Group promises dedicated VR "Neuronet," skepticism ensues

An upstart organization calling itself the International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies (IAVRT) looks to be out to bring back the VR glory days, recently announcing that it's planning nothing short of an entirely new network that'll be all VR all the time, existing alongside the plain-old, apparently not-suitable-for-VR Internet. According to the organization, this new network, called the "Neuronet," is possible as a result of the "massive overcapacity of fiber optic cable left over from the dot-com era," which makes it "feasible with minimal investment." To cover some of those other costs, IAVRT says it'll soon begin accepting pre-registrations for .vr and .cin ("cinematic virtual reality neurosites") domains, with the organization also planning on operating as an ICANN-like governing body. Not surprisingly, the announcement has been met with a fair bit of skepticism (to put it kindly), due in no small part to the complete lack of details on anyone involved with the organization, not to mention the little matter of practicality. The reBang weblog in particular has been doing lots of digging into the legitimacy of the group, and while not turning up anything conclusive, it has led to a wide range of speculation, even including remote possilibility that it's all an elaborate Alternate Reality Game (ARG). It looks we should know soon enough, however, with IAVRT reportedly set to announce "several major partnership announcements" in the coming weeks.

Read - International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies
Read - reBang, "Is Neuronet a Scam?"
Read - CNET, "Virtual reality to get its own network?"

[Via Slashdot]

[Shawn @ Jan 1st 2007 3:27PM]

Jobe from the Lawnmower Man talked about uploading himself to the neuronet...and look what happened...

[Tech^Cellfish @ Jan 1st 2007 3:30PM]

1: LOL
2: Whats wrong with just letting the Internet evolve?
3: Copying ICANN structure and still using domain names, bleh!

[Spencer @ Jan 1st 2007 3:34PM]

Hack the Planet!

[anon @ Jan 1st 2007 4:09PM]

i thought that image looked familiar ... :)

[Zadillo @ Jan 1st 2007 4:18PM]

I agree, this definitely sounds like an ARG thing to me.

[silverfire @ Jan 1st 2007 4:22PM]

There's already an Alternate Reality Game -- it's called World of Warcraft.

[Chris Merchant @ Jan 1st 2007 6:53PM]

I'll vouch WOW.

Why interweb when you can interWOW?

Chris

[Brian @ Jan 1st 2007 4:31PM]

One word: Shadowrun

[Ben H @ Jan 1st 2007 7:17PM]

Another word: Spatula


Hope that helped. And that i haven't got the wrong idea.

[Ben H @ Jan 1st 2007 7:17PM]

Another word: Spatula


Hope that helped. And that i haven't got the wrong idea.

[mail2 @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:31PM]

bs

[mail2 @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:39PM]

You all must realize by now this is just a scam from some kid gamers? Otherwise its merely 100% impractical and not happening. Doesnt deserve the dead trees, or bits in this case.