This will probably go nowhere, but I figure I’ll join in on the neologistic bandwagon and create a term for something I can’t otherwise define since neither spime nor blogject work: “kirkyan”. For background, you might want to start on the comments section of the SL Future Salon website (Link). That’s where I first blurted out the basic, unfinished idea which started forming back in December during an SL Future Salon meeting with Phillip Torrone from Make (I had suggested they code an artificial intelligence in Second Life and download it to the robotic mice the people at Make were building).
I’ve also very recently mentioned this concept in a post (reLink), and figured I should wrap it up and ship it. Good thing actually since I hit on something I’d not considered and wound up expanding on it and rethinking a few things; the changes will be obvious.
So, this is the concept:
A kirkyan is similar to a spime or blogject, but different in that a kirkyan is actually a Thing comprised of a combination of reality instances. One instance exists in our physical world (kirkyan P) and one or more “sibling” instances exist in their respective, independent virtual worlds (kirkyan V1′, V2′, V3′, aso). They are independent yet part of a whole.
Unlike the singular physical instantiation, the virtual instantiation(s) can itself/themselves replicate identically and sub-evolve independently (e.g. V2’1, V2’2, V2’3, aso). The virtual space kirkyan subset(s) then contribute to the evolution of the primary kirkyan instantiation; in this example, V2′ – the original virtual instantiation of this kirkyan for independent virtual space #2.
Each instantiation carries the “DNA” with which to create the other(s). Each carries the history and learnings of the other(s), so that when one expires, an evolved version can replace it; created from the data stored in the transreality sibling(s).
A kirkyan can be a blogject, with the physical instantiation involved in the physical world as an interactive component of a network that includes the virtual instance(s). Additionally, each instantiation of a kirkyan independently has most of the qualities of a spime:
1) each instantiation has some means of affixing to it a unique identity.
2) each instantiation has a positioning system that allows its location to be determined in either virtual or physical space and time.
3) instantiations can be tracked and each can track the other(s).
4) each instantiation maintains a searchable history that is independent yet intertwined with its transreality sibling(s). Consequently each has a narrative. The kirkyan history would be an integrated record.
I’d also add that each instantiation maintains a definition database, a record of its own “DNA”, and each maintains a database of the other(s) to facilitate their evolution/replication. It might not seem that a matching database is necessary for kirkyan V’s; however, even a virtual 3D object can have components that are independently unique beyond simple shape-defining data.
For example, a virtual hammer might have Cartesian data defining its shape, but the handle could be tagged with a specific material (e.g. polymer; unique from the steel head) and thus have “solid” physical properties assigned to it (material density, thermal conductivity, elasticity, aso). In a physics-enabled virtual world simulation, this component data becomes integral to its existence in that virtual space. Because it {potentially} represents kirkyan P in this way, a physically representational “impact” in that virtual world which “damages” kirkyan V’ (or one of its replicated versions) might be used to evolve the physical instantiation.
This would, of course, depend on the relationship between that particular virtual space and the physical space. However, if the relationship is determined to be relevant (e.g. the physics are similar), the discovery of a vulnerability through such a virtual event could trigger kirkyan P to self-destruct in order that it can be immediately recycled and refabricated into a more robust object. This sacrificial quality allows defective products to repair/evolve themselves, if possible; or at the very least alert creators to a defect.
The kirkyan is essentially an evolutionary, redundant system; not so much an AI as a relatively simple comparison algorithm (after all, a hammer – real or virtual – is pretty unintelligent).
So this all taken together allows, among other things, for the physical object (kirkyan P) to be recycled into a system that can then access data from the virtual object(s) (kirkyan V’) to replicate an evolved physical instantiation (kirkyan P+) … which then can cycle a feedback loop to the virtual object(s) (kirkyan V’+) so that it/they can then “regenerate” (to use a Pro/ENGINEER CAD term) to ensure any deviation in the final fabricated physical version is documented. The same would be true in the event a computer virus attacked and destroyed one, more or all of the kirkyan virtual instantiations. The physical manifestation – having a non-writable recovery system and the ability to isolate itself from the network – can subsequently evolve its code to make it immune to the virus; at which point it can create new, virtual siblings.
Kirkyans are not “virtual objects first and actual objects second” in the literal sense. It is not necessarily a product of CAD/CAM. A kirkyan might start as a sculpted ceramic piece with embedded firmware and then be three-dimensionally scanned, with all data representing the physical instantiation, kirkyan P, then used to create the transreality sibling(s). A physical replacement would, however, be replicated through a network-controlled process; most likely additive. Consequently, kirkyans do not necessarily begin as data (unless of course we decide to get all metaphysical or Creationist here).
A kirkyan can only be a non-living object. A plant or animal could be implanted with firmware and dimensionally scanned, but in such a case, the “ghost in the shell” always comes initially from the physical instance. That predetermination is in conflict with the concept of dual-direction, transreality multiplicity.
…
Okay, that was fun. Glad it’s out of my system.
For anyone who manages to remotely understand what I’m trying to communicate, rip it up. It’s as much a ramble as anything.
{Update: Someone created a short-lived Wikipedia entry for this concept. It wasn’t accurate, so I rewrote it with what might be for most people an easy-to-understand example. The Wikipedia entry was voted off the site but I saved that entry: Kirkyan. I should also mention that the “buoy” to which I’m referring is a controllable, self-propelled node within a string of booms. I don’t know that the oil industry has anything of this sort, and, consequently, don’t know what something like it might be called.}
