Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rusty Johnson who wrote (16144)	5/4/1999 1:55:00 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 64865

Mr. Weiser was a young man. Sorry to hear about his death. I use Windows 95 to write letters on home PC. At work, my husband has converted his PC to LINUX so he uses Word Perfect for LINUX . Corel released it recently.

To: Rusty Johnson who wrote (16144)	5/4/1999 3:00:00 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 64865

[Weiser envisioned technology fading into the background--the intrusive, endlessly complex machines we call computers giving way to hidden devices designed to do our bidding without cluttering up our lives and stealing our attention.] Actually, VR has been successful, in part, because it steals our attention. Researchers at Harbour View Hospital in Seattle have been working with patients in the serious burn unit. Routinely the bandages that the patients are wrapped in must be removed. The process is extremely painful. Using VR, researchers have discovered that by diverting the patient's attention with VR, the intense pain that the patients would normally feel, decreased dramatically. The VR experiments with severely burned patients have been ongoing, and I believe they are successful. I skimmed the article about Mr. Mark Weiser, and it seemed that when he talked about "ubiquitous computing" he talked about computers that would help us cope with objects like cars etc. ["Car computers,Internet-connected hand-held devices and the futuristic wearable computers pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab are just the beginning. Weiser foresaw a multitude of programmable microscopic machines embedded in clothing, appliances, walls and furniture, working in concert to sense the environment and change dynamically....."] Mr Weiser believed: ["In the Valley, most people are so fascinated by technology that humans never enter the equation," said Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. "Mark really lived at the boundary between people and technology and asked deep questions about how we make this technology fit into our lives and do good things and not distract us." ] Randy, it is unfortunately, but I believe that we are distracted at one time or another by psychological forces that we cannot control. Perhaps we must be distracted if we want to overcome our fears. Some people fear spiders. Some students fear science and math. I am afraid to drive a car. Technology may NOT "do good things" for these people until we understand why they have these problems. VR may very well help people overcome the problems that distract them. Once people overcome their internal problems, maybe then they can make technology do good things, as Mr. Weiser suggested. [" Weiser seemed intuitively to know what many high priests of technology fail to grasp, to everyone's peril: Experts, for all their brilliance, rarely have special qualifications for judging the social consequence of technology or for making decisions about the trade-offs or choices technology forces."] The people that I know who develop and work with VR worry very much about the social problems that VR may create. Geez Randy, these are very general opinions. You must realize that I do not have the background to discuss "ubiquitous computing" or "VR". Mephisto