Lost In Cyberspace

Why Is Virtual Reality Only For Techies? In the world of today, there are basically two levels of interface. "Normal" people use an interface based on visual metaphors. If they want to delete a file they click their pointer on a little metaphor of a file and drag it over to a little picture of a waste bin. This is simple to learn and understand, but is slow to do (and you have only limited control over your computer system). "Techies" use the above interface most of the time. But, when required, they can dip below the interface, into the arcane world of the registry, Win.ini and command-line dos sessions. They type long sequences of commands that leave normal users baffled. When they reach below the interface into the guts of the system they have access to a power and flexibility that is hidden from the normal user (but at the cost of needing much more knowledge and skill). In the cyberspace of cyberpunk games however, the situation is reversed. "Techies" use a highly metaphor based interface of a three-dimensional virtual world. If they want to explore a network site they "walk" around a "building" looking into the various "rooms". But "normal" users are apparently too stupid to cope with such an interface, so they use an old "windowing" interface instead. Huh???

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