Multi-user virtual environments, Part II

RELease 1.0, August 3, 1994 by Jerry Michalski

Of course, there would be no challenge if there weren't some evil involved. Some of the people moving about in these spaces may be up to no good, so the protocols and services have to assume the worst of all participants. That's the idea behind the script interpreters in Safe-Tcl and General Magic's Telescript (see Release 1.0, 2-94). Robust multi-user virtual environments are likely to need similar protection.

Sci-fi roots

When people start to design virtual worlds, all the issues of real worlds emerge, multiplied by the alternate worlds that the new medium allows them to construct. Science-fiction writers have been building alternate worlds for quite some time, and the architects of virtual space draw inspiration from them.

The world is holographic and recursive. Cyberspace will contain not only reflections of our world in all its complexity, but also manifestations of all the potential and imagined ones that people care to create. Reality and virtuality will point to and wind around each other.

Science fiction and science-related non-fiction are much closer to the action than ever before. There is a productive interplay between technological developments and description of those developments, both real and fantasized. Increased bandwidth and processor power offer designers more opportunity to create imagined realms.

The current synthesis among once-separate disciplines is particularly fascinating. Science fiction, design, philosophy, physics and computer science are already intertwined: now in the fusion furnace of cyberstuff they are melding with social sciences, community building and architecture, to name a few disciplines. One recurring influencer is architect Christopher Alexander, whose work blends many of these perspectives (see box).

The ubiquitous Christopher Alexander

Although cleverly disguised as architectural theory, the work of UC Berkeley professor Christopher Alexander applies to a far broader realm of activity. Essentially, his work is about the collaborative design of spaces and places by their eventual occupants, aided by gentle guidelines -- think of them as nuggets of abstracted wisdom. Alexander calls the collected guidelines a pattern language, since they communicate essential patterns of living that translate into good design principles.

A Pattern Language is also the name of one of his books (Resources, page 18). It describes 253 interrelated and interacting patterns that relate to the design of place, from activity nodes and connected play to shielded parking, entrance transitions and the flow from room to room. (Its rich web of relationships makes it an especially good candidate document for the World Wide Web.)

Equipped with this pattern language, ordinary folks can create better spaces for themselves than if left to their own devices. For example, a guideline for a room to feel warm and inviting is that it have natural light from at least two walls. While this is not a feature an amateur architect might glean, it is memorable and compelling, and the amateur is able to use it. That's the sign of a good guideline.