CompuServe Messages

John … well, gee, since you asked … how about a "Time Machine"? You could include the proper motions, etc. of the objects (stars, galaxies, whatever), and allow the user to enter a "time compression" factor, log/linear scale setting, and so forth. Then the user could watch the stars move, and see what the sky looked like 1985 years ago (or 20,000 yrs., or 4 billion years), or what it *will* look like off in the distant future. How about being able to go back to the Big Bang, or forward to The Grand Collapse? Let the user vary the total mass in the Universe to provide Open and Closed "end-games". Allow spatial "telescoping" on a selected object to watch its evolution … a cloud, a star, a solar system, H-burn, He-burn, C-burn, nova, supernova, compact object, … What I'm talking about, of course, is Simulation. I believe that this is where the Amiga can really distinguish itself, though it may well require a more advanced processor like the 68020, and *will* require a math chip like the 68881. The groundwork for all this can certainly be laid with a standard Amiga, perhaps using hueristics initially rather than analytic solutions. Visualization of complex systems; interacting with, and altering system parameters, and *seeing* the result of such changes; dynamic control of a "knowledge-base" … these are areas where we can make the Amiga shine! The astrophysical/cosmological area is a perfect place to begin such work since it is well-defined and reasonably well understood, and (depending on the "level" on chooses to look at) has many simplifing assumptions that can be made (e.g., Newtonian Mechanics vs. Special Relativity, etc.) BTW, be sure and take a look at the January 1986 issue of Scientific American in the Computer Recreations column … it may give you some more ideas. What an exciting product the Amiga is! /kim