#Stanley G Weinbaum

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage Pulp - Startling Stories (Nov1939)

Art by Howard V. Brown

Standard Publications

[infinitaregna]

Today's thrift store haul

[mars-gallavanger]

[misforgotten2]

A book you very likely don’t have on your shelf #424

Cover by Ron Walotsky -- 1969

[phantastische-illustrationen]

Lo Mejor de Stanley G. Weinbaum (Horacio Salinas Blanch)

[vrduct]

The idea of virtual reality can be traced back to early science fiction literature. Writers like Stanley G. Weinbaum, in his 1935 short story "Pygmalion's Spectacles," envisioned a pair of goggles that allowed the wearer to experience a fictional world as if it were real. This imaginative concept laid the groundwork for what would eventually become VR.

The term "virtual reality" itself was popularized by Jaron Lanier in the 1980s. Lanier, a computer scientist and founder of VPL Research, developed some of the first commercial VR systems. His work focused on creating devices like the DataGlove and the EyePhone, which allowed users to interact with and experience computer-generated environments.

[dimension-galaxy]

La Notable Evolución De La Realidad Virtual

El origen de la realidad virtual

Antonin Artaud acuñó el término “realidad virtual” en 1938, describiéndolo como “teatro de la mente”, aunque el concepto de realidad virtual existe desde hace mucho más tiempo. Los primeros ejemplos de realidad virtual se pueden encontrar en el siglo XIX, con pinturas panorámicas e imágenes generadas por computadora.

Además, en 1935, Stanley G. Weinbaum publicó “Pygmalion's Spectacles”, un libro sobre un espectacular par de gafas que podían transportar a los usuarios a un mundo ficticio.

Morton Heilig inventó el Sensorama, uno de los primeros sistemas de realidad virtual que simula todos los sentidos, en 1957. En 1968, Ivan Sutherland inventó la Espada de Damocles , ampliamente considerada como el primer visor de realidad virtual. Este dispositivo grande y costoso sólo se utilizó para investigación.

Muchos años después, en 2010, Oculus VR, que luego fue adquirida por Meta, lanzó el primer visor de realidad virtual moderno. Desde entonces, la tecnología de realidad virtual ha avanzado, con nuevos auriculares lanzados por empresas como HTC, Sony y Microsoft.

Avances en la tecnología de realidad virtual

El desarrollo del Head-Mounted Display (HMD), un dispositivo que permitía a los usuarios sumergirse en un entorno virtual, fue uno de los avances más significativos en la tecnología de realidad virtual. Fue utilizado por primera vez por los pilotos que se entrenaban en la industria de la aviación en la década de 1960.

Con el desarrollo de imágenes generadas por computadora (CGI) y gráficos 3D en la década de 1980, los sistemas de realidad virtual se volvieron más sofisticados. Este avance permitió la creación de mundos virtuales más realistas, lo que impulsó el crecimiento de los juegos y el entretenimiento de realidad virtual.

El lanzamiento de los primeros cascos de realidad virtual disponibles comercialmente, como el sistema Virtuality, en la década de 1990 supuso mayores avances en la tecnología de realidad virtual. Esta década también vio el auge de la realidad virtual en la educación y la formación, utilizándose la realidad virtual para simular entornos peligrosos y preparar a los estudiantes para situaciones del mundo real.

Con el desarrollo de imágenes generadas por computadora (CGI) y gráficos 3D en la década de 1980, los sistemas de realidad virtual se volvieron más sofisticados. Este avance permitió la creación de mundos virtuales más realistas, lo que impulsó el crecimiento de los juegos y el entretenimiento de realidad virtual..

Evolución a través del juego

La industria del juego ha sido una fuerza impulsora importante en el avance de la tecnología de realidad virtual. Algunos de los primeros juegos de realidad virtual, como “Battlezone”, se crearon en los años 80. Aunque eran primitivos para los estándares actuales, brindaron a los jugadores una idea de cómo podrían ser los juegos de realidad virtual.

Los juegos de realidad virtual más avanzados despegaron en la década de 1990 con el lanzamiento de “ Dactyl Nightmare ” y Nintendo Virtual Boy, dos de los primeros juegos de realidad virtual en utilizar el seguimiento de la cabeza. Hoy en día, los juegos de realidad virtual han avanzado significativamente, con numerosos juegos de realidad virtual disponibles para plataformas como Oculus Rift, HTC Vive y PlayStation VR

La evolución de la realidad virtual en la educación

Desde entonces, la realidad virtual se ha utilizado en una variedad de aplicaciones educativas , incluido el aprendizaje de idiomas, el entrenamiento de anatomía y las simulaciones históricas. Si bien este no era el propósito original de la realidad virtual, su popularidad ha ganado en los últimos años.

Debido a que la realidad virtual se puede utilizar para simular entornos del mundo real, ofrece a los estudiantes una oportunidad única de aprender nuevas habilidades y conocimientos en un entorno seguro y controlado. Como resultado de esto, la realidad virtual se ha convertido en una herramienta invaluable para los educadores de todo el mundo.

Referencia:

* XpertVR (2021). The Remarkable Evolution Of Virtual Reality. https://xpertvr.ca/the-remarkable-evolution-of-virtual-reality/

[lopefixx]

Exploring the World of Virtual Reality Gaming

Embark on a captivating journey and transcend reality with the immersive, limitless possibilities of virtual reality gaming and experiences.

The concept of virtual reality (VR) has long been a fascination for both storytellers and technologists. As far back as 1935, American science fiction author Stanley G Weinbaum described something similar in his short story Pygmalion's Spectacles, and in the early 1990s, several video game companies began to introduce devices that hinted at VR's future.

In the mid-2000s, consumer-grade VR headsets started to gain traction in the tech industry as their capabilities improved and prices decreased. As a result, virtual reality entered the mainstream with new applications across a variety of industries, including healthcare, architecture, and education.

Virtual reality was techogle.co a natural choice for gamers, and the technology quickly became the foundation of new genres and categories of games. From the adrenaline rush of high-octane racing to the awe of soaring through mystical skies or diving into a fantastical realm, VR games take players on an unforgettable journey that will leave them wanting more.

The first-person perspective is a key feature of VR gaming, and is what sets it apart from traditional console or PC video games. When playing a VR game, the player wears a headset with a screen that displays an image of their surroundings that is then rendered in three dimensions on a display. The player is able to move their head to look around the environment, and can interact with it by using their hands or even their voice to perform various actions.

For example, the wildly technology website popular FPS Onward lets players lean to peer around a corner or crouch to shoot a weapon. The game also features a chrono-kinetic gameplay where the time in the world of the game moves only when and at the speed that the player does, creating a variety of puzzles and scenarios that would be impossible to replicate outside of VR.

Another popular category of VR games is called exergames, which require vigorous body movement to control a character in the game. These games are a great way to exercise without the need for a gym or an expensive gym membership, and can also be played with friends. For instance, the table tennis physics in Eleven VR are so realistic that it's almost like actually playing the sport, and the difficulty levels quickly escalate from easy to hard. In fact, a study published in 2018 found that people who play VR games regularly burn more calories than those who don't. This makes virtual reality an excellent tool for fitness enthusiasts or anyone who simply wants to lose a few pounds.

[screamscenepodcast]

What happens when you cross Frankenstein with Alraune? You get SHE DEVIL (1957) from director Kurt Neumann, starring Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly and Albert Dekker, and adapted from Stanley Weinbaum's 1935 story "The Adaptive Ultimate."

Your hosts discuss the ways the film fails, how its "problematic," and the cultural tropes it uses without questioning them.

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 30:16; Discussion 37:57; Ranking 1:16:24

[chipslater]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-iB1_pkKwY)

The Worlds of If ♦ By Stanley G. Weinbaum ♦ Science Fiction ♦ Full Audiobook

Title:  The Worlds of If

Author: Stanley G. Weinbaum

Genre(s): Science Fiction

Language: English

Read By: Gregg Margarite

Librivox Recording

Summary: Stanley G. Weinbaum is best known for his short story “A Martian Odyssey” which has been influencing Science Fiction since it was first published in 1934. Weinbaum is considered the first writer to contrive an alien who thought as well as a human, but not like a human. A Martian Odyssey and its sequel are presented here as well as other Weinbaum gems including 3 stories featuring the egomaniacal physicist Haskel van Manderpootz and his former student, playboy Dixon Wells. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)

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#ScienceFiction  #SciFi  #Audiobook  #ShortStory #TheWorldsofIf  #StanleyGWeinbaum  #strangerThings

[obsidian-sphere]

Amazing Stories, 1938

[therobotmonster]

“Through the metal throat of its victim crash steel teeth; the blood of its prey-the gasoline, that is-is drained into its stomach, its gas tank.”

I dig pulp and corny old genre fiction of all kinds. During my recent scouring of public domain comics and pulp mags for art resources, I came across these gems, both illustrations by Frank R. Paul, for a story called “The Ideal” by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

The story itself is interesting enough, a sort of larval Twilight Zone concept wherein a rather dingy engineer is introduced to an invention by a self-aggrandizing supergenius.

This invention is not, however, a car-devouring robotic monster of pure toyetic joy.

Rather, the Professor has invented a device that conjures ideal versions of thoughts into images on a mirror-screen. The car-devouring robot is essentially a mock-up sculpture that the professor uses to make a point about individuality being an expression of flaws. The philosophy is shaky at best. The Professor insists that his thought particles can be converted into matter and energy, and visa-versa, so theoretically, these ideals could be manifested as true matter.

The Professor intends to hook the device into the robot with the intention of making it a sort of mechanical Laplace’s Demon, receiving the professor’s thought-particles, supplementing them with converted energy and concentrating them to answer questions with ideal answers. Why a machine-predator designed to hunt and kill automobiles is the chosen host for this device is not addressed, nor is the reason for designing the robot in the first place.

Now, the story may be from 1935, but tropes are tropes. You can guess where its going: the idealizer machine picks up on this “ideal car hunter” concept, the robot becomes fully active and starts hunting poor commuters until the young protagonist and the Prof can reign in the fruits of his hubris. Lots of cars get nommed, there’s chaos, what has science wrought, etc, etc.

Except that’s not what happens. The story is actually a boy-finds-girl-loses-girl tale. I suspect the conceptual ancestor to vaguely-known 90s CGI atrocity Van-Pires there was a case of “the artist came up with this, work it into the story” or “this won’t make a good cover, give us a monster.”

I will admit to having been surprised by the plot direction, something that doesn’t happen much, but it is the rare case where cliche would have been better.

Then again, what do you expect for 15 cents?

[vintagescifibookcovers]

The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum

1974

[endworldgaming]

A Martian Odyssey Review by Shaun Meyers

A Martian Odyssey is a science fiction short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum and was originally published in the July 1934 issue of Wonder Stories. The story also saw a sequel 4 months later known as Valley of Dreams. These are the only 2 stories set on Mars by the author.

A Martian Odyssey is a humorous tale that follows an American chemist named Dick Jarvis who sets out to photograph the Martian landscape. Unfortunately for him, his rocket’s engines burn out and he crash lands on the surface of the planet. After landing on the surface, he begins heading north to get to his ship, the Ares.

Along the way, Dick meets a motley crew of aliens, each having a unique appearance and type of speech. The first alien he meets is a bird-like creature named Tweel and after attempting to converse with it, he discovers that it has at least some modicum of intelligence. Tweel stays by Dick’s side for the vast majority of the story and his presence definitely makes it that much more enjoyable. He’s a friendly, and often incredibly goofy creature and he’s definitely one of the highlights of this story.

The story is also narrated entirely by Dick after having returned to the Ares. He’s relaying the entire story to his 3 crew members and he does so in a pretty extravagant way. The way he tells it makes the story almost unbelievable and his crew members often comment on the absurdity of some of the things he tells them. This all adds to this story’s charm though, and it makes the story that much more enjoyable.

The science behind this story is obviously quite outdated, simply because it was released in 1934 and it portrays life on Mars. That shouldn’t dissuade you from giving the story a read though. It may be scientifically outdated but the entertainment levels make it feel much more modern than it is. The author does a great job of being descriptive yet very easy to understand.

I also listened to the audiobook version of the story as part of the The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964. The audiobook really enhanced my enjoyment of this story and it captured the absurdity and humor incredibly well. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you can find it.

Overall, I give this story a 5 out of 5 stars. Easily one of the most enjoyable sci-fi short stories that I’ve listened to so far.