This (via Raph) is where I think the operating system interface should go. Mac OS X, Windows Vista, and the Beryl and Compiz effects in Linux are a step in the right direction, but when the “giant leap” comes, I think it’ll be in the form of a virtual world like this. Second Life can already embed web pages in their virtual world. Combine a 3D virtual world with some form of physical file management like the BumpTop interface and a haptic (force-feedback) input device and you’d have a revolutionary OS. The problem is trying to justify how such an interface could improve productivity. It might be great for browsing the web and watching videos, but how will it help you write documents, speed up data entry, or code faster? The answer is that it probably won’t. It may replace your web browser and media player, though. Such tasks are often meant for entertainment anyway, so why not add another element for that purpose? Shared viewing would be easy if this was a multi-user environment. You could be watching a video of your child’s first steps in your very own virtual theater with some of your relatives’ avatars. A teleportation system would allow you to teleport to any virtual location by entering the address (like http://steve.madrogue.com does for web pages), and search engines (like Google) could aggregate related virtual locations based on your parameters. You could also bookmark locations for fast teleportation.
How would the current web translate to this 3D environment? YouTube would probably become a virtual cineplex with a theater for each user’s submissions. There might be “magic” search doors where you enter your critera, and are presented with several doors to each theater. Entering the door would produce the same result as if you had walked to that user’s theater. This possibility is very Matrix-like (see keymaker scene from Matrix: Reloaded). Of course, it would probably be overcome with ads like the ones suggested in Red Vs. Blue “The Internet” PSA with people or bots coming up and yelling at your avatar.
Anyway, cool stuff.
