Mixing Worlds

Wired Magazine has a number of articles today about the intermingling of virtual and non-virtual worlds. They are interesting in that the underlying theme seems to be that there is some therapeutic effect of virtuality - whether it involves an immersive Falluja-like world used to cure Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or just hanging out with an artificial puppy.

Following a link from the PTSD article, it is a bit disturbing to continue on to USC's Institute for Creative Technologies and view the project list.

If you ever maintained any doubt that the entertainment industry and the defense industry were co-dependent, you will be complete disabused of that thinking. An example is The Concept Development and Visualization group that pairs concept or production designers with military folks to think up wonderful new ways to kill and mame people worldwide!

Maybe I am being a little harsh. But there is hope as I think Deuce Bigalow would make a great non-lethal weapon!