Biography

His research has long focused on interactive computer graphics, interface usability, and computer simulations. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology he was involved in constructing interactive computer simulations of physical phenomenon merging computer graphics with video imagery. This research later led to the development of Dataspace: an alternative method of representing three-dimensional models based on voxel datastructures. At the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) he further developed the Dataspace concept and designed an interactive volume rendering system. While at Tufts University, the Dataspace concept expanded to incorporate a three-dimensional, distributed object store and metacomputing engine. In 1993, using Lateiner Dataspace's technology, he helped Vox-L Inc. develop the Vox-L Stereoscopic Workstation which allows the interactive, stereoscopic viewing of volume data.

Quotes

Joshua S. Lateiner
The Memetic Web

"If two primitive beings are born with nearly identical genes into similar environments, we expect their phenotypes (the physical manifestations of one’s genotype) and their ability to successfully grow/reproduce to be similar. (...) The non-material tools that evolved to further the process of replication are called memes - Richard Dawkins’ term for a unit of thought. Memetic evolution is the process by which groups of memes are communicated and improved upon by a group of replicators - the memes that help to create an environment well suited to the further reproduction of memes (which likely implies an environment well suited to the further reproduction of genes) are the ones that persisted. (...) Memes reproduce and evolve as ideas are communicated among memetic hosts. It is commonly accepted that human beings are good memetic hosts, capable of understanding, synthesizing and re-communicating memes; this is to be distinguished from memetic media, which serve to carry memes from one host to the next. (...) The Web differs from prior mass media in that it provides a more efficient method for communicating memes directly to hosts that are particularly susceptible to infection by a given meme. This efficiency is a result of the Web paradigm: memetic hosts directly seek new memes that appeal to them. Conclusion: The Selfish Meme: Selfish mems are like a recipe for a delicious cake; the meme for making the cake embeds itself in one’s mind and can motivate action (e. g. the baking of a cake). If a memetic impulse is acted upon, the meme artifact (the cake) may help further propagate the original meme (the idea that baking delicious cakes is desirable) when other memetic hosts are exposed to the artifact. Selfish memes desire ‘realization’ - the process of causing a memetic host o carry out some action."