Gaming makes everything so unbelievably realistic and that realism is only going to increase. With cloud computing, and enhanced networking, and the efficient means of communication available, has anyone thought about using gaming as a platform to not only assess a person's talents and skills, but also to train those skills, and match them together to help like minded people with unique talents and a desire to change the world to be given "roles" and the communication channels to do so? First on a virtual world, and then in real life? You could have instant conference calls with the given "community", or if you don't like it, find a new community that is a fit for you based on your latest scores in your talents.
To me that is the greatest gift any one could give society at this moment of time. It would not only enhance society, but enhance societies ability to enhance society themselves. It is moving from "giving a man a fish" to "teaching men to work together and train them to start fishing businesses that involves teaching people by the hundreds to fish". It is a self organizing society in which everyone's role can be determined, and the individual has the liberty to train in other areas to enhance other skills, find other team members, find workers as well.
But this leap forward would not be limited to individuals meeting together to start businesses, and to train them, it would also be about allowing them to work together virtually first. It could take people to virtual worlds where they use virtual money to function, and it would be modeled as closely after reality as possible. The game itself would have the interface for people to either directly influence the game (similar to wikipedia only for gaming) or the ability to simply leave feedback in areas of the world and potentially open a poll and vote on things or changes to be made that teams of this virtual world could sort through. It could model behavior and have a lot of AI players that can be replaced when people are gone from the game and put characters on "auto" mode, but record whether the data collected was by AI or human, to provide more accurate feedback.
The CONCEPT is the most important for me to communicate at this moment. Ideas for details are as follows.
The virtual world would not be a game, but more like a network that operates on a "google earth" like interface only with a virtual environment. It will be a dynamic system. The people within the system help to refine the system. When possible real prices of the world would be listed for items. Zillow and/or Realty Trac will help determine values for houses in the US, along with either notes or "bidding" within the virtual economy or voting on "fair value" for a house. Clearly for 7 billion people to operate at once it would be a tall task, but if each person is rendering only 50 miles of their location and providing computing power for those 50 miles to everyone else on a cloud computing network, I think it could work.
I believe society would be much happier if they could demo where to live and work first, and their weekly costs and expenses, and if they could be put in a work environment that suits them best. Businesses would be way better off, because they get to assess talent through simulation first. Entrepreneurs would be way better off because they would get paired up with the ideal people to go out and try things and the go into the real world and do it. Extraction and production of resources and implementation would be more efficient, costs would be lower, ideas would be put into practice sooner, and society would accelerate their rate of evolution.
The money people make would be able to buy a lot more, and the business growth could result in a lot more money being produced and made as well.
The virtual earth could be a perfect replica, but everyone would take up a lot more virtual space or pixels, or else the virtual world would be less zoomed in, until more people join this network, then everything can shrink a little and be more zoomed in as more people join. Or it can always be a complete replica and AI players would just live in the AI house.
The virtual world would be a portal into other games, and game makers could either add to the code in an open source format, or else just have a launch point into gaming. Games would have a "demo" aspect. The virtual world could be free but game developers could pay the gaming system or whatever to have initial exposure. Based on popularity and ratings by individuals, games would either grow or contract their "virtual real estate" and virtual advertising "launch to" points. Individuals could also disable such ads based on criteria.
It would also be a system that is used to help assess talents so businesses can find and train future employees and even CEOs and leaders and so on.
Think of this virtual world as having "apps" only in a 3-d environment. Perhaps a bit like second life. But the focus would need to be in expanding the amount of people who can work together to expand this virtual world and also to be able to skype or use communication to try to translate their ideas from virtual to real life. The assistance of artificial technology is something that people can work on modifying into this (potentially open source) gaming system. So that people can describe what they want to try and the artificial intelligence tries to give them ideas, or previous models to implement their idea. Perhaps a group of people want to work on harnessing the waves powers and transforming them into energy. Perhaps there are previous models of hydropower that can be suggested and they can use the principals of those ideas and the try to improve upon it or better understand the technique.
I believe those with the ability to take action and make the world a better place have the responsibility to at least put in some effort to achieve these means and enhance society. Therefore I feel it is my duty to describe what I feel is the most valuable idea I can.
I feel with this technology, a golden age should be upon us. Without it, we will descend and the scarcity of resources shall become a problem.
The future starts with the youth anywhere from 3 year olds to adulthood. Much of the youth spends their time playing video games, interacting with others online and living in virtual worlds. Technology is evolving to make the virtual world more and more like the real world. However this is where I believe it is the responsibility of game maker, gaming systems, and those with the communication channels to take action. The virtual world may be "real enough" in terms of the look, feel, artificial intelligence and physics, but it does not go far enough in terms of using it as a training device to enhance humanity. This is my goal to communicate how the systems can be in place to make a quantom leap in technology and provide a greater feedback loop within gaming systems and their customers and increase the adaptability of the future of gaming to fit that which what people ask for.
Gaming has great entertainment value. However, that does not nearly describe what is possible with gaming. Typically aside for a very select few innovators, technology evolves linearly. It actually has been somewhat surprisingly predictable if you look at technology closely.
What occurs is something small expands and eventually goes commercial. multiple things go commercial and other things adapt to meet the demands set by whatever the consumer chooses and whatever technology seems to dominate the market.
Steve Jobs took the mp3 boom and the success of Napster, and packaged it in the technology that was available MP3 hardware, and made it more potent, and marketed it very well and made music affordable and portable. He then saw phones advancing and he took a fairly big leap forward with the Itouch and combined it with the Smart phone to produce the Iphone. However, with exceptions to the Ipod being a jump from a walkman, this is still a somewhat linear progression. In my mind I see two potential futures.
One is a linear progression to the same thing I have in mind. It could take a very long time if the scarcity of resources becomes an issue which is a high probability if technology does not continue to accelerate. But the other is a quantom LEAP forward, the type of leaps that have occurred in the past such as inventing telephones, wireless communications, automobiles (and Ford's commercialization of it), the invention of planes and commercialization of it, the invention of ionosphere technology by tesla and the many ways he tapped into it. The invention of the lightbulb and electricity and commercialization of power.
We need to work together to get this technology produced for the sake of the world. The initial cost will be made irrelevant by the type of world we will live in and the resources that will be available. We will be able to have energy for everyone so that every dollar we each have goes a lot more ways. Without hunger or energy being an issue many more people can start looking to PRODUCE. With the production comes greater enhancement and further evolution of society, and through this infrustructure and this system we should be able to live in the future even sooner than we would otherwise, and the production power of society will be increased greatly.
Being FIRST has a tremendous advantage for a business. Being the first to commercialize something is even more beneficial. Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, he merely commercialized it.
Ferdinand Verbiest and Karl Benz are two people mentioned as potentially the first inventor of the automobile, not Henry Ford. However, Henry Ford provided more value to more people through the commercialization of it and as a result was made more wealthy.
The mark of a successful society is how quickly an idea can go from a thought to implementation to commercialization.
I believe there isn't a single challenge facing humanity that cannot be solved if we all utilize our resources efficiently. Unfortunately we are stuck in the old way of doing things. Those too slow to adapt are impediments to our success as society. Every year millions of people starve to death. Not only are these people's loss of life tragic, but their time spent living could be more efficiently used to enhance humanity, rather than become a roadblock. Society needs to transform from a consumer of resources to a creator and intelligent implementer and transformer of those resources into a more effective way for society to evolve.
Currently I believe many talents go to waste. There is high unemployment and underemployment around the world, and those employed do not work as efficiently as they could. There are many people that look at robots as a hindrance to humans. That robots will replace humans. I believe that can be a good thing if it frees humans to more effectively transform society in a positive way. But in order for that to be possible, we need a system that effectively utilizes people's talents, and we also need a field that can create a large growth in entrepreneurship.
What society suffers from right now is a large amount of people that have many underutilized talents. I believe future gaming can be a perfect medium to train and assess those talents. I am a bit biased as a US resident, but I believe the stunning example of progress is best illustrated in the US. The American dream of coming up with a brand new idea, and starting a business that enhances society and makes everyone including yourself rich is still alive and well. However, so many people just doing what they are told, end up not having a chance to take that risk, and not knowing how, even though there are 7 billion people in the world, many of which have had a million or billion dollar idea at one point without the ability to implement it.
I believe the future of gaming has a responsibility to fill that void.
Call it a "gameocracy" or a "virtualocracy" if you like.
The way to be first is to see the future. Buckminster Fuller has many books that can better explain the natural progression of things and forecast the future by understanding the linear progression. But if you want to make huge leaps forward you need to skip all of the devices in the middle and figure out how you can use existing technology in a more productive way to not only work two steps ahead of everyone else, but increase the productive power of technology as a whole.
Even many people considered to be great innovators have failed to make drastic strides, but linear growth along with a few minor tweaks has been enough to progress technology in many ways even exponentially, and it does so in a way that makes them and their business rich. Steve Jobs saw the big picture. He made great leaps seeing the need and the opportunity available. Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison however made perhaps even greater strides. They were able to see what wasn't there like no one else with all due respect to the great late Steve Jobs.
So what is the great leap forward?
I speak according to my vision of the future which I made years ago which so far has been accurate. The Wii U is the portable gaming technology that can be shared with the TV that I talked about. The Playstation Vita is very similar and the release date was 1 month from being in my projected range. Sony in fact did get into tablets to tap into the iphone market. I predict they will in fact consider getting into subscription gaming if they are smart and on top of things. Right now Amazon looks to be a step ahead of things there and Netflix is at risk of falling behind. You have to see what others around you are doing and how they will converge.
The technology behind gaming in the future will not be for entertainment purposes only. Cell phones, Facebook, Youtube, Skype, social media and the internet has lead to a lot more activism. Even if we are in the early stages and that activism is relatively primitive and thus is very uncivilized and unproductive, it can serve a greater purpose. I believe technology will further enhance people's ability to make a difference in a more productive way.
There are many people such as myself that want to enhance and increase the speed of technology growth in a productive way and that have tremendous ideas that can provide solutions to the world's problems. However, I lack the resources to do so. In the past, I only would have told a few close friends, and my parents and they would think the idea is very cool, but it wouldn't get too far. With the internet I can tell many more people who can tell their friends and perhaps some of the ideas that people get most excited about can spread in focus groups and things of this nature and eventually get to the people that have the businesses and that are in a position to make a difference.
I think much of the frustrations showed by the tea party, occupy wallstreet, and other protesting is caused because of problems of homelessness, hunger, and frustration, and wouldn't otherwise exist if we could take giant strides forward in technology to allow them to take an idea and have their idea either implemented or at least done so in a virtual world and shared with some real innovators. There are lots of people with the ideas but inability to impliment. There are lots of implimenters that are good at taking an idea and making it work but lack creativity and/or the ability to commercialize. There are lots of people that can take the production and put it into a system, without the means to do so. There are lots of financiers with the money and ability and desire to provide resources needed for the right ideas but lack the insight or understanding of how the process will go forward. There are lots of people with leadership to bring it together, but that lack the team with the right elements to lead. There are plenty of people with the natural conceptual understanding of an area, but without the training. There are 7billion people in this world, and so many with various unique necessary talents. If we can only have the insight to find the way to bring all these talents together, we should have a golden age
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