Le projet « Habitat » de Lucasfilm : les leçons d'un séjour dans l'espace cybernétique

摘要

This article describes the Lucasfilm company's Habitat project, one of the first attempts to create a large-scale, many-player, graphical environment. Functioning on personal computers such as the Commodore 64, Habitat can simulate virtual worlds in real time for thousands of users. This avant-garde experiment provides insight into the development of communities in cyberspace by demonstrating the necessity of a shared environment. The authors show that cyberspace is defined more by the interaction between participants than by the technology itself. In this context central planning is impossible, if not futile. It is therefore essential to provide participants with varied capabilities for interaction, enabling them to model the world in which they live. An object oriented model is a central element in the project. Finally, given the complexity and the changing nature of virtual worlds, the authors suggest that the architects of cyberspace could learn as much from the principles of sociology and economics as from the principles of computer science.