Philosophical Comments

In some ways, the area seems similar to the Internet. The search is analogous to trying to find something on the net, where you scan a large area to locate areas of interest. Sometimes you'll encounter a useful nugget of information, like the mineral used in making jewelry; other times you'll discover information which seems valid, only to turn out to be wrong, like the fool's gold. Some information is in different languages, like the page of info describing the transformer in English and German(?) and also points to the multinational nature of the net...

I don't believe that this is real. It would be easy,at least conceptually, to entirely fake this site. One reason I don`t believe it is because of the effects of the air blast. A pnuematic air blast is strong, but it isn't going to cleanly wipe the gravel away from the object when the gravel and the object aren't that different. What I suspect is going on is that you have two large images, one of the dirty site, and one of the clean site. You only transmit the portion of the image near where the user clicked, and you alternately return portions of the clean image if the user has blown air in the vicinity. It is however, extremely creative, and the interface is amazing in its dynamicity(word?) and I would like to hire the people who came up with the idea sometime in the future.

Testing my theory...

I take it back, this far too elaborate to be fake. Clearly some of the objects are anchored, and the air blast is strong enough to move the rocks. I feel stupid for claiming otherwise , my apologies.

Well, all I can really say is 'Wow'! I have not heard of anything similar to this on the web, but it seems like such a natural progression of computing, robotics, video, and our desire to test and experiment with the notion of the existence of space that resides outside our immediate realm of observation. I think that part of this project's appeal is it's idea of manipulating something indirectly, that is, over the WWW.

...I was wondering how I know this is not a clever laserdisk full of pictures you grabbed, with no robot, until I saw the time on the watch after blasting it. That was when my skepticism evaporated.

As my friend Brad and I were trying to negotiate the arm, we were keenly aware of what we were doing. That is, we were moving a piece of equipment well removed from us. We're in my residence room here at the University of Alberta connected by remote server to the U which in turn is connected to the USC host and ultimately to the robot arm. At least, that's what we been led to believe. Whether true or not, it seems real. We've accessed another part of the world, had consequence (we move dirt!) and all from this remote terminal.

Great idea - I hope to see much more of this kind of remote presence in the future. Especially intriguing to me is allowing average people to go places they would not otherwise be able to go.

With this kind of educational potential, the world becomes a classroom for our children.

Seems to be the turning point between "real" and "virtual" reality... Or - with other words: that's where magic begins.

Hypotheses about the Artifacts

Note: Operators were asked to use "***" to distinguish log entries which mentioned artifacts.

I do not know a great deal about the area in question however the ***bottle opener / Keyring and the ***Jos stick holder found x=952 y=393 at first sugested a camp site or festival site, the apperance then of the ***crab would have to be explained by its having been dropped by a passing bird. What a shame it all ends so soon though i'm sure that the timing is critical.

***I don't have a clue about what some of these artifacts are, although the drawing of the man's head is interesting. It appears there is writing in Hebrew (maybe) on his forehead. I can't think of any signifigance this might have.

***WORKING WATCH WITH CORRECT TIME (SECOND HAND MOVING) FOUND AT X-465/Y-514.

***Page of writing, first discovered by Rik, further excavated by myself. Names and dates - a bit unclear to read before energy ran out but several possibilities suggested themselves - newspaper, either obituary or marriages, judging from glimpses, or possibly reviews of something. Further study of the page would be needed before a final analysis could be done.

I think I found my missing remote.

*** I found a memo saying "Turquoise was used as the.....rock.. ...." (couldn't read it further). I blew some dust away so I could read it better.

*** During my spell as operator I uncovered what appeared to be a Soccer Referees whistle and and a metal disc with engraved letters and numbers. I will investigate further on my next visit. The initial indication is that life is a game and the supreme being is the umpire. The reason it seems to be unfair is that he's lost the whistle and the token for his locker.

*** @ 867, 390: A horseshoe-shaped part with a flat, circular part joining the ends. Possibly a ring, although I have no idea of the scale.