Boys and Girls, Let's All Go to the Digital World

An alarm rings nearby. The sound seems to be coming from a pair of stylized, bold framed glasses sitting on top of a wireless charging mat. Upon touching the frame the high tech specs sense movement and silence the alarm. Grasping the frames lightly, you carefully place the light-weight spectacles on your head, tucking an earpiece in. When suddenly your personal schedule, news, and weather appear hovering before your eyes; floating in digital space.  Interacting in “D-Space”, as its known, has become routine. It’s just another typical day, and as you can see from a small weather icon there’s a 30% chance of rain.  In your HUD (that’s heads up display for you non-gamers) you notice that there is a meeting at 11 and know you will be alerted before it begins.  A co-worker in your friends list notices you’re up and requests to have lunch with you.  A pop up window opens to display a picture of local bakery and sandwich shop and you quickly reach out into the air and click an “accept” button as “Lunch” is automatically added to today’s schedule. After a having a quick breakfast while listening to an internet streamed local talk show, you step out the front door and a security logo flashes briefly in your display with the words “Home Secured”.  As you approach your car you confidently speak the words “Start…  Car” and your hybrid- electric engine quickly powers on.  As soon as you’re on the road a glowing blue line is overlaid onto D-space with a pre-selected route to your office.

It all sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? This seemingly fantastic depiction of a businessman’s morning is an adaptation of the near future as imagined in Daniel Suarez’s Daemon book series. Many characters in the Daemon book use HUD Glasses to interact with D-space , a sort of augmented reality. In the series a wealthy game designer named Matthew Sobol attempts to change the world by giving advanced technology to a generation of people with ever diminishing political rights and social power. Using the "Dark Net” and interacting with each other in a digital environment, Daemon operatives fight back against multinational corporations who possess too much power in an attempt to save the planet, and their own personal political power. The Dark Net has its own currency that is free from debt and inflation. People who have chosen to join the community created by Sobol’s Daemon are given Special network glasses that use Pico projectors to display the interactive world. The networked frames allow every person who is logged on to interact with each other and the Dark Net instantly. People who join the network learn new skills and take on roles ranging from: “architects, who can plan out buildings in three dimensional spaces before building them; to fabricators, who use materials to create objects that can be used for structures and items.” Every Darknet user has a community driven purpose. The use of this transcending virtual environment allows people to be part of a social group, while living in a world that they feel connected to and in control of. Daemon and recently released sequel Freedom™ transport readers into a world where technology rules supreme. That is why I have chosen an augmented reality and social network as the next most revolutionary technology of the future.

Even in today’s world people are building virtual lives. Since 2003 online virtual world Second Life, created by California based Company Linden Labs, has given people a free three dimensional environment to interact and virtually live in online. Much like the fictional world of Suarez’s Daemon novels Second Life’s residents use their home PC’s to travel in vast virtual environments and interact with other users. The only difference being that the world of Second Life is not an overlay of the real one. Instead, people explore user created landscapes, malls, night clubs, and other locations that sometimes oddly resemble places in the real world. Second life allows people to customize their avatar’s appearance in any way they like by purchasing new clothing, skins, and even complete fantasy bodies. Residents of second life can also engage in building anything and everything using in would modeling tools. One of the other ways in which Second life also shares a similarity with the fictional world of Dark Net users is use of a new type of currency. Like Dark Net Credits from Freedom™, Second Life uses a currency called Linden Dollars(L$). Linden’s as they are known allows business transactions to take place in Second Life’s virtual world. There is a virtual real estate market as well as many vendors and outlet malls where clothing and accessories can be purchased. Second life is, in my opinion, the precursor to what the future may be like. We are nearing an era in which we have the power to create an augmented reality; where technology allows us to communicate, have fun, and accomplish more than ever before possible.

Every day companies are advancing the way we socialize, work, and play through use of technology. The Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo gaming giants have all added online play to their video games. Online gaming has become the staple of next generation game systems. Clockspot, an online business time clock service, gives company employees an online time clock which allows them to use any computer or internet enabled cell phone to clock in and out of work. More and more the internet becomes a part of our daily lives. I dream of a future where checking into work is as simple as walking in the door thanks to growing companies like Clockspot. A future where any type of media, be it music, TV, or gaming, becomes a social experience. A world where information is shared seamlessly and people interact in more ways than ever. All of us connected in the real world, by one gigantic virtual one. I believe that soon we all may be connected to a sort of “Darknet” ; A socially augmented virtual reality overlaying our real world. As fantastic as it seems, I am convinced this will be the next revolution in technology.