The Birth Of Historical VR

Ok, the title is a bit grandiose, but this guy is on to something.

From Ming:

Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century British diarist, now has a weblog. That is, Phil Gyford has imported Pepys' diaries into a Movable Type weblog format. And, not enough with that, now he is arranging it so that, from today, one entry is being posted each day, corresponding to the same date in the year 1660. And the weblog is even syndicated with RSS. It feels strange to read it, across all that time, as if it is happening today.

So Pepys, providing detailed descriptions of his whereabouts, was essentially geoblogging almost 350 years ago. There is talk over at Gyfords site of tying these location-specific blogs entries with digitized maps of London in 1660. So imagine this, you're reading a blog entry from 1660, and being able to see precisely where in London this chap was, are now able to tie place, time and personal historical accounts togerther into a more complete picture. As time goes on I can imagine these types of historical blogs, along with maps, historical data, VR renderings, everything we know about that place and time, creating a more connected and intimate account of history. History and place becoming part of cyberpspace. Imagine being able to surf through history like we do the internet today:

You are in London in 1660 (think simplified holodeck). You are able to travel around, visiting buildings, pubs, events, other peoples diaries (blogs) of the day. Eventually this first-hand knowledge is combined with all other available historical knowledge to create an immersive VR experience, providing a compelling and highly education romp through history. Wow.