Net Surf
Digital Darwinism: Natural Selection on the Web
Remember sea monkeys? They came in packets like those spices for instant ramen noodles. Poured into a plastic aquarium and mixed with water, they would sprout into families of smiling, aquatic simians. At least that's what the ads on the back pages of comic books claimed. While you may have lost a bit of your childhood innocence when you realized your little floating friends were nothing but tiny brine shrimp that die in a matter of days, the sea monkeys live indefinitely at k2.scl.cwru.edu/~gaunt/java/SeaMonkeys/SeaMonkeys.html (you may need Netscape 3.0). This site demonstrates a basic artificial life system, even though the interactive quotient is a bit low.
Still, the above exemplifies how online a-life systems work throughout the Net. They function as virtual ponds where artificial intelligence thingies squirm and thrive. The educational possibilities are obvious, but alas: though interactivity is generally a key component to the user's experience of such an environment, these net.aquariums are best appreciated as more refined versions of sea monkeys - diversions from the everyday humdrum of the Web.
Amazing Fishtank Safari (morganmedia.com/m2/shock.html) goes a couple of steps further with a real-time fish-sim. On this Shockwave-generated site, you create your own fishies and release them into a tank. Watch as your more aggressive, carnivorous creations mercilessly chomp down their weaker brethren. It's digital Darwinism at its very best.
Advancing up the evolutionary ladder of a-life sophistication, simulated cells can be seen at ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cdosborn . These loops of "cellular automata" swirl as they reproduce according to parameters you set, leaving multicolored trails in their breeding wake. The mesmerizing result is akin to watching cells under a microscope as they form kaleidoscopic patterns.
Located in Hiroshima, Japan, the ALife Garden (www.cisnet.or.jp/~alifeg/) , as the name implies, develops and nurtures scores of a-life species. This site is a highly developed evolutionary pool harboring brightly colored, jellyfish-like creatures that evolve in real time. ALife Garden offers more than just elaborate, VRML-driven creatures when it comes to interactivity. And the results are more immediate: the beauty that blooms here is both serene and elegant.
Think of The Live Artificial Life Page (www.fusebox.com/cb/alife.html) as a kind of pet store where multiple a-life aquariums are on display for viewing and interacting. The best spot for sampling a wide variety of a-life, here you'll find very good online versions of the first such computer program, Life; a colorful adaptation of the biomorphs described in Richard Dawkins's book,The Blind Watchmaker; an "ecol-ogy toy" featuring sharks; and a swarm of reproducing "boids" that look like squiggly tadpoles or sperm.
Granted, none of these artificial life-forms are as cute and cuddly as their analog progenitors were purported to be, but idly watching these simple creatures swim, reproduce, live, and die is far more fascinating than staring at what look like noodle spices suspended in water.
Howard Wen (wen@why.net)
Work That Mouse!
Trudy, a virtual gender illusionist of a certain age, lives in Cyburbia. And tucked in a tiny but glamorous corner of the extensive site devoted to Trudy's true-life adventures, you'll find the Draginatrix. The Draginatrix examines the male soul and assigns it a thrilling new drag-queen identity. Genetic females are included in the fun, too: why not adopt a Eurotrashy, Continental Casanova persona?
"So many private emails have asked how to start one's life anew, how to taste the world of another gender, how to make café curtains, that I realized something had to be done - and fast," Trudy says. "What, after all, is the root of identity? Your name. To alter an identity, one would start with a name that takes into account your deepest, darkest secrets, and general hygiene. Through some C++ magic and a little bit of perl for that Net touch, there emerged the Draginatrix." And the world weeps with gratitude.
www.datalounge.com/trudy/quiz/index.html
Surf and Smell
Some three decades after the début of the ill-fated moviegoing experience of "Smell-O-Vision" - a gun barrel-like device at the back of each theater seat released a hissing, perfumey odor (suggesting everything from cigarettes to roses) at key junctures in the film - the technique has now come full circle ... to the Internet. At least according to a recent parody page by Agency.com, a New York-based Web marketing firm.In conjunction with their mythical 3-Vile desktop device, SmellU SmellMe Aroma Conferencing software, and RATML (Real Aroma Text Markup Language), the Agents purport to bring the added dimension of real-time smell to the Web.
According to their Developers' Corner, the three-part hex code within RATML can accurately re-create any and all olfactory experiences (from wet sheep to buttered popcorn) via three primary desktop scents - a variation on the standard RGB color specifiers within HTML. And with the added fine-tuning attributes of Decay, Intensity, and Refresh (similar to client pull), there's supposedly considerable olfactory subtlety possible.
And who knows. Today's parody could always turn out to be tomorrow's killer app. We may soon be asking ourselves: Is it real, or is it RealAroma ?
www.realaroma.com/
Stare Master
Multimedia producer Kenn Kilgore is no stranger to 3-D images and animation spectacles. At 3D Graphics by Kenn, you can link to a classic 3-D gallery, samples of his interactive animation, QTVR, and a listing of cool related treats (one endorsed by Kai Krause). Install the MovieStar! plug-in and see examples of Kilgore's work that utilize such rendering tools as Infini-D, MacRenderman, and Ray Dream Designer. Warning: the movies can take a while to download.
users.aol.com/kenkilgore/index.html
Interactive Fox-Trot
With Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side retired from the comics page, the only strip worth reading is Bill Amend's inventive and insightful FoxTrot. Unfortunately, even many large newspapers don't carry the adventures of the funniest family this side of the Simpsons.
Don't despair: the comic - along with Garfield, Bizarro, Doonesbury, the retired Calvin, and others - is online at the UExpress Comics Page. New strips are posted daily (following a two-week delay) alongside an archive that dates back 14 days. The site also has the usual nonsense: FAQs, bios, a marketplace, even a downloadable Joust -like game for the Mac called Slug-Man that's based on a comic book drawn by Jason Fox in FoxTrot.
Your computer may not hang on the fridge too well, but that's why we have printers.
www.uexpress.com/ups/comics
When the World Wide Web Ain't Enough
Long load times, "404" warnings, slow network connections ... it's no secret that Web use has exploded. But there are many hidden benefits. Heavy traffic on the Web means lighter traffic - and quicker connections - to informative neighborhoods of the Internet that many people ignore: FTP sites, gopher holes, telnet areas, and Usenet newsgroups. What these regions lack in flash, they make up for in substance, offering downloadable goodies, tons of information, real-time multiuser games, and discussions on every subject under the sun. Unfortunately, many search engines do not account for them, and locating directories can be difficult.
Enter internet-now! Using an accessible, color-coded menubar, internet-now! sports direct links to "the rest of the Net," making surfing from Usenet to gopher holes as easy as ABC (or even FTP). With an alphabetized index just a click away, you can always find what you're looking for. Do yourself a favor: check out the rest of the Internet - now!
www.internet-now.com/
Thanks to the Wired 5.02 Surf Team
Marjorie Ingall snarly@cyborganic.com
Steve Meloan (meloan@aimnet.com)
Brent Sampson (brents@rmii.com)
Paul Semel (beerhound@aol.com)
Mark Smalley (mcsusa@midcoast.com)
