Abstract

Keywords: synthetic physics, virtual worlds, art

When we enter one of the many virtual worlds available nowadays, be it a simple flat world represented in a browser game or a sophisticated three-dimensional world in a high-end computer game, we usually expect that most of the basic rules of every-day physics and geometry in the real world are implemented as well in the virtual counterpart. The geometry is Euclidean, objects look smaller when farther away, there’s an up and down, and if things fall, they fall down. Sometimes we can fly in a virtual world, sometimes things do not cast shadows, but in principle all the rules are a simplification of the real-world physical laws. But is that really necessary? Can’t we go “beyond physics”?

• Dr. Stefan Glasauer is a neuroscientist directing the Center of Sensorimotor Research of the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich. His research interests reach from spatial perception and navigation to human-robot interaction. For a list of published scientific papers see PubMed

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