[This NBC News story describes how and why Morehouse College Professor Ovell Hamilton has created a unique course on Black history that will be taught next spring entirely via virtual reality, taking students to key places and events using 3D simulations and avatars designed to evoke spatial and social presence and enhance learning. See the original version of the story for five more images and a short video.  –Matthew]

[Image: Students at Morehouse College are able to experience a virtual slave ship through virtual reality technology. Credit: Morehouse College]

Morehouse College class will teach Black history in the metaverse

Students have toured the Underground Railroad, a slave ship and other artifacts using virtual reality technology.

By Claretta Bellamy
November 28, 2022

This spring, Ovell Hamilton, a professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, will guide students through a first-of-its-kind course in which Black history is taught entirely through the metaverse, a virtual 3D space where people can interact with one another using avatars.… read more. “Morehouse College class will teach Black history in the metaverse”

[The brief story below from My Modern Net describes a project by Istanbul lawyer and photographer Alper Yesiltas in which he uses AI and other software to create realistic images of what celebrities who died years ago would look like today, “brought back to life as if nothing happened.” See the original story for the ten images. His most recent project, which Yesiltas presents in a Bored Panda post, is called “Thisness” (“[t]he quality in a thing of being here and now or such as it is”) and features 17 images that address the question “What would some iconic people look like if they lived in our time instead of living in theirs?” See also Tommy Player’s “Time Travel To The Future (2027): Photoshopped Actors” in another Bored Panda post. Moving from images to sounds, coverage of Yesiltas’ work in Consequence adds this:

“This isn’t the first time AI has been used in relation to [Curt] Cobain and [Jimi] Hendrix.… read more. “AI being used to create realistic portraits of celebrities from past and into future”

[In this story from The Conversation a physicist explains some of the current arguments and evidence for the idea that all of our experience is the result of the ultimate form of presence – that the universe itself “is a computer simulation, with someone (perhaps an advanced alien species) fine-tuning the conditions.” The author argues that we should take the possibility seriously and describes new efforts to prove or disprove it; whether that happens or not, our collective fascination with the idea is entirely consistent with the fact that we live in an era when our technologies increasingly provide convincing illusions. –Matthew]

How to test if we’re living in a computer simulation

By Melvin M. Vopson, Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Portsmouth
November 21, 2022

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve.… read more. “Ultimate presence: How to test if we’re living in a computer simulation”

[This story about another beneficial application of presence experiences comes from the Cornell Chronicle; note the involvement of our colleague Andrea Stevenson Won. See the original version for a second image. –Matthew]

[Image: Kim Benowski, left, a staff member from Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation, helps a student use a VR headset as she learns a complicated microscope technique in a molecular biology and genetics class. Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University]

Students visit virtual world to learn research technique

By Kathy Hovis, a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences
November 22, 2022

Safely and effectively preparing a sample for cryo-electron microscopy involves a series of precise steps, resulting in specimens frozen at around minus 180 degrees Celsius. If done out of order or imprecisely, the scientist can obtain inaccurate results, ruin expensive equipment or even get hurt.

The technique isn’t often available to young researchers, but students in the Protein Structure and Function class recently had the chance to experience the process using virtual reality (VR) headsets, as part of a collaboration with Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI).… read more. “Cornell students visit virtual world to learn protein research technique”

[Without using the term, this story from Unite.ai examines (and provides links to other stories about) a range of potential causes and potential effects of our medium-as-social-actor presence responses to different types of robots. –Matthew]

Emotional Attachment to Robots: Why Does It Happen, and Does It Matter?

By Zac Amos
November 17, 2022

Humans have been designing robots for a long time, and with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), they will eventually exceed expectations with their abilities. Though humans desire them for their practical uses, such as deliveries or industry, experiments prove people get attached much like they would a family pet.

How could people get emotionally attached to metal, and is it part of human nature? The insight from these queries will reveal a great deal about how individuals will interact with robots as they become more knowledgeable and capable of complex tasks and thoughts.… read more. “Emotional attachment to robots: Why does it happen, and does it matter?”