SPACE COLONIES: A COMPUTER SIMULATION AND RESEARCH PROJECTSpace Colonies was originally designed as an exhibit for the INTERACTIVE COMMUNITIES EXHIBITION at SIGGRAPH '95. This exhibition was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in August 1995. Although the idea of colonization in space was not a new concept at the time, our concern was to keep the idea alive by calling attention to the need for individuals to seriously consider space colonies as alternative living environments. It was our feeling that a resurgence of interest in space colonization would result as a natural extension of virtual reality technologies. It seemed to us that the simulation of virtual realities would naturally lead to the simulation of virtual environments to live in and that living environments in space would begin to develop, as an outgrowth of interactive communities that were beginning to develop via internet networks. The Space Colonies exhibit primarily was exhibited as a homepage for the World Wide Web in the early days of Webpage development. Exhibits in the INTERACTIVE COMMUNITIES EXHIBITION were networked and thus maintained a presence on the World Wide Web. The cable connections for the exhibition appeared as a giant spaghetti maze. A major feature of this exhibit was an audio sound track with original lyrics by Terence McKenna. This audio presented Terence's thoughts related to space colonization. At the time, he was a brilliant spokesperson and visionary mentor for the future.When I first met him, I knew he was someone I could learn from. Little did I know, at that time, that he would be with us for such a short time, but I did realize that it was a very special opportunity to work with him. The project's purpose was to recall attention to the concept of future living in space. The living environment we specifically visualized in space was a human/dolphin environment. Several topics were selected for future research related to human/dolphin needs in an artificial living environment. A major consideration of our design became the issue of how to carry water into space. We realized that our needs were contingent upon future developments in science; however, we felt the human motivation to proceed could not be limited by our current technology, and that often scientific discovery is a direct outgrowth of human need, desire and ability to visualize a concept in motion. This project represented a beginning study for the design of an actual space colony, an outer space environment that would be designed to accommodate humans and dolphins for simbiotic interaction for interspecies survival. The project was netwoked via the World Wide Web for interactive collaboration. Former research in the area of human dolphin interaction: See SIGGRAPH VISUAL PROCEEDINGS '94 Human/Dolphin Virtual World Concept , can be referenced in order to assess the validity of building a virtual future world to accommodate both human and dolphin. The intention of this exhibit was to prepare humans to visualize a future of change in regard to how we relate to planet earth and to facilitate a collective effort to prepare for that future. Although the need to colonize in space has not been acknowledged by government authorities, Earth's environment shows definite signs of a future in which it may be necessary, at a minimum, to build artificial environments on earth for human protection and life extension. A step beyond this possible future is development of similar environments in space. People involved with this exhibit were as follows:
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