Virtual Reality and Real Virtuality

Recently I have realised that many ideas in design: new design models, processes and theories of design, are in some way related to a transformation of ideas from computer science or related digital logic into the real world. Examples for this are the concept of Object Oriented Design in product design which is something I have been considering for a few years now but also, as a less dependent example, the prospect of an API for a non digital object seems quite interesting. In any case, I think computer science is built on very rich developments on logical systems which I think many other disciplines can learn from in some situations. I hope this happens often, and in more ways than simply the current interest in openness such as open-source hardware (and more from Make and Wired) in which open-source notions are physically represented. 

In any case, I thought an important step here would be to devise a term to describe this trend. One that I thought may be appropriate in some contexts is Real Virtuality, but that is more like tangible computing or meeting online friends offline. I would be interested to hear any other suggestions. 

The image is an Arduino board which is a notable example of open-source hardware. 

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous