Metaverse

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Metaverse is the alternate digital realities where people work, play, and socialize. Universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected. The Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet. Wikipedia


Cyberspace, Matrix, Mirror World, AR Cloud, Magicverse, Spatial Internet, Spatial Web, OASIS, Omniverse, Virtual World, or Live Maps



Alternate Reality

5G and the future: Spatial computing and the metaverse | CogX 2020
Oliver Kibblewhite - Founder - The 5Gs Sol Rogers - CEO & Founder - REWIND Jeffrey Kember - Director, Developer Relations - Nvidia Brandy Moore - EMEA Sales Director, Mixed Reality - Microsoft Brought to you by the Creative Industries Council, the Createch stage will offer an upbeat vision of how converging creativity and technology can improve how we connect, create, and consume

Virtual reality -- how the metaverse will change filmmaking | George Bloom | TEDxHollywood
George introduces the concept of the “metaverse” and how it will change filmmaking in sets, crew, actors, and most importantly, the story. George is an executive producer at CBS Digital the visual effects team responsible for movies and television series. He and his colleagues develop disruptive tools for production and custom content for the Oculus Rift.

SDC 2017 Session: Towards an AI Driven Open Metaverse
Samsung Developer Conference 2017 Session Speakers: Will Mason - Upload, Nicolas Meuleau - Unity Technologies, Jules Urbach - OTOY Inc. We are entering an era in which digital services and communication are going to be rendered spatially. This is the true promise of AR/VR/Mixed reality content, a metaverse where you can create and share and information with true presence. Everything from devices to the web to the social fabric of society will be affected enormously by the decisions that we make today. Ready or not, the tools of tomorrow are already being adopted to build an AI driven open metaverse.

What if we could live in the Matrix? | Cosmo Scharf | TEDxVienna
Virtual Reality is not a new technology, it’s been around in various forms for decades, but enthusiasts believe it’s now on the cusp of a golden age. Driven by an increase in research money and significant advances in picture resolution and technical functionality, interest in the potential of VR is going well beyond the games and entertainment industry. The pairing of these developments with an exponential growth in certain technology sectors evokes scenarios of the future taken from the pages of sci-fi literature. VR pioneer Cosmo Scharf will paint his vision of our shared future. osmo Scharf co-founded VRLA, the world's largest virtual reality expo, the Proto Awards, the first award show for VR, and Visionary VR, a start-up building software for storytelling in VR.


Virtual Beings (VB)

A Virtual Being (VB) is a computer-generated or artificial intelligence-driven character or entity that exists in a virtual environment, such as a video game, virtual world, or augmented reality space. These virtual beings can take various forms, including human-like avatars, animals, or entirely fantastical creatures, and they are typically designed to interact with users or other virtual beings within the digital environment. Virtual beings can serve various purposes, such as companionship, storytelling, gaming opponents, virtual assistants, or even as AI-driven characters in entertainment or educational contexts. They are created to simulate human or non-human behaviors, making them seem lifelike and capable of responding to user inputs or predefined scenarios, enhancing immersion and engagement in virtual experiences. Advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing have contributed to the development of increasingly sophisticated virtual beings.

I Dated an AI for 30 Days, Here's What Happened
What started as a psychology experiment turned into the weirdest experience ever.

Jacob Navok at Virtual Beings Summit 2021
Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid Technologies, talks interactive streaming and future innovation. Join virtual beings startups, investors, real-time engine creators, AI academics and CEOs as we explore the ever enmeshing worlds of web3 and AI. Hear from industry professionals who are specializing in these spaces, and where they see the future going.

Future of Virtual Beings, XR, and Self-Sovereign Identity Link Together: Liam Broza
vETC2019: Liam Broza, CEO & Co-Founder, BitScoop Labs and LifeScope.io How virtual beings, XR, and self-sovereign identity link together. Our team is currently building an open source personal database platform, LifeScope, with cutting edge identity features. We are building inperson agents on LifeScope with reinforcement learning and behavior trees. Our platform is being built so that we can create “digital twins” next year in the form interactive avatars. This platform has a traditional app interface, an XR interface, and a data API to power AI and real time systems.

Ying Wang of Microsoft Conversational AI and Virtual Being Xiaoice on Virtual Beings
Virtual Beings Summit

Meet Your Digital Twin: Kathleen Cohen, Experience Strategist, The Collaboratorium
vETC2019: Kathleen Cohen, Experience Strategist, The Collaboratorium. A look into the future of your digital likeness and the physical legacy that (you think) you are leaving behind. With AI/ML humans are becoming virtual and robots are becoming feeling humanoids. We’re currently sitting in the gap years. Imagine the near future where your digital twin has agency over your physical self. Your twin has more “street cred” than your physical self. Sending your twin to events because your physical self can’t make it will be socially OK. Your likeness & legacy are fully captured, and the uniqueness that makes up you (your walk, your laugh, your dance moves) might all be used soon, with or without your consent, in the free marketplace. This is a talk about the AR/VR/MR/XR, spatial computing, IoT, the Metaverse, creativity, ownership and looking at your own self through the lens of volumetric captures, immersive media, digital DNA and the land rush to (re)create humans.

Life as a Digital Being
In the future we might see the rise of minds entirely on computers, be it uploaded humans, transhumans, or artificial intelligence. But what would such an existence be like? Would they interact with our world or live in entirely virtual realities or simulated universes?

Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities and communicate with others. The user accesses a computer-simulated world which presents perceptual stimuli to the user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled world and thus experience a degree of presence. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Example rules are gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. Communication between users can range from text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, and rarely, forms using touch, voice command, and balance senses. Wikipedia

Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world and online platform that was created by Linden Lab and was first launched in 2003. It allows users to create and interact with each other in a digital environment. Here are some key aspects of Second Life:

  • User-Created Content: Second Life is known for its user-generated content. Users, known as "residents," can create and customize their own avatars, objects, and environments. This has led to a wide variety of creative and unique experiences within the virtual world.
  • Social Interaction: Second Life is a social platform where residents can interact with each other in various ways. They can communicate through text chat, voice chat, or even gestures. There are also social events, clubs, and communities where people can connect with others who share similar interests.
  • Virtual Economy: Second Life has its own virtual economy, with a currency called the Linden Dollar (L$). Residents can buy and sell virtual goods and services, and some people even make real-world income through virtual businesses and entrepreneurship within the platform.
  • Education and Training: Second Life has been used for educational purposes, such as virtual classrooms and training simulations. Many universities and organizations have established a presence in Second Life to conduct classes, meetings, and conferences.
  • Entertainment and Events: The platform hosts various entertainment events, including live music performances, art exhibitions, and virtual tourism experiences. Users can explore different regions and participate in activities ranging from dancing at clubs to attending virtual weddings.
  • Real Estate and Land Ownership: Residents can purchase virtual land within Second Life and build their own homes or businesses. The virtual land is divided into regions, each with its own theme or rules set by the landowner.
  • User-Driven Governance: Second Life has a unique governance model where certain aspects of the virtual world are governed by the residents themselves. Residents can participate in decision-making processes through forums and voting on various issues.


AI Town

As the a16z team reported on X, this ambitious project aims to “democratize building your own simulation environment with AI agents.” The innovative project, built in collaboration with portfolio company Convex Dev and inspired by a Stanford Generative Agent paper, 'Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior' introduces a virtual town where AI characters live, chat, and socialize. As per a16z’s GitHub details, AI Town is designed to be a customizable and extensible platform, drawing inspiration from research on generative agents.

Behind the scenes, AI Town relies on a robust tech stack, including...

The platform is essentially a vibrant microcosm of AI characters, each with its unique persona. These AI characters are equipped with the capability to interact with one another in a convincingly human-like manner, creating an intriguing social dynamic within the virtual environment. Each AI character in the town is given a starting prompt that shapes its persona and serves as the basis for its interactions and behavior. As the AI characters engage with each other, they retain the memory of their conversations, allowing for continuity in their interactions. This ability to remember past exchanges leads to distinct narratives for each AI character, further enhancing the realism and complexity of the virtual environment. - VC firm a16z releases open-source microverse packed with generative AI NPCs in AI Town | Liam 'Akiba' Wright - CryptoSlate ... Stanford-inspired AI Town merges cutting-edge tech for unfolding virtual tales

Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior

Researchers at Google and Stanford used ChatGPT to generate human-like characters who live and interact in a contained, video game-like world called Smallville. Smallville features 25 characters with preloaded personas who wake up, go to sleep, make breakfast, interact with each other, and attend each other’s parties in an attempt to mimic human behavior as closely as possible. One popular AI observer likened the experiment to an early version of Westworld, though it's more like a video game demo where the characters' actions and dialogue are autogenerated by AI. - Google Tells AI Agents to Behave Like 'Believable Humans' to Create 'Artificial Society' | Chloe Xiang - Vice

Somnium Space

Somnium Space is a virtual reality metaverse and blockchain-based virtual world that allows users to create, own, and interact with digital assets and environments. Users, known as "citizens," can explore vast and immersive landscapes, build and customize their own virtual properties, and engage in social activities, including events, art exhibitions, and virtual commerce. One of its distinguishing features is its integration of blockchain technology, which enables users to truly own and trade digital assets like virtual land parcels and unique virtual items, adding a layer of digital ownership and scarcity to the virtual experience. Somnium Space aims to be a pioneering platform in the emerging metaverse space, where users can live, work, and play in a decentralized and interconnected virtual universe. Funded by the serial entrepreneur Artur Sychov, the project started with a very successful indiegogo campaign back in the day. Based in the beautiful city of Prague, right in the heart of Europe.


Somnium Space Live - Pack #VR Treasure Hunt!
Powered by Restream https://restream.io/

Somnium Space first impression! A powerful virtual world powered by blockchain
I had a fast tour of Somnium Space, to give it a look after I have heard many people talking about it in the VR ecosystem. It is a virtual world powered by Ethereum that mixes VR and blockchain, where people can buy pieces of land and build on it what they want.

Decentraland

The project started with Esteban Ordano and Ari Merlich, both very experienced folks on Blockchain and high end technology and did a very successful job creating and pushing the idea. Now the project is managed by the Decentraland Foundation, a new entity that is focused on listening to the community needs. Most of the team is in Argentina.

Decentraland: Why MANA Will RULE The Metaverse!!
Insider Info in my Socials 👉 https://guy.coinbureau.com/socials/

Decentraland #MetaverseFestival with Transhumanists Alyse & Peter
Alyse & Peter at Transhumanism Australia dive into the Metaverse Festival by Dentraland. We discover NFTs, get lost in a maze and party with Decentralanders while watching Lokyii DJ live on stage!

The Sandbox

The Sandbox project was initially started in 2012 on mobile platforms which to date have gathered more than 40 million global installs on mobile devices. Their 100-people strong team behind has over 15 years of experience making games. ​Over the past 3 years, The Sandbox team has been developing a new version of the game – this time as a 3D, multiplayer platform using Blockchain technology (Ethereum) to offer a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences. This is the version we are comparing today.

Sandbox Game Maker + Sandbox (Crypto) Metaverse Gameplay - Initial Reaction.
Downloading the game maker, Building within the Sandbox, Playing the Sandbox Game

Playing Your Games with The Sandbox Game Maker - The Sandbox Wednesday Stream
"Watch Alex Florez (@KamiSawZe) play YOUR games submitted to The Sandbox GameMaker each Wednesday

CryptoVoxels

By the one and only Ben Nolan. This solo entrepreneur from New Zealand started off the project from scratch and now has a team helping him to generate his vision. They are very active listeners on their Discord and Twitter.

The Duat Metakey stream #19 Exploring CryptoVoxels
Join me every week live and in the Metakey discord!

Bad Kids Alley Cryptovoxels Halloween Party - #Non-Fungible Token (NFT)s #Crypto
https://www.forwardparty.com/

Upland

Opening 3.5 MILLION UPX in Legits Packs LIVE // Upland's Exclusive Spirit Halloween NFT Partnership
Join us for this exciting Live Stream as LOYLDOYL opens his Spirit Halloween Legit's packs. Let's have some fun celebrating this exciting moment for the Upland Metaverse. These packs contain Spirit Halloween Ornaments, Block Explorers & Legits.

Upland! Market Analysis and Best Places to Buy!
Check out Upland, a virtual property trading game. If you use this link, Upland will award you with a bonus for your first purchase!

https://r.upland.me/9PoB   Upland Discord: https://discord.gg/CGcCGEcm

Games - Metaverse

Fortnite | Epic Games

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Epic considered they were trying to build a toolkit for players to interact with as to create emergent gameplay solutions based on the situation of the missions, from which they can continue to expand upon with new items throughout the life of the game.

The Fortnite Metaverse - An Impending Struggle
Fortnite is recognized globally as a modern entertainment phenomenon... but what if it was intended to become much more than that. The theory of a technology "Metaverse" is not new, but truly reaching that stage of evolution for a platform like Fortnite, as Tim Sweeney has publicly

Turning Fortnite Into PUBG With Deep Learning (CycleGAN)
In this video I'll go over CycleGANs for Image Style Transfer and explore its application to graphics mods for games by converting Fortnite graphics into PUBG visuals.

Flight Simulator 2020

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Microsoft Flight Simulator has an important role to fulfill as a serious tool for the real-life aviation industry – but that doesn’t mean it can’t find time to dazzle gamers, too. The technology that makes Microsoft Flight Simulator tick is something truly special. A mash up of Microsoft’s map data from its Bing search engine, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, the result is simple: this game’s ‘map’ is the whole world. ...hile there are bugs and mistakes created by the AI that fills in the details, its hyper-accurate version of the world is stunning. ...This means that while your house might not have the exact right shape, it will be there – represented by an AI-generated approximation. This means up-close and personal things might not be exactly accurate – but bigger buildings are more likely to be closer to reality. The AI will also fill in details like trees and determine what is liquid, adding foliage and telling the game where to place its realistic water to create rivers, ponds and the ocean. Once you’re in the skies and gain a proper altitude, the less-accurate elements of the AI’s work disappear from view Microsoft Flight Simulator is nothing short of astounding | Alex Donaldson VG 24/7

Flight Simulator will populate the world with animals and roads with vehicles, water will flow realistically based on wind direction, grass will have individual grass blades and trees will have individual leaves, creating the illusion of a living world. The game world will include over two million cities and towns, 1.5 billion buildings, 2 trillion trees, and 37,000 real-world airports. Wikipedia

AI Aircraft & Multiplayer | Flight Simulator 2020 Development
AI aircraft is a huge deal in Flight Simulator 2020, here's why.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Update | Airports | Ground Services | AI Traffic
Once again we delve into Microsoft Flight Simulator following the release of episode 6 : Airports. We look at the airports and how they are made, airport animations, AI traffic and the new ATC menu giving us access to ground services. Plus we take a quick look at developments for the soundscape as well as wonder about seasons in this simulator.


Massively Multiplayer Online MMO

Empowering game developers with Stadia R&D (Google Games Dev Summit)
Join Stadia's Research and Development team for an update on game-based applications of unique Stadia and Google technology including machine learning and realtime distributed computation resources. This talk walks through four game prototype examples demonstrating machine learning for asset generation, virtual opponents, and game balancing, and distributed compute for enhanced peer-to-peer multiplayer and AI as a service.

Anti-cheating tool for massive multiplayer games using Amazon Aurora and ML services - #Percona Live
Yoav Eilat and Yahav Biran talked about the Multiplayer video games are among the most lucrative online services. The overall games industry worldwide generated an estimated $174B in 2019, according to IDC. With this popularity, cheating becomes a common trend. ...This session will show an effective method for game developers to continuously and dynamically improve their cheat-detection mechanisms. It uses Amazon Aurora and Amazon SageMaker for cheating detection but can be adapted to other databases with similar capabilities. We'll utilize the recently-launched Aurora machine learning functionality, which allows game developers to add ML-based predictions using the familiar #SQL programming language without building custom integrations or learning separate tools. We'll show which ML algorithms are useful for cheat detection and how an anti-cheat developer can write a single #SQL query that handles the inputs and outputs for the algorithm.

Sinespace | Sine Wave Entertainment

a free-to-play massively multiplayer online Unity 3D-based platform that enables users to create and sell 3D content and interact with others as 3D avatars. Wikipedia

Sinespace Tour with Adam Frisby
Monday, March 5th @ 5am PST

Acoustic Energy live streaming from the Metaverse
Tonight sinespace presents "Acoustic Energy" (aka James Olmos) as he live streams from the legendary GuitaraHalla from 9-10 pm EST in the sinespace next gen virtual world. Join the fun at https://bit.ly/2wXu9YZ

Collaboration Platforms

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Meta | Facebook

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The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future. Meta

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) has rebranded itself as Meta, banking on the metaverse becoming a significant part of our lives. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) bets its future on the metaverse | Mikguel Macias & Conner Donevan - NPR

Kodak Avatars

Kodak avatars are photorealistic 3D avatars with spatial audio. They can be used for authentic face-to-face communication in virtual or augmented reality. In a recent conversation, Mark Zuckerberg and Lux Friedman discussed the technology that allows them to appear as Kodak avatars. Kodak avatars are real-time representations that match the appearance of their users. Facebook first announced Codec Avatars in 2019. Meta researchers have revealed that photorealistic avatars can be generated with just an iPhone. You can create your own avatar and get items on Meta Quest. To do this, you can:

  • Put on your Meta Quest headset.
  • Select your profile picture from the navigation menu.
  • Select Edit Avatar.
  • Select Store.

Horizon Workrooms

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Getting on the same page starts with getting in the same (virtual) room. A new way for office workers to connect using virtual reality; as digital avatars of their real selves, around a conference table together. Horizon Workrooms is the VR workspace for teams to connect, collaborate and create. Meet teammates across the table, even if you’re across the world—and transform your home office into your favorite remote meeting room.

  • Bring your physical computer, keyboard* and desk into VR with you. You can share your screen, send messages, and type naturally.
  • Seamlessly write and draw on the shared whiteboard by flipping your controller to use it like a pen.
  • With spatial audio, add dimension to every conversation and create the feeling of a shared location.
  • Stay synced in and out of VR with chats, calendars and notes that automatically update via web.
  • Customize your avatar to be a true expression of your personality.
  • Adjust the layout to fit your agenda, from presentations to brainstorms. As participants come and go, your table dynamically scales.

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Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) launches "Horizon Workrooms." Here's how it works
Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new virtual reality app in an exclusive interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King.

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT)k’s Horizon Workrooms for Oculus Quest 2
We got a first look at Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT)’s solution for remote work in VR on the Oculus Quest 2. Mark Zuckerberg showed up, too. Subscribe to CNET: https://www.youtube.com/user/CNETTV

Spatial

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Meetings In VR: The Future Of Work & Collaboration - Interview With Spatial Head Of Business
I had the pleasure to interview Jacob Loewenstein, the Head of Business at Spatial. Spatial allows people from all over the world to collaborate in a virtual meeting room, using VR, AR or a mobile phone. Of course, the whole interview was conducted within Spatial in Virtual Reality! MRTV - MIXED REALITY TV

Spatial Review - Collaborating in AR
Spatial, an augmented reality platform startup, just raised 14 million dollars of Series A funding – and for good reason – it’s one of the most promising collaborative AR platforms currently in development. The platform allows users to turn any room into an immersive shared augmented reality workspace. Attendees can join as semi-realistic 3D avatars of themselves and upload 3D models, notes, and any other data on a shared wall or in the space of the room itself. The Spatial augmented reality platform promises a future where people can instantly meet with anyone in the world in a shared infinite workspace with a huge rage of collaborative tools. I had the chance to take a deep look at Spatial’s latest version recently and highlighted some of its top features and capabilities


Microsoft Mesh

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Connect with new depth and dimension. Engage with eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures. Your personality shines as technology fades away.

  • Colleagues – working time zones apart – come together digitally. Their common understanding helps them review data faster and arrive at more informed decisions.
  • Train together anywhere - co-workers duplicate the serendipity of in-person learning – without the time and cost of travel – thanks to holoportation, holographic sharing, and visualization.
  • Get remote expertise - specialists can see others’ perspectives and overlay contextual data to ensure shared understanding. It’s a better way to solve problems and make decisions together.
  • Design together in 3D - team members’ ideas and creativity flourish as they participate in design reviews using several devices. Whether physically present, or holoported, colleagues can collaborate on content in real-time.

An Introduction to Microsoft Mesh | FS200
Microsoft Mesh enables presence and shared experiences from anywhere – on any device – through mixed reality applications. Attend this session to get an overview of Microsoft Mesh, its AI-powered capabilities and see a demo of the Mesh developer platform. Latest Microsoft news: mixed reality -- https://aka.ms/Ignite21-MRBlog

Microsoft Mesh and the Future of Meetings
On This Week in Tech, Leo Laporte, Lisa Schmeiser, Alex Lindsay, and Wil Harris discuss the bizarre demonstration of Microsoft Mesh at Ignite 2021 and what it means for the future of team meetings. Full episode at https://twit.tv/twit813 On This Week in Tech, Leo Laporte, Lisa Schmeiser, Alex Lindsay, and Wil Harris discuss the bizarre demonstration of Microsoft Mesh at Ignite 2021 and what it means for the future of team meetings. Full episode at https://twit.tv/twit813 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Lisa Schmeiser, Alex Lindsay, Wil Harris

Breakroom | Sine Space

3D social hub for remote teams who want an online, immersive space to meet, team build, organize events, and host meetings. Breakroom allows you to host meetings and have conversations in virtual environments, with several eye-pleasing spaces to choose from. You can showcase presentations in Breakroom, as well as creating a custom virtual workplace that features your company’s branding. You can showcase presentations in Breakroom, as well as creating a custom virtual workplace that features your company’s branding. Sine Wave Entertainment claims it can have your virtual office up and running within a week.

The official announcement mentions that Breakroom “combines video conferencing, meeting rooms, casual games, live events, and multi-player hangouts.

Robert Scoble visits Breakroom, the social hub for virtual events & remote teams
Find out more: https://sine.space/breakroom. Famed tech/spatial computing evangelist Robert Scoble tours Breakroom, the new 3D social hub for remote teams and classes which want an online immersive space to meet, teach, team building, and host meetings. Created by Unity partner Sinespace for PC, Mac, and Android (VR and iOS coming soon), Breakroom is free for public schools.

Breakroom - Public Demo
Sine Wave Entertainment

Virtual Conferences - Virtual & Immersive Platforms for Events

Best Virtual Meeting Platforms (2020) Free Video Conferencing!
My #1 Recommendation

Virtual Events - How To Choose A Virtual Platform
Are you looking to take your event virtual? KC Chamber and HMX Live, a division of Harvest Productions host the second webinar in the Virtual Events series. Greg Turcotte, Director of Client Relations and Convention Services at HMX Live, provides an in-depth look into the types of platforms available for hosting virtual events and what you should consider when choosing the best fit for your event.

Pivot Fast: Building Virtual & Immersive Platforms for Events
We all know that immersive technology has immediate emergency effectiveness and also long-term strategic value. In response to the global community looking for ways to become more connected through virtual platforms, The VR/AR Association & Resource Department presents "Pivot Fast: Building Virtual & Immersive Platforms for Events" with guest speakers representing global leaders in virtual technology including HTC Vive, HP, Unity Technologies and Microsoft. This webinar aims to help live event producers, brands, out-of-home marketers, and beyond learn how to execute for short-term needs, while building a long term strategy. The webinar will broach a specific range of topics from collaborative and enhanced video calls to fully immersive virtual reality, and all of the options in between.

The Complete Guide to Live Video for Hosting Virtual Events
In this live talk, I'll discuss different platforms for hosting live video, equipment for improving sound and video quality, and best practices for live events and moderation.


Consciousness

Consciousness at its simplest is "sentience or awareness of internal or external existence". Despite centuries of analyses, definitions, explanations and debates by philosophers and scientists, consciousness remains puzzling and controversial, being "at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives". Perhaps the only widely agreed notion about the topic is the intuition that it exists. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied and explained as consciousness. Sometimes it is synonymous with 'the mind', other times just an aspect of mind. In the past it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination and volition. Today, with modern research into the brain it often includes any kind of experience, cognition, feeling or perception. It may be 'awareness', or 'awareness of awareness', or self-awareness. There might be different levels or orders of consciousness, or different kinds of consciousness, or just one kind with different features. Other questions include whether only humans are conscious or all animals or even the whole universe. The disparate range of research, notions and speculations raises doubts whether the right questions are being asked. Examples of the range of descriptions, definitions or explanations are: simple wakefulness, one's sense of selfhood or soul explored by "looking within"; being a metaphorical "stream" of contents, or being a mental state, mental event or mental process of the brain; having phanera or qualia and subjectivity; being the 'something that it is like' to 'have' or 'be' it; being the "inner theatre" or the executive control system of the mind. Wikipedia


Simulation Hypothesis

Are we living in a simulation? - Zohreh Davoudi
Is our reality a detailed computer simulation? And how can we know for sure? Explore the scientific and philosophical theories surrounding this debate.

How The Simulation is Real(ized)
Are we in a simulation? This may never be prove-able. One thing we can be certain of is our ability to to create such a simulation using technology that is currently in it's infancy. This video proposes such a program; The Tesseract.

Are You In A Simulation?
Watch Part 2 on Kurzgesagt

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Simulation Hypothesis
Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are here (or are they?) to investigate if we're living in a simulation. We explore the ever-advancing computer power and how that impacts the simulation hypothesis. Chuck wonders if a simulation universe has anything to do with us not being able to travel at the speed of light. You'll learn about Bayesian statistics. Lastly, Neil tells us how he was ready to embrace the simulation hypothesis until he came across a certain idea that changed his mind.

You are a Simulation & Physics Can Prove It: George Smoot at TEDxSalford
Astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner George Smoot studies the cosmic microwave background radiation — the afterglow of the Big Bang. His pioneering research into deep space and time is uncovering the structure of the universe itself. He has also made a cameo appearance (as himself) in an episode of the 'Big Bang Theory.' George Smoot looks into the farthest reaches of space to the oldest objects in the known universe: fluctuations in the remnants of creation. Using data collected from satellites such as COBE and WMAP, scanning the cosmic microwave background radiation (a relic of the heat unleashed after the Big Bang), he probes the shape of the universe. In 1992 he and his Berkeley team discovered that the universe, once thought to be smooth and uniform at the largest scale, is actually anisotropic — or varied and lumpy. Smoot continues to investigate of the structure of the universe at the University of California at Berkeley, mapping billions of galaxies and filaments of dark matter in hope of uncovering the secrets of the universe's origins.

The Simulation Hypothesis | Rizwan Virk | Talks at Google
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of what is arguably one of the best Science fiction movies ever made - The Matrix. It popularized an ancient idea that the world we live in may not be real. In other words, our world is just an illusion, a simulation -- a video game. So, Are we really living in a video game? Game industry veteran Rizwan (Riz) Virk believes this could be true. Rizwan (“Riz”) Virk is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, bestselling author, video game industry pioneer, and indie film producer. Virk currently runs Play Labs @ MIT (www.playlabs.tv) a startup accelerator for playful technologies held on campus at the MIT Game Lab and Bayview Labs (www.bayviewlabs.com). Virk’s books include: Startup Myths and Models: Secrets They Don't Teach You at Stanford Business School, from Columbia University Press (2020), Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior (2013), and Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success (2017).

Klee Irwin - Scientific Clues That We Are Living In the Matrix
Klee Irwin, founder of physics research group Quantum Gravity Research discusses fundamental reality. This is a Powerpoint presentation and talk given October 9th, 2015 in San Francisco before the San Francisco Theosophical Society

ARE WE LIVING IN A SIMULATION?
Simulation, Simulationism, Ockham's Razor, Anthropic Principle, Holographic Principle, Holographic Universe theory, Matrix, Inception, Multiverse, Omniverse

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