PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3 | PAGE 4
The future of St. Emilion wines, says d'Aramon, will remain a mixture of innovation and tradition. "If we keep our traditions," he says, "we will always have consumers for a product that demands a certain technique, but also love and passion. St. Emilion represents a dream. In a materialistic world, a little bit of a dream is fabulous."
Geneva is not a place that inspires great passions. But I am intrigued to learn of a research laboratory at the University of Geneva, MIRALab, that specializes in "simulating virtual humans and virtual worlds." "We can clone people from photographs, put them into virtual mode, make them move, talk and even communicate with each other over the Internet," says MIRA-Lab research assistant Sunil Hadap.
MIRALab's E-Tailor project is one practical application for this technology. Using software created at the lab, a consumer can create a virtual clone of herself — complete with the same measurements and body shape — and have the clone visit a virtual fitting room at a fashion website. The clone could try on garments, have them cut to fit and shipped to her door.
Hadap is exploring another practical application: simulating human hair, which shampoo manufacturers will use to test their products. "It's more efficient to do virtual experiments than real experiments," he explains. Virtual images of muscles, organs and joints can also help medical researchers develop new techniques for minimally invasive surgery.
One of the lab's most ambitious projects, the virtual fashion show, is a lesson in the limitations of computer cloning. Accompanied by moving spotlights and pulsing pop music, a simulated Marilyn Monroe and other computerized models proceed up and down a catwalk with plastic smiles, immobile shoulders and hair that clings to their heads like helmets. What makes a real fashion show so sexy — bouncing breasts, swinging hips and undulating hair — is totally missing from the virtual version. I leave MIRALab dazzled by the technology but more convinced than ever that no computer clone will ever replace a warm body.
At Château-d'Oex, near the eastern end of Lake Geneva, I rendezvous with Bertrand Piccard, who in 1999 completed the first-ever round-the-world balloon trip. Piccard, 42, a Swiss psychiatrist, agreed to take me up in a hot air balloon for a spectacular view of the western Alps. "Ballooning is a metaphor for life itself," he says, as we hover at 3,000 meters in the chilly morning air and look out over the Mont Blanc and the Jura range. "For a balloon to change direction, it has to change altitude and find other currents. In life, we also have to change altitudes — psychological, philosophical and spiritual — and find other directions."
After a train ride to southern Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region, and a boat trip across Lake Maggiore, I rent a car in Stresa and head for Rome under a heavy rain. In some ways, Rome is a modern, cosmopolitan city. The sidewalks are full of people shouting into cell phones. International clothing chains, fast-food joints and electronics outlets have invaded the famous Via del Corso, crowding out traditional cafés and shops. Yet the modernity is only skin-deep. The soul of Rome still lies in its antiquities — the Colosseum, the Forum, and the hundreds of other archeological sites and museums that draw millions of tourists each year and remind Italians who they are. Paradoxically, perhaps, Italy is betting heavily on the future of antiquity.
MORE >>
PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3 | PAGE 4
|
|
|
|
New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
|
