[A change of pace – the ultimate form of (tele)presence; this is from The New York Times] [Image: Art by Olimpia Zagnoli] Is the Universe a Simulation? Feb. 14, 2014 By Edward Frenkel In Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” the protagonist, a writer, burns a manuscript in a moment of despair, only to find out later from the Devil that “manuscripts don’t burn.” While you might appreciate this romantic sentiment, there is of course no reason to think that it is true. Nikolai Gogol apparently burned the second volume of “Dead Souls,” and it has been lost forever.…

[From NJ.com, with an addendum from NBC News] [Image: AP European History students at the Hun School in Princeton facetime with their teacher.] Hun School teacher holds class via tablet as she sits in Pa. Turnpike gridlock By Alyssa Mease/The Times of Trenton on February 15, 2014 PRINCETON [New Jersey] – After missing multiple school days because of snow this winter, Hun School history teacher Lynn McNulty wasn’t going to let a series of chain-reaction car crashes and a miles-long traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday keep her from school another day. “I was probably about two miles back…

[From Motherboard] A Virtual Reality Train Ride Reveals a Link Between Height and Paranoia By Victoria Turk January 29, 2014 As anyone who’s been to a gig and isn’t six feet tall has probably experienced, being surrounded by people taller than you—why does that always happen?—can be annoying at best, and kind of scary at worst. There’s a certain vulnerability that comes with suddenly feeling shorter than those around you. A paper published online today in the journal Psychiatry Research looks at part of this phenomenon, by investigating the relation between height and paranoia. The study, which was led by…

[From Fast Company’s Co.LABS, where the story includes a 1:41 minute video. More information is available via the links within the article.] This Video Game Knows When You’re Scared–And Gets Scarier The director behind the innovative video game Nevermind tells us why biofeedback is the new frontier in gaming. By Joshua Rivera 2014-02-13 In the future, horror games will know when you’re scared. And then they’ll get scarier. Proof: the currently-in-development horror-adventure game Nevermind, which just launched a Kickstarter campaign last week. The game pairs classic first-person exploration with biofeedback data from a heart rate monitor in order to tell…

[There are (at least) three satires of the audio conference call experience making the social media rounds lately – in addition to the one in the article below from Slate, there’s David Grady’s comedy routine “A Conference Call” and the recent Tripp & Tyler video “A Conference Call in Real Life”; they’re all not only at times laugh-out-loud funny but illustrate key presence concepts (and their absence).] [Image: “Win-Win” by Zach Scott; the animated version is here] “Like David Lynch Directed a Remake of Office Space” A site that perfectly captures the existential despair of the conference call.…

[From Wired; a 2:20 minute video is available on YouTube] [Image: Topshop/Inition] Oculus Rift: Your front row Fashion Week ticket 12 February 2014 by Olivia Solon To celebrate London Fashion Week, retailer Topshop is collaborating with 3D agency Inition to allow fans of the brand to experience a virtual front-row seat at a fashion show. This year, the Autumn/Winter 2014 show for Topshop’s Unique range will take place in the Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall. While seats at the live show are reserved for sartorial VIPs, Topshop fans will be able to experience what it’s like to be on the…