The Implications for Play

Computers such as ours will provide new dimensions for recreation and education. People will have tools available for the creation of art sufficient to alter the way ideas and feelings are expressed.

Descendents of programs like hypercard will lead to a redefinition of what literature is exactly. On-line books can have animation, and textbooks can have live formulae to experiment with and manipulate. Initial efforts to create hypertext novels will no doubt be artistic failures, but with time legitimate hyperliterature will be created. The time will come, perhaps not by 2000, when the Nobel Price for Literature will be awarded for hyper instead of linear text.

Using CCD cameras and ray-traced graphics, home movies take on a new meaning. By digitally splicing home footage with simulated scenery, the amateur will be able to produce professional looking movies the way any author can now typeset his own material. As the technical and financial obstacles to entry for such arts fall, more and more people will participate.

One interesting problem is who will appreciate all this new art? Some form of ``shareware video'' might arise. Other distribution channels will no doubt sprout up, but much of this art will be only for private consumption. An analogous situation already exists, as publishers have known for years that more people write poetry than read it. So it might be with shareware video. Just having a studio available does not make someone an artist.

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