The Immersive Internet

Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy

R. Teigland, D. Power, R. Teigland, D. Power

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781137283023
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Medienwissenschaften

Collecting short thought pieces by some of the leading thinkers on the emerging 'Immersive Internet', Power and Teigland's book questions what a more immersive and intimate internet – based on social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond – might mean for society and for each of us.

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Postcards from the Metaverse: An Introduction to the Immersive Internet

Dominic Power and Robin Teigland

Beginnings

The internet is by now a stable foundation underpinning many aspects of daily life in the developed world. It has evolved to become central to the ways in which we experience others and ourselves as well as the way we interact with all manner of cultural, social, economic, and political processes. As we have adapted to, or been born with, the internet, we have become more and more immersed and enmeshed in the information and interactions the technology allows us to create, share, and view. To date the internet has mainly taken the form of a text-based, two-dimensional medium with the odd splattering of images, videos, and sound. It has largely been a curated space – a set of spaces designed for us to be attracted to and sometimes even to contribute a little to. The internet has permeated our lives, at best as an engaging and fascinating resource and at worst as a strangling cage of processed information.

In recent years the internet has begun to develop into a much more immersive and multidimensional space, and it is this emerging ‘Immersive Internet’ that is the focus of this book of short thought pieces by some of the leading thinkers in the field. Three-dimensional spaces and sites of interaction have not just gripped our attention but have begun to weave or be woven into the fabric of our professional and social lives. This is likely only to go further as platform and interface developments in augmented reality, social networking sites, online games, virtual worlds, and the 3D internet signal a move towards communication technologies and virtual spaces that offer immersive experiences persuasive enough to blur the lines between the virtual and the physical. Partly this immersive potential is based upon a greater variety of ways in which we can interact with others as well as with virtual and augmented spaces and sites, and even with artificial intelligence. Partly it is based on the ever-increasing quality of the aesthetic, visual, auditory, and sensory experiences of computer-generated and internet-mediated environments.

Thus, new waves of internet and information technology are likely to promise ever richer and more immersive ways to connect with technology and with each other. If the internet has so far been founded on the myriad combinations of information and communications technologies, then a possible future is one in which the internet becomes founded on immersion and communications technologies. Indeed, as our lives become ever more virtual and the virtual takes on ever more convincing and engaging forms, we must think of these not as purely virtual or abstract phenomena but as lived spaces.

At the center of such lived or intimate spaces is the one to be immersed: the individual or group of individuals who will engage with the people and spaces they find in computer-mediated spaces. The avatar is the appearance, incarnation, or manifestation of an individual in virtual or computer-mediated spaces. Avatars can take many forms: from character-like representations for use in games or 3D worlds complementing one’s physical world identity to cohesive online presences such as well-developed social network profiles in which one’s entire identity is tied to one’s avatar. Of course, the Immersive Internet will not just be about the agency of avatars, or their conscious and strategic actions. It will equally be about the spaces, structures, software agents, and systems the avatars will encounter. While many such structures and spaces will be open and accessible, many will be closed and proprietary. In both cases those who control the spaces within which avatars immerse themselves will have crucial roles in defining the ‘rules of the game’. The Immersive Internet may not only be about the structuring and strictures of single spaces. As users delve into many different spaces, and as firms, other organizations, and operators work together, it is likely the Immersive Internet will be one where spaces and sites are linked together, as in the internet we know today. While these links might or might not involve interoperability, the spaces will definitely be linked by the experiences and expectations individuals and avatars have built through immersion in multiple spaces and generations of spaces. As these more intimately experienced spaces become linked, spill over, and cross-pollinate each other, we may begin to perceive the foundations of a more or less patchwork landscape of virtual spaces and layers as well as collective shared online spaces: what Neal Stephenson dubbed the ‘metaverse’ in his novel Snow Crash.

The avatar creates the world

The Immersive Internet has, to date, often involved users in the foundation and creation of the very spaces and worlds they experience. In some cases this will, as with Linux, mean that users are involved in the very genesis and coding of online spaces and experiences. In other cases this will involve the creation and building of not just objects but entire landscapes that they and others can then experience. In still other cases, users will define the worlds, spaces, sites, and networks by providing them with content, meaning, and movement. As computer power, broadband, and interfaces improve and as organizations open their domains and code to users, we will see users not just participating but actively innovating and creating the ‘stages’ on which they will move.

Virtual spaces, no matter how beautiful or complex, are, however, ultimately empty and abandoned code without participants. Participants add their actions, interactions, and performances to generate the layers of meaning and interaction that create the lure with which others become entangled. It is these individual acts that ultimately create the immersive potential. In addition, it is through individuals’ footsteps and contact with others that immersive networks become attractive: individual acts of participation both build the network and signal its existence. The agency of avatars and those individuals behind them will shape and determine the spaces and processes that emerge from technological advances.

When the Immersive Internet takes the form of a three-dimensional virtual world, one generally must create an avatar in order to use the space. Just as there are numerous worlds, individuals also have the option to create a myriad of avatars – such as one for playing games, one for corporate activities, one for family interactions, and so on. Yet, as individuals invest more of their time in participating in the Immersive Internet, their online presence represented through one specific avatar can become an important, if not central, part of the person’s social identity as well as a tool in the projection of their identity in different arenas. This means that individuals will likely invest considerable effort and resources in the construction of not only their avatars but, through their avatars, the worlds and interactive spaces they encounter and create. As Bourdieu pointed out, the exercise of taste and classification is a central aspect in how individuals and groups carve out and fight for socio-cultural contexts and spaces (Bourdieu, 1984). With so much hinging on identity formation and politics, it is likely that avatars and their contexts will be subject to constant attention, negotiation, and even conflict. This raises many questions about the relations between our physical and virtual selves, and, crucially, our relations with other actors and avatars. As more of our time is spent ‘in world’, the question thus arises as to what this means for us as social interactive beings. On the one hand, researchers such as Sherry Turkle caution that we are entering a world where we are increasingly ‘alone together’, while others, such as Wellman, argue for expanding opportunities in this age of increasing ‘networked individualism’ (Wellman, 2001).

Our lived spaces and practices are constantly being shaped and reshaped by our need and desire for sociality as well as our desire for intimate experiences. Our avatars will bring these needs and desires into the worlds they build or encounter. The Immersive Internet will likely be both an intimate internet and an invasive internet as our selves, identities, feelings, emotions, and memories become entangled online and in our avatars. This means that there is a vast series of crucial questions to be asked and issues to be addressed. For example, if identity formation and maintenance are central to interactive virtual performances, how much of us will we need to invest in order to keep up appearances? How will you fall in love through a technology? If our self-image and constructed body are damaged or depressed, what role can our avatar take and how should we be treated? What and where will our memories be?

Many of the questions above are already salient in populations where, increasingly, people meet and date online, build communities online, and display all manner of memories and emotions online. In the future, as we further project ourselves into our avatars, which will more than likely become more human, leading us through the uncanny valley, and as we interact with the environment and objects through brain–computer interfaces, we may explore new realms for physical and mental activity. Yet how will the memories that we create through our avatars interact with our memories created in the physical world and vice versa? To what degree will our basic human feelings and our very sense of being a human be impacted? The internet and immersive technologies are latecomers to the human scene, but neuroscience has revealed that the human brain is highly adaptive to new technologies; however, it has also revealed that it may be highly vulnerable. While many see the possibilities of the Immersive Internet, some researchers have raised critical voices. For example, Susan Greenfield, one of the world’s leading brain researchers, has gone so far as to say that the immediate feedback that individuals can receive in social networks, virtual worlds, and virtual world gaming may be negatively impacting our ability to link the present to both the past and the future, a characteristic that distinguishes us as individuals and humans.

It is not only our individual desires and identities that will structure the emerging Immersive Internet; it will also be our aspirations and creative and entrepreneurial spirit. A central issue of how the internet will evolve does not simply lie at the level of structural and corporate provision – how large or small firms will plan and structure the worlds we encounter and create – but also involves how individuals will try to push forward the commercialization and commodification of immersive spaces to suit their own ambitions and material needs.

Becoming immersed by interacting through one’s avatars does offer many functional and commercial possibilities. Applications within the healthcare, education, and entertainment arenas not only seem endless, but also promise to impact and blur the boundaries between these arenas and even others. Regardless of the arena, entrepreneurial spirit will likely continue to drive the development of new Immersive Internet applications. To date, ‘avapreneurs’ – a concept proposed by Teigland for those solely conducting entrepreneurial activity online through their avatars – have created entire fashion and other industrial ecosystems in various virtual worlds (Teigland, 2010). In fact, this virtual agglomeration of economic activity directly contrasts with the regional agglomeration of an industry in the traditional geographic sense in which individuals, organizations, and firms are in close geographical proximity to each other and attract others to translocate from across the world. In both virtual and geographical contexts, it is the proximity and the level of concentration between related actors that seem to breed synergies, innovation, and economic development. Yet what will proximity and concentration in virtual economic and industrial interactions mean, and on what will they be based? How will virtual proximity intertwine with geographic colocation and economic relations?

Furthermore, as 3D printing becomes integrated with the Immersive Internet as well as commonplace for household and industrial objects, we will not only be able to design and experience objects in these virtual spaces; we will also be able to simultaneously produce these objects in our garage or workplace. Thus, not only will the borders between industries be blurred, but the entire value chain – from the sourcing of inputs and production in the supply chain through to distribution and consumption by end users – will be revolutionized due to the convergence of the Immersive Internet with material, production, and other related technologies. The questions arising here are of deep importance for governments and public sector bodies at all levels. How should taxation and legal systems be designed so as to promote innovation as opposed to hindering it? How should resources be invested in virtual, transnational clusters of economic activity such that this investment benefits local taxpayers and citizens?

Here the Immersive Internet is not only the focus of new products and services, but it also offers an immersive working and networking space. In these environments, entrepreneurs may collaborate on value-creating activities with one another as well as with other individuals from both large and small firms, academia, hobbyists, and the public sector, regardless of physical location. This has already been clearly demonstrated by the Open Simulator project, an open source virtual world platform project, in which the expression ‘meeting face-to-face’ has lost its physical meaning to indicate instead a virtual meeting of avatars in a 3D online space. Of further interest is that the number of freelancers in the world is, for various reasons, rapidly increasing. One recent study reported that the number of freelancers in the US had passed one-third of the workforce in 2006 and that this number continues to rise. As anyone sitting at his or her kitchen table (provided they have access to a kitchen table and the internet, that is) will be able to learn just about anything and engage in a world of economic opportunities through the Immersive Internet, the number of freelancers across the globe will only continue to rise. Moreover, individuals who have previously been hindered from entering the workforce due to physical disabilities or peripheral locations will be able to learn and work through the Immersive Internet. One significant question that this raises is how this ‘mobility’ of labor and the ‘mobility’ of physical goods due to 3D printing will impact the competitiveness of regions and nations.

Through the Immersive Internet, we are finding indications of ‘open entrepreneurship’, or the process of entrepreneurs openly engaging in social capital-building activities through the free contribution of intellectual property and other resources to the public, with the purpose of pursuing individual business-related interests while contributing to the pursuit of collective goals. While these entrepreneurs may give away their intellectual property, knowledge, time, and other resources for free, they do so in the pursuit of creating a social structure that enables them to overcome the inherent difficulties in attracting the necessary human, financial, and other resources due to the uncertainties of their new venture and the liabilities of newness and small size (Aldrich and Ruef, 2006; Baker and Nelson, 2005). Through the Immersive Internet, entrepreneurs may more easily overcome these liabilities – factors that traditionally have disadvantaged small firms compared with large organizations and that have generally led to their failure. Furthermore, we are beginning to see signs that the Immersive Internet is leading to, or implicated in, a migration from an economic model characterized by centralized hierarchical firms controlling in-house resources to a model of decentralized social production by communities of globally distributed firms and workers. Such fundamental changes clearly bring into question how and to what degree well-established multinational organizations and their brands will continue to dominate economic activity.

While these technological developments, combined with political and societal changes, continue to change the world as we know it, it is important to view these changes in the ‘longue durée’. While we may seem to be moving forward, many also profess that our technological and societal advances have led us to the edge of the cliff of the anthropocene era – the period during which human activity has globally impacted the planet. Dukes writes that we entered this era in 1763, when the available data indicate the beginning of a growth in the atmospheric concentrations of several greenhouse gases (Dukes, 2011). The Immersive Internet, however, offers promise in reducing the pressure of growth on large cities across the globe. A McKinsey study recently reported that this trend of large city growth has been broken in countries such as the US and India as smaller cities and rural areas are gaining in popularity across age groups. Yet how we further develop the Immersive Internet and its potential to secure the future of the planet for generations to come is unclear; building roads tends to increase traffic rather than relieve it. Recent research in entrepreneurship has recognized the basic human paradox of seeking to simultaneously fulfill both individual and collective interests. The question remains as to how the Immersive Internet may impact this dialectical nature of human beings – to encourage us to act more collectively or perhaps more in our own self-interest.

The formative role of avatars in the construction of online flows and spaces may be benign if we use behavior such as escapism, fun, and game mechanics to dominate the tone of our online interactions. But avatars and the individuals behind them will not all be altruistic, and conflict will always be a part of the worlds that avatars populate. Profiteering and swindling will be rife, as will be violence, theft, bullying, and coercion: as, indeed, actors within some virtual worlds have already experienced. Such issues clearly indicate that the Immersive Internet is facilitating changes in our social, economic, and governance models, and it will have an even greater impact as the technologies develop and the next generations who have grown up using these technologies enter society and the workforce. These issues and their questions are endless, and clearly of deep importance to leaders and other individuals throughout society and the globe.

The world creates the avatar

While the Immersive Internet may allow actors to construct worlds and experiences in their own images or in ‘make-believe’, the worlds and experiences also create the avatar and control and shape the actions of avatars. By entering mediated spaces, avatars are subject to the conventions and rules that govern these spaces, and in many cases they will be subject to the owners or creators of these worlds. It is important, then, that we think carefully about the multiple ways in which such rules, controls, and ownership relations will determine interactions and actions online.

If actors and avatars are engaged in performances, then performativity theorists, such as Judith Butler, point out that even our most personal acts and identities occur on stages that are in many respects subject to scripts laden with social conventions and hegemonic ideologies. The stage is far from always being a tabula rasa open to the whims of those actors who find themselves there. These scripts may be literal scripts, such as those that govern the narrative trajectory of online games, and these narrative scripts define the interface and the options open to actors.

Whether they are literally scripted or not, we find that social conventions and ideologies play a subtle but definite role in defining both actions and the parameters within which avatars may act. Of course, social conventions rooted in the ‘real’ world have many positive sides and are often reflections of deeply rooted social and ethical standards that make interaction both possible and palatable. It is true to say that the majority of the conventions and ideologies with which we surround ourselves are phenomena that often deeply impact us as we create and maintain them...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Postcards from the Metaverse: An Introduction to the Immersive Internet
• 2. Niggling Inequality: A Second Introduction to the Immersive Internet
• 3. The Distributed Self: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Human Identity
• 4. Meta-Dreaming: Entangling the Virtual and the Physical
• 5. Individually Social: Approaching the Merging of Virtual Worlds, the Semantic Web, and Social Networks
• 6. Virtual Worlds as Radical Theater: Extending the Proscenium
• 7. Virtual Worlds and Indigenous Narratives
• 8. The Immersive Hand: Non-verbal Communication in Virtual Environments
• 9. Discovering the ‘I’ in Avatar: Performance and Self-therapy
• 10. Reflections and Projections: Enabling the Social Enterprise
• 11. Added Value of Teaching in a Virtual World
• 12. Play and Fun Politics to Increase the Pervasiveness of Social Community: The Experience of Angels 4 Travellers
• 13. Framing Online Games Positively: Entertainment and Engagement through ‘Mindful Loss’ of Flow
• 14. Inhabitants of Virtual Worlds, Players of Online Video Games - Beware!
• 15. Relationships, Community, and Networked Individuals
• 16. Gemeinschaft Identity in a Gesellschaft Metaverse
• 17. Sorting Out the Metaverse and How the Metaverse Is Sorting Us Out
• 18. On the Shoulders of Giants: Understanding Internet-based Generative Platforms
• 19. Social Norms, Regulatory Policies, and Virtual Behavior
• 20. Self-organizing Virtuality
• 21. Making Currency Personal: The Salutary Tale of the Downfall of the Domdrachma
• An Afterword in Three Postcards
• Index