Welcome to Spatial News™ no. 28, Spatialists! “Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.” ―Philip K. Dick, sci-fi author extraordinaire
Let’s begin with a review of AI and its nested dolls.
“[M]achine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence. Deep learning is a subfield of machine learning, and neural networks make up the backbone of deep learning algorithms.”
“Neural networks [NN]—and more specifically, artificial neural networks (ANNs)—mimic the human brain through a set of algorithms. At a basic level, a neural network is comprised of four main components: inputs, weights, a bias or threshold, and an output.”
“The “deep” in deep learning [DL] is referring to the depth of layers in a neural network. A neural network that consists of more than three layers—which would be inclusive of the inputs and the output—can be considered a deep learning algorithm.”
Machine learning (ML) is “more dependent on human intervention to learn” than deep learning focusing “on the use of various self-learning algorithms that derive knowledge from data in order to predict outcomes”.
“Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) is the broadest term used to classify machines that mimic human intelligence. It is used to predict, automate, and optimize tasks that humans have historically done, such as speech and facial recognition, decision making, and translation.”
“Accelerated innovation cycles, new and immersive product testing, decentralization of production, and interconnected digital and physical worlds are likely to define large shifts in manufacturing as the metaverse continues to take shape. It is extremely difficult to predict the specific trends that will take hold, precisely because consumers are likely to play a significant role in the design, development, and modification of products. If executed to its potential, the metaverse will democratize not only production but product offerings themselves, giving consumers the products and features they ask want.
However, we must remember that the metaverse is resource intensive. While there is much to be gained in the metaverse, its potential environmental impact is significant and alarming — another very profound way in which the digital and physical worlds are inextricable. Those looking to invest in the metaverse and harness its immense promise must not do so at the expense of solving the climate crisis and other physical-world challenges. In manufacturing or any other sector, the rise of the metaverse must ultimately fit within a framework of sustainability.”
“Self-sovereign identity” is a “digital proof of existence owned by the individual” that is portable and independent of a central authority. “By storing an encrypted identifier in a blockchain, one can separate the authentication system from one’s data, helping to protect privacy. Blockchain systems are also more secure than conventional identity records because they cut out third-party intermediaries. They can be easier to use, and they can survive disasters that might wipe out more centralized record-keeping systems[…]
If such a system [like Building Blocks, a blockchain-based program that helps the World Food Programme distribute cash-for-food aid to over 100,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan] had existed before Bassam [a Syrian refugee] left his hometown of Daraa, he might have avoided Zaatari [the sprawling refugee camp on the border of Syria and Jordan] altogether and become a productive member of Jordanian society straight away. Even if Syria revoked his passport, or if a school with a record of his degrees were bombed, an immutable register of his history could still smooth his entry into an adopted country[…]”
“The current version of Building Blocks—the one now in use in Jordan—runs on a ‘permissioned’, or private, version of Ethereum[…] a central authority decides who can participate.
The upside of the permissioned system is that [WFP executive Houman] Haddad and his team can process transactions faster and more cheaply. The downside is that since the WFP has control over who joins its network, it also has the power to rewrite transaction histories. Instead of cutting the banks out of the equation, it has essentially become one[…]
Ultimately, the question with Building Blocks or any similar system is whether it will put ownership of digital IDs in the hands of the people being represented or simply become an easier way for corporations and states to control people’s digital [and physical! - Joh] existence.”
The article above was written in 2018. If you’re interested in reading the latest about the program, check out their webpage: Building Blocks | WFP Innovation (which is where I lifted the image above).
If you want to get take a much more technical free dive into decentralized identities, knock yourself out with
“Science fiction has real-world power. What’s written on pages and depicted on screens can become a reality. It’s not just that science fiction tells stories of the future; it actively informs the future we bring about, even if that source material is a dystopia. [Snow to the Crash -Joh]
Meaningful change requires a full spectrum of stories — stories that inspire but also stories that are honest that change is hard work and that the work begins when the hero returns home after defeating the enemy. It’s not easy to repair, restore, and rebuild a world, and yet we so rarely tell stories about those hardships. We need to go beyond the binary of utopias and dystopias, towards more nuanced images of the future that tackle the transitions required to get from one state to another. If we do that, we’ll unlock all kinds of new stories that the world needs now more than ever.
Introducing Polytopias
The word polytopia means ‘many places’. Unlike dystopias and utopias — which begin or end on the precipice of change — polytopias show the change from one state to another. They are stories that depict many people, many places, at many times. They demonstrate the incremental steps required to shift a system and how those systems interact with people along the way. Polytopias aim to capture the complexity and nuances of change itself.”
What kind of stories are proponents of Web3 and the metaverse telling themselves, each other, and the world? Utopias based on dystopias? Faux-topias? Something else?
Leah Zaidi’s work not only focuses on futurism but also world-building like in this article where she utilizes her “Seven Foundations” model to demonstrate how to build worlds as well as deconstruct systems like Silicon Valley (shown below). In SN #022 we talked about how NFT projects (and other companies) need to world-build. Here is a way to do that.
Immersive experiences aren’t only the domain of AR or VR (though if you think XR tech can be used to solve your business needs, Spatial8’s got your bases covered *smile*). Building a digital world seems like it would be world-building by default, but as we shared in SN #026 (see Kelly’s first ‘Net Dreams’ article), the ‘ghost town effect’ in the current crop of Web3-ish virtual worlds demonstrates otherwise.
So I’d say, and I’m just extrapolating here, design a world that users, customers and community members (including subverters) want to return to again and again (for all manners of reasons). (Kinda like so: Inside the 40 Year-Long Dungeons & Dragons Game.) Then, build its digital manifestations. (And, no, I don’t mean anything D&D-related. IP law is an actual thing.)
(I’m probably regurgitating some things some people have already said somewhere sometime ago, but, then again, they probably did the same thing, too. Safe!)
If you’re in Helsinki on June 21st, welcome to AWE Nite Northern XR: Focus on Finland! It’ll take place from 18:00-20:00 EEST (Helsinki time) at Arcade5 (on the Maria01 campus). We’ll have food and drinks and XR demos as well! Follow the link to RSVP.
AWE Nite NXR: Focus on Finland is a 2-year anniversary of our very first AWE Nite meet up in Helsinki back in March 2020. Enjoy some pics from that event.
Thanks for joining us on our mission to build a better world (or, at least, a digital one or, at less-than-least, a better story about a digital one)!
Joh of Spatial8, reading Odi Miyamoto’s This Book Does Not Exist and loving every minute of it
Subscribe and join the 700+ Spatialists exploring XR, Blockchain, and other emerging tech, their applications, their potential, and their possible consequences
