[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…

[A new app allows users to experience art masterpieces in virtual reality (or on a smartphone) but goes beyond trying to reproduce the museum experience both in the design of the interface and because the original artworks aren’t available because they’ve been stolen. This story from Smithsonian Magazine provides details about the app and related efforts along with links to other coverage and a short video about The Stolen Art Gallery. Boing Boing has a very short first-person report on what using the app with a Meta Quest 2 is like, while the press release via PR Newswire includes this…

[There aren’t any easy answers and it’s unclear how or even whether conclusions in the specific context of Shakespeare’s plays can be generalized, but this story from EdSurge highlights a significant debate regarding what forms and degrees of immersion produce presence responses that are most useful for learning (and other goals). Perhaps the ideal solution is a combination of approaches. See the original story for two more images. –Matthew] [Image: Acting out a scene through Play the Knave. Credit: Photo courtesy of Play the Knave.] What ‘Shakespeare Karaoke’ Teaches About the Virtual Reality Future Does technology work better as a…

[Without giving too much away, this story from GameSpot describes some of the challenges of adapting the 1960s classic television series The Twilight Zone – a personal favorite that dramatically illustrated real-world issues and human dilemmas by putting characters in strange new versions of reality – from a passive, two-dimensional, third-person viewing experience into an active, three-dimensional, first-person experience in virtual reality. See the original story for two more images and a 1:56 minute video, the Twilight Zone VR website for more about the new version, and Wikipedia for more about the series and how it’s been re-envisioned for a…

[The Charlotte Observer’s description of a touring exhibition called “Unseen Oceans” doesn’t use the term but describes a variety of presence responses it evokes, including the one in the first paragraph (which is echoed in the original New York Times review; a reviewer in The Verge wrote that “[i]n a sense, the exhibition felt to me like an interactive, American version of Blue Planet II, minus the soothing David Attenborough narration”). The Charlotte Observer story includes several more pictures and see the Discovery Place press release and the American Museum of Natural History’s exhibit page for more materials including a video…

[The short story below from Psychology Today describes a new study related to sex dolls, which are designed to evoke medium-as-social-actor presence. The study authors compared “personality traits, emotional functioning, attachment styles, and tendencies for sexual aggression” of sex doll owners and non-owners and found few differences. For a related (and long) story, see “Ghosting the machine: Humans, robots, and the new sexual frontier” in the May 2022 issue of Harper’s Magazine. The two central figures in that story, other than a doll named Emma, are Markie Twist, “a sexuality educator, sexologist, relationship therapist, and professor at the University of…

[This short story from VRScout (where the original includes two more images) reports on the use of presence-evoking technologies for this year’s Tour de France cycling race. It’s based on a press release available via PR Newswire that also includes this: “MATSUKO’s solution is not an animated avatar but a fully expressive hologram. Using mixed and augmented reality and artificial intelligence, MATSUKO creates 3D holograms for remote communication between people. This eliminates the problems often encountered on video calls: lack of non-verbal cues, lack of engagement, and missing special feeling.” See the websites of Immersiv.io and MATSUKO (where the company’s…

[Coverage of a new exhibition that celebrates and recreates elements of the life and work of the artist and activist Prince illustrates what seems to be an accelerating trend toward immersive experiences designed to evoke various forms of presence. Some of the features and origins of the trend are explored in the story from the San Francisco Chronicle below (see the original version for six different images). For more resources on this topic see the websites for the VR Immersive Experiences Catalogue of The Institut Français and the Immersive Experience Catalogue of the Immersive Experiences (IMEX) Lab at Penn State…

[This story from the University of Oregon describes a positive use of presence to increase human empathy with endangered wildlife, in this case sea turtles, and thereby spur environmental action. For more information, images and a two-minute video see the Project Shell website, and for details about the research see the new article in Scientific Reports. –Matthew] Virtual reality gives humans a turtle’s-eye view of wildlife By Laurel Hamers, University Communications June 22, 2022 A virtual reality simulation designed by a UO professor could help spur people to environmental action. Participants in Project Shell don a virtual reality headset and…

[This first-person report from Grist describes the touring virtual reality experience designed to create the “overview effect” of being in space above our planet. The author doesn’t use the term presence but refers to several forms of it, along with several familiar barriers to sustained, effective presence illusions. See the original story for two more images. The study by University of Pennsylvania researchers that the author mentions is likely “The Overview Effect: Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight” in Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. See also three articles in the collection “Positive Technology: Designing E-experiences for Positive…

[Although he’s obviously not an objective observer, the author of this opinion column in Newsweek makes a compelling argument for taking steps now to avoid the damaging effects of a new digital divide based on presence-evoking virtual reality technology. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images] Opinion If We Want Children to Thrive in the Future, It’s Time to Bring VR to Schools By Andrew Hawken, cofounder and CEO of Mesmerise June 29, 2022 Every technological revolution presents a dilemma: How far can we leap ahead without leaving anyone behind? Today, 15 years after the advent of smartphones and…

[This story from VRScout reminded me of the “infinite regression” or “simulations within simulations” scenario (see Jones, Lombard, and Jasak, 2011), portrayed in the 1999 film The Thirteenth Floor. To demonstrate how VR can be (and in the future will more easily and commonly be) used to create immersive experiences, developer Quentin Valembois spent 24 hours in virtual reality creating a virtual reality game. See the original story for two more images and watch the 9:31 minute video via YouTube. On a related topic, see the New World Notes blog post, “Why Are We Not Having Conferences About The Metaverse…