There are several people, organizations, and projects I wish to acknowledge and thank because they inspired me so much and unwittingly influenced my work on “The Great Vanishing”. There are many more I have probably forgotten at the moment, but please know I am eternally grateful.
- Marshall Brain and his “Robotic Nation” and “Manna” projects.
- John Smart, Acceleration Studies Foundation, and the Metaverse Roadmap.
- Bruce Klein and Susan Fonseca-Klein.
- Mark Muhlestein.
- Michael Andregg, William Andregg, and Kent Kemmish.
- Tyler Emerson.
- Everyone from h+ Tucson, h+ Phoenix, and the other affiliated h+ clubs; these were perhaps the most active transhumanist clubs of their time!
- Immortality Institute, the leadership team, and members.
- The Board of Directors when I was at Humanity+; an eye-opening experience.
- Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
- The many leaders, researchers, donors, and volunteers I met from SENS Foundation and Methuselah Foundation.
- Chris Grayson, Gaby K. Slezák, and other Metaverse enthusiasts I follow on Twitter.
- Kyle Gomboy from ReactionGrid who gave me an eye-opening tour of their virtual world and a tutorial or two on building virtual objects.
- Vernor Vinge and his “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era” essay.
- Carl Sagan and “skeptical thinking and an aptitude for wonder,” two skills Sagan repeatedly highlights in his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
- My friends, family, and co-workers who have listened to me rant about this stuff for YEARS! Thank you for your patience. I’ve gotten worse.
Some of what you will read in “The Great Vanishing” may conflict with the Metaverse Roadmap. However, my own work would not have been possible without the Metaverse Roadmap! From conception to roadmap, this effort by John Smart, Acceleration Studies Foundation, sponsors, founding members, and Metaverse thinkers and developers was and still is terrifically inspiring. I found the work thought-provoking and educational at a time when I was beginning to think about the Metaverse as a mass medium. The roadmap provided me with concrete documentation with which to compare and contrast my own ideas and definitions.
I did not have a phrase for “data projection” until I was invited to read and participate in a discussion about “Slaves of the Feed – This is not the realtime we’ve been looking for” by Thomas Petersen. One line in particular stood out for me:
“Perhaps we need to design for projection rather than the bottleneck?”
Underneath this is an image of a digital face rising magically from too much data. I wrote at the time:
“The image above of a projection looks to me a lot like a magic mirror from a fairy tale. Back in 1997 I was writing about the “Magic Mirror” web. Today I imagine a web that instantiates itself just as you need it that moment: an audio answer to a question, a visual representation of a lot of data, the right song or video for your mood, a complete itinerary for the evening or travel, a presentation, a map, a confidant, a communications pipeline to a friend, etc.”
Each of these instantiations is a data projection. I had my phrase.
The decision to publish “The Great Vanishing” as a free website was inspired by Marshall Brain’s “Robotic Nation” and “Manna” projects. I had the opportunity to meet him in person, and during that hour or so I had one of the best, most comfortable, and most enlightening conversations I have ever had with anyone. Brilliant guy.
Last, but certainly not least: thank you, mom, for taking me to see Star Wars when I was four. Yeah, I’m repeating myself, but it was that pivotal.
