[With interesting details about the evolution of CAVEs and Google’s Tilt Brush, and using the language if not the terminology of presence, this article from PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) describes how collaborations “among artists, coders, and computer scientists” have made and are continuing to make “the barrier between the real and virtual world vanish” to benefit both art and science. See the original version of the article for high resolution versions of the image below and a second image, of Alison Goodyear’s Topsy Turvy. –Matthew]

[Image: Computer scientist and artist Daniel Keefe has been combining virtual reality and art for decades. Here, he creates a three-dimensional image in a “Cave Automatic Virtual Environment,” or CAVE. Credit: Regents of the University of Minnesota, courtesy of Daniel Keefe.]

Virtual reality helps shape and respond to artistic impulses

By Stephen Ornes (Authors Info & Affiliations)
July 21, 2022

In February 2020, weeks before the pandemic made such a thing nearly impossible, the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, UK, hosted an exhibit called Paint Park that featured works by Alison Goodyear.… read more. “Presence collaborations: How virtual reality helps shape and respond to artistic impulses”

[The post below is a mashup of Elon University’s summary of a new Pew Research/Elon report about the possible futures of presence-evoking technologies, and the introduction to the extremely long full report from the Pew Research website. See the original versions of either or both sources for many more details about the methods, participants, findings and quotations from the report. –Matthew]

The Metaverse in 2040

Hype? Hope? Hell? Maybe all three. Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive ‘metaverse.’ They expect that augmented- and mixed-reality enhancements will become more useful in people’s daily lives. Many worry that current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms

By Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
June 30, 2022

Interest in the idea of the metaverse leaped in 2021-2022, prompted in part by Facebook’s decision to rebrand itself as “Meta.”… read more. ““The Metaverse in 2040”: Experts predict the future of presence-evoking technologies”

[This CBC Radio story uses examples and interviews to describe some of the appeals of, approaches to, and views about the increasing use of presence-evoking virtual settings for attending church. The comments and predictions in the last two paragraphs are particularly interesting. The original version of the story includes five more images and a link to the recent 53-minute “How COVID rewired religion” edition of the CBC Radio program Tapestry, where the first segment focuses on “virtual church.” –Matthew]

[Image: Jason Poling’s digital avatar greets visitors to his virtual-reality church community in a program called Alt Space. Poling is based in Yuba City, Calif. Credit: Arman Aghbali/CBC]

The pastor’s a wizard, and some worshippers look like cats: This is church in virtual reality

Virtual church services provide community for people without easy access to a brick-and-mortar parish

By Jonathan Ore, CBC Radio
July 3, 2022; Last Updated: July 4

Pastor Bill Willenbrock starts his church service like many others: with an introduction and a prayer.… read more. “Different approaches to and views about virtual church”

[This example -and link- filled post from The Conversation (“Academic rigor, journalistic flair”) describes ways presence-evoking technologies can be used effectively in environmental education; see the original version for three videos. –Matthew]

Virtual reality can support and enhance outdoor environmental education

July 11, 2022
By Micheal Jerowsky, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia
and Ann Borda, Associate Professor, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne

The use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for environmental education is controversial. Some are concerned that these technologies might replace or disrupt outdoor experiences that can connect students to nature and develop pro-environmental behaviours.

However, learning through technology and being outdoors aren’t mutually exclusive. When VR and AR are used effectively they can support and enhance environmental education while contributing to students’ positive well-being.… read more. “How VR/AR and presence can support and enhance outdoor environmental education”

[With yet another advance in language models, the author of this story from The Atlantic warns that the science-fiction threats of sentient machines are a distraction from the questions and challenges raised by the improving ability of ‘artificial intelligence’ to imitate consciousness and confuse humans: “The line between our language and the language of the machines is blurring, and our capacity to understand the distinction is dissolving inside the blur.” For interesting, related perspectives, see two July 2022 stories: “Moving beyond mimicry in artificial intelligence: What makes pre-trained AI models so impressive – and potentially harmful” in Nautilus, and “Nick Bostrom: How can we be certain a machine isn’t conscious?” in The Spectator. By the way, the latter story includes this about Bostrom’s ultimate presence simulation argument:

“Bostrom makes the argument very fastidiously in logical terms. But come off it, I say: surely in his heart he doesn’t think it’s really a possibility we’re living in a simulation.… read more. “Worry more about medium-as-social-actor presence, less about machine sentience”