Virtuality

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Virtuality is a term used by Ted Nelson for what he considers the central issues of software design. "Virtuality" refers to the seeming of anything, as opposed to its reality. (This has been the dictionary meaning of "virtuality" since at least the 18th century). Everything has a reality and a virtuality. Nelson divides virtuality into two parts: conceptual structure and feel. In every field these have different roles. The conceptual structure of all cars are the same, but the conceptual structure of every movie is different. The reality of a car is important, but the reality of a movie is unimportant-- how a shot was made is of interest only to movie buffs.

Designing the virtuality of software should be the center-- designing its conceptual structure and feel. The feel of software, like the feel of a car, is a matter of late-stage fine-tuning (if it is worked on at all). But Nelson regards the design of software conceptual structure-- the constructs we imagine as we sit at the screen-- as the center of the computer field. However, the conceptual structure of almost all software has been determined by what Nelson calls the PARC User Interface, or PUI, on which Windows, Macintosh and Linux are all based. The feel is only icing on top of that (and only on the Macintosh do they work on feel, which is what makes it different).

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"Virtuality" is the debut single released by virtual (i.e. cartoon animations) girl group the V-Birds, released in April, 2003.

The girls sing about their "cosmic nature", and introduce themselves one by one in a rap section. The video shows the girls dancing on machines resembling the game Dance Dance Revolution.

The song reached #21 in the UK charts, and has since reappeared on the PlayStation game Dancing Stage Fever.

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'Virtuality Limited', a Virtual Reality entertainment and development company. Founded in the Ninties in the UK, closing its doors 1997. Developer of arcade hardware using VR technology. Also signed deal with Atari to develop VR hardware for Jaguar. Company famous for 'Pac-Man VR' - never officially released. Company started life as W. Industries.

Some of the arcade games designed by the company did show up in arcades eventually though, including a flight simulator in an arcade in Sunderland. The idea however of producing a virtual reality-based arcade game is still somewhat unattainable even now; certainly in the mid-90s the hardware did not exist at the low price required for it to be a viable venture.