#2 - remember the hype around VRML and how we would have virtual words in the browser? I remember working with Silicon Graphics gear back then and the 3D guys

#2 - remember the hype around VRML and how we would have virtual words in the browser? I remember working with Silicon Graphics gear back then and the 3D guys were quite enthusiastic about it. Of course, we had all devoured William Gibson’s novels like Neuromancer so we were naturally attracted. We even built some 3D desktop apps as portals to the wider internet. They were too static and too hard to build so the Internet with HTML had much more pull for producers and consumers as well. In practice, I think the 3D stuff that really worked at the time was more games like Quake and avatar-based web apps like Habbo Hotel. It would still be fun to go back and read Jaron Lanier’s writing from that era.