DMC-FX7
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/60
150

Esther Dyson took this photo of us in transit. I was next to Will Wright, who created the Sims computer games and now is developing a very cool game called Spore. You develop your own creatures and let them grow and evolve across the game multiverse (your animal lives on all of the gamers computers, each a parallel world). And, as it grows up, you can get a 3D color laser polymer “print” of your character for $25. It’s like a custom-built D&D miniature, but larger.

Tim O’Reilly brought some scifoo campers along too, like Danny Hillis and George Dyson. We got a chance to really bump into each other. =)

11 responses to “A Fun Crew”

  1. !MimosaMicheMichelle! Avatar
    !MimosaMicheMichelle!

    Privileged crew!
    Privileged few!

    Reply
  2. menlo Avatar
    menlo

    What are the rules for carry-ons when flying Vomit Comet?

    Reply
  3. artwitness Avatar
    artwitness

    You, Dyson, Wright and Hillis floating in zero g? That there’s a quite a party son.

    Reply
  4. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    menlo: Rules? No fluids. Really. The UK concerns even crossed over to this flight. But they had plenty of water on board so you could chase zero-G water blobs around and gulp them up.

    The spin-stabilized half-peeled banana was pretty cool with the peels looking like propellers.

    People bring science experiments.

    My friend and I wished we had brought some high-pressure air lens cleaner cans. One in each hand could be like retro rockets. Would have been a good test for a jet pack we have in mind. But we’re not sure if they have enough thrust (may need parallel arrays, or maybe a CO2 canister…. but that’s like a solid rocket booster… You can’t easily turn it off once it goes… =)

    Reply
  5. benjiman Avatar
    benjiman

    WOWOWOW…. Thats the first I’ve read about the 3D character prints being available for Spore! Super cool.

    Cool flight too. 😉

    Reply
  6. artwitness Avatar
    artwitness

    Your C02 cannister idea is right out of Destination Moon. Probably would have needed a fire extinguisher though.

    How long were you weightless? Thirty seconds per parabola or thereabouts?

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    artwitness: exactly. A bit longer for the Martian and Moon gravity warm-ups as the parabola is stretched out for those.

    benjiman: A friend told me that if you know Will’s libertarian bent, you will ace the Sims. It reminds me of the tilt in a graph Will showed of Sims Life Balance:

    Sims Life Balance

    I had not noticed the direction of the axes before and had assumed that the data was showing tradeoffs. Rather, House, Money and Social are all correlated.

    Reply
  8. benjiman Avatar
    benjiman

    Correlated indeed!

    Tout dans la modération !

    Reply
  9. practical_x Avatar
    practical_x

    looks like there is just a bit space between you and Will for me… i’d have nothing against trying it, but US has denied me visa 5 times 🙂 I will try again, but first I need to make some biodiesel using cgk733 to last the journey.

    Reply
  10. amitp Avatar
    amitp

    It seems rather dangerous for society to allow so many creative minds on a single airplane.

    Reply
  11. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    EA has a promo video for Spore… to be released on Monday…

    Reply

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