Bandwidth, Graphic Resolution, User Interface 

Standards, Event Integrity, Data Communications Standards, and 

Computer Horsepower.

Bandwidth is the most overrated problem. Everybody thinks 

you need to send megabytes of data every minute to each user in 

order to make Cyberspace work. This is simply not true. Habitat 

works at a mere 300 baud. The keys to keeping bandwidth down are 

distributed processing (having the local computer do most of the 

display and interface work), object oriented command messages, and 

avoiding communication intensive graphics primitives (such as those 

associated with NAPLPS, that slower-than-molasses protocol they use 

for Prodigy and other Videotex systems).

Graphic Resolution, User Interface and Local Horsepower issues 

should all be lumped together.  To be viable over time, Cyberspace 

must be designed with the "to each according to his abilities" 

principle. If a C64 with NTSC TV and joystick-only interface 

encounters a 60 megahertz 486 user with Eyephones and DataGlove, 

the interaction should be filtered so that each user can have a 

satisfying experience (e.g the C64 user doesn't see all the intricate 

detail the 486er has put into his attire, and all people walk exactly 

the same, but they can still sit, chat, and play a nice game of 

Strattagema.)

Event Integrity is a side effect of distributed processing. Simply 

put: you can't trust the home computer. Hackers have all the time in 

the world to crack the software and make it send messages it 

shouldn't. This is akin to the long debated copy protection problem, 

but comes with its own unique solution: The Host. Since the host is 

the final arbiter of all events, it should be programmed at a very 

high level to reject bad messages.

Data Communications Standards are key to the future viability 

of Cyberspace. A protocol is required that is efficient and forward 

looking,  with hooks for future revisions (as bandwith increases) and 

data encryption. Anything that is going to be used for business will 

need to transmit its data securely for protection against espionage.  

Also, the standard needs to address such issues as Email and  

gateways to those entrenched text-only systems.  I want to read my 

Usenet mail printed on a sheet of paper in my Cyberhand!

Since the host coordinates all activity for all users, Host 

Horsepower is by far the most critical issue. For the first few years of 

operations, Cyberspace will have a single centralized host consisting 

of several connected multi-processing computers.  In order to keep 

overhead to a minimum, bandwidth and database access will need to 

be tightly limited.  The communications protocol will need to be 

super efficient and messages must be kept tiny.  Eventually there 

will be several independent Cyberspaces, perhaps on LANs or a 

larger BBS. Of course, while you are walking around in your office 

Cyberspace, you might want to go to other Cyberspaces, so a 

distributed host model will need to be designed.  By not having a 

central host keep track of everything and everyone, this distributed 

model will actually decrease the load on each host. This will allow 

Cyberspace to take on a few interesting features: 1) Each host can be 

a different kind of place, with different 'rules' (e.g. A role-playing 

Cyberhost would probably have monsters, combat rules -including 

character death- and a no-holds-barred policy about participant 

behavior whereas an office Cyberhost would have access protection 

and wouldn't allow personal combat of any type), 2) Increased 

capacity without loss of access, and 3) Faster growth.

When will it happen?

Rather than pin a date on my Cyberverse, I will outline a 

possible implementation path, including all of the developments 

publicly announced to date.

Event: Spring 1989 "Habitat" A.K.A. "The Poor Man's Cyberspace"

Ship Low End Prototype:

Third person, 2D, Low resolution, Low bandwidth,

multi-user Cyberspace with joystick/keyboard interface

Purpose: Entertainment

Event: Fall? 1990 "CyberCad"

Ship commercial CAD version of Cyberspace Interface

Eyephones, DataGlove/DataSuit. First person, single-user

3D graphics (wire frame on small computers).

Purpose: Commercial CAD

Event: AT&T starts installing nationwide ISDN(9), promises 

installation

by 2001 (this should drive bandwidth to 1.5gigabits/second!)

Event: 'DataGlove, the cheap version' arrives.

Event: 9600/19.2k baud modems <$100 dollars

Event: A Cyberspace team defines the first Cyberspace Data and 

Communications Standards (an event they will regret later

when this interim hack becomes the defacto standard)

Event: 486/68040 50+ megahertz computers sell for <$1000 dollars.

Event: (about 1995) "Cyberverse 1.0" (U.S.? Japan?)

Ship first multi-purpose Cyberspace universe

Eyephones optional, mouse or glove required

Local data stored on high density media (CDROM?)

9600baud minimum speed, LAN version available.

(host still required)

Event: Computers get 10X faster and 10X more memory/storage.

Ongoing event: AT&T still installing ISDN

Event: (about 2000) Japan completes ISDN installation, selling

ISDN 'modems' cheap!

Event: First 'cracker' group has successfully done measurable

damage to the global Cyberverse.

The back doors are all closed. Or are they?

Event: After cursing the original Cyberdesigners for several years

now, the Data and Comm standards are updated to support.

multi- and distributed-host models. Massive testing required.

Event: First suicide attributed, by the media, to a game played while

in Cyberspace.

Event: First combination television/phone/computer successfully 

mass marketed??

Event: (about 2000) "Cyberverse 2.0"

Ship distributed host version

Supports latest user interface hardware (optionally).

Now a host is not required.

Event: (about 2010) AT&T finally completes ISDN. Wall size 

videophone reaching suburban markets (10-20 years late?)

Event: Congress takes significant note of the Cyberverse, because

trade unions (and other lobbies) note significant

changes in the distribution of political power.

First Cyberspace lobby arrives in Washington.

Event:10-20% of Americans spend over 4 hours per day "on the

Other Side". First chapter of Mothers Against Cyberspace

forms, claims 'Junior' never goes out to playI

(We gotta think about this stuff too, ya know!)

Event: (the Future) "Cyberverse 3.0" A.K.A. "The Big Payoff"

Distribute version 3.0 via Cybersoft retail outlets in Cyberspace

100,000+baud, allowing life-like personalizations

EEG direct input? Hologram Video? Retinal Projection?

Full Body digitizing? Forced feedback?

Voice input/output? World access via remote-robots?

Farmer, you're full of Cybercrud!(10)

Oh, yeah? A 386/CDROM version of Habitat will soon be 

released in Japan.  Other foreign companies are also interested in this 

technology, and some are talking about multi-machine support, 

standards, and the future.  My only fear is that the long-term nature 

of this project will cause American companies to shy away, and let 

yet another new technology be monopolized by other, more forward-

looking nations.

(1)Credit where credit is due: Chip Morningstar was original designer 

and leader of the Habitat project. Aric Wilmunder was the other 

primary C64 programmer. Janet Hunter did most of the Host work. I 

was also chief operator and world builder. Habitat has not yet been 

released in its complete form (it will in Japan in '90). For a taste of a 

much-scaled-down version, check out Club Caribe on QuantumLink 

(you'll need a C64 & software). Call 800-782-2278 for details.

(2) Nelson, Theodor, Standard Public Xanadu Speech. Xanadu is the 

name of the original mega-hypertext product.

(3) Khosla, Vinod, of Dynabook Technologies quoted in Bay Area 

Computer Currents "Dynabook! Dynamite?" Vol 7,#4 pp 22-24.

(4) Laurel, Brenda, mentions Cyberspace in "New Interfaces for 

Interactive Entertainment" in Vol 2, #5 of The Journal of Computer 

Game Design.

(5) Vinge, Vernor, "True Names" republished in an anthology "True 

Names and Other Dangers" (mandatory reading for would-be 

Cyberhacks)

(6) Gibson, William, "Neuromancer"  (recommended reading)

7)Nix, Shan, interviews Jaron Lanier of VPL in The San Fransisco 

Chronicle, "Welcome to the World of Hyper-Reality" early August 

1986, pp B1,B6

(8) ibid

(9)ISDN:Integrated Services Digital Network: instead of converting 

digital data to analog (via modem) and back again, digital data is 

dropped directly on to phone lines. Maximum throughput of full scale 

fiber-optic ISDN is 1 to 6 gigabits/second or more. Several foreign 

countries have made ISDN a national priority.

(10)Nelson, Theodor: Computer Lib/Dream Machines Microsoft Press 

Revised Edition 1987 pp 27-29

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Well, there you have it, my first published article :-). All comments welcome.

Don't pay too much attention to the timeline, it's meant mostly to point

out that there are no real technical barriers to this vision, and the future

should only see the kind of improvments we've seen with computers: Faster,

Bigger, and more Resolution.