My philosophy on 'virtual reality' is to humble myself on how complex
life itself is. When designing and optimizing models in the lab and
writing programs to make the scene interactive, one can really appreciate
how beautiful and infinitely intricate the world around us is. The term
'virtual environments' would be a more accurate
description of this project and our goals in trying to simulate reality
in realtime.
Nothing but the real hot air balloon ride itself can give you the
serenity and beauty of floating with the clouds and gracefully gliding
across the horizon.
As engineers in this project we make assumptions to approximate the
physics of the ride. Even if we were equipped with the state of the art SGI
Onyx Reality Monster with 8 Infinite Reality Engines, life itself is too
complex to compute to the Nth power. Not now nor hundreds of years from
now, we will able to recreate reality itself on which ever machine we
choose and the HoloDeck will remain a fantasy in our dreams.
As artists we paint and sculpt in as much detail of the ride as possible
and hope there is enough for the imagination to fill in. With all the
brushes and colors of the visible spectrum at our disposal the essence of
ride will depend on the more than our sense of sight. Without being
engrossed in the technology itself we can take awe at the analogous
and quantized forms life represents itself to us and face the challenge
representing its organic and fractal nature.
This project should bring an interesting union of art and science.
For without either one, the thrill of the ride will be lost.
"This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural"
Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
-Diganta Saha
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Philosophy
