SociableSport

The new Terminator film is out imminently. Randomly, it reminded me of a fascinating TED video from physicist Garrett Lisi (worth a look, even if you think you hate physics!).

It's about dimensions, layers and imagination.

In his astounding, baffling and eye-opening talk, Lisi walks through one dimension, then another, and another, until he's eventually purporting an 8-dimensional model of the universe. Wow. It's truly mind-blowing and not something I'm going to pretend I fully understand. Instead, let's look at Terminator.

In 1984, visionary director James Cameron conceived of a monster. An indestructible man-made machine sent from the future to destroy the lineage of John Connor. We don't learn much about the machine in the first film, only that it carries a huge muscular stature mirroring what appears to be a metal endoskeleton. The machine "will not sleep, he will not stop" until he's terminated his targets.

In 1991 we start to learn more about the machine from the first film, mainly from the Terminator himself. We learn he is a T100 model run by a cybernetic computer, that he does indeed not sleep, nor feel the anxieties of fear and regret that most humans feel when they're instructed to kill. But in this film, the Terminator's main characteristics are outlined principally to compare him with a superior machine, the T1000. Where in 1984 the Terminator was seen as an uber-human compared to the weaknesses of humanity, in 1991 it has usurped the role of the human and has become the inferior in place of a machine that throws all his technologies into antiquity.

The T1000 has an extra 0 at the end of its name, for one. A small, but important, reference to how advanced it is. It carries all the best bits of the T100 - the strength and resilience, for instance - but adds to it the ability to morph into whatever (superficial) form it comes into contact with, including metal objects - "stabbing weapons". It is, again, the ultimate human / machine hybrid as conceived at the time.

By now we can see a pattern emerging. The machines in these films are representative of the imagination of the moment. In 1984, the T100 was conceived of as the ultimate. In 1991 it was the T1000. In 2003, the 3rd instalment calls its main machine protagonist, simply, T-X. The comparison between the T-100 of 1984 and the T-X of 2003 is so vast that the film sacrifices some of its credibility (could something like this really happen?) by illustrating it within the plot. Likewise, the special effects in Terminator 2, hailed at the time, are nothing in comparison to those of 2003, which itself is likely to look archaic next to the 2009 film.

The rise and rise of the machines in the Terminator films echoes the imagination of the time. As we become more and more focused on what's possible (rather than what's impossible), so too our technology will follow our imaginations. The realms of possibility are as vast as the energy we dedicate to exploring it. Garrett Lisi is testament to this. His intelligence, passion and drive are coupled with an open-mindedness that has literally opened up new dimensions even the brainiest particle physicists couldn't have imagined.

In an earlier blog I've enthused about utilities, the tools with which we navigate the cyber world. Taking the Terminator analogy further, I can see a world of programming where code does not exist in any linear sense, but flows and ebs, moves and lives: a liquid platform. While the science of robotics replicate the T-100 in mimicking human qualities within the human-occupied world, perhaps I am thinking of a T-1000 model that can digitally evolve according to its environment - the cyber environment.

Where will our imagination take cyber intelligence? How many dimensions are there left to uncover?

Lyndon

We've heard of World of Warcraft...
We've heard of Second Life...

They don't have that much in common, but there is a middle ground:

Where the desire for hyper-reality meets the desire to compete... to beat an opponent and win.

Here, the sporting brands will be the real winners.

Empire of Sports proclaims to be the net's most life-like virtual-reality massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG)... Bit of a mouthful but in a nut-shell it gives everyone the opportunity to achieve the sporting heroism the real world has cruelly denied them. Speaking of heroism, it comes as no surprise that the game has teamed up with newly-crowned European Champions, FC Barcelona, to add a touch of true-life gloss to its fledgling format. The relationship is, for the moment, expected. In other words, it doesn't offer many surprises. But this is good reason - above all - to watch this space as it unfolds... (for keen beans I've included some details further down).

The potential reach of a MMORPG is, by definition, huge. Although details of the financial elements of the deal have not been disclosed, it's to be expected that some sort of value-in-kind arrangement has been reached. While EoS's users have an enhanced experience with the added realism and opportunity that a 'partner' like Barça can bring, the club will benefit from being the first such brand woven into the architecture (with the exception of Roland Garros, who are hosting a virtual French Open tournament). Let us not forget that users of games like EoS are much more likely to communicate online than non, much more likely to be receptive to messages from brands within games than non and much more likely to be early adopters, influencers and social media moguls than non (just a hunch). This is a highly targeted, trackable, and ultimately valuable audience - not just to the teams or tournaments, but to the brands associated with those teams and tournaments like Nike or adidas.

Will the game - or world - be successful? The signs are there that it will. Numbers aside, the ingredients are there for triumph. Being specifically designed for sport, EoS comes with no pretense, just pure expectancy. In a few month's time, when the first virtual Ronaldo or Nadal start to emerge from the training programmes, when the users start to reap the real-world rewards from their hours of training and practise (big budget prizes for winning the virtual French Open, or a virtual contract with a virtual version of FC Barcelona competing in the virtual La Liga on course to win the virtual UEFA Champion's League under the stuardship of one of the youngest virtual managers on the virtual circuit at a real age of 10), we will see not just the birth of a new breed of Superstar, but another worthy victory for the sporting brands themselves. Virtual fans require virtual merchandise, and no one likes to buy fakes. It'll be the virtual shop for the virtual flag, to wave in the virtual stadium at the virtual game your friend (who you're chatting to at the same time) is virtually playing in - and all of this is big money. Potentially it's bigger than real world, because logistics go out of the window - no need to worry about how or why or where. It's one location, one platform.

Ladies and gentleman, this is the birth of a behemoth. It may take a while to grow, but mark my words... it's going to be huge.

Further information:
What do Barça offer the game?
The creation of a VIP section within the game interface where users, upon showing the Barça Opening Contest (see below) to a guy called 'Sergi' who'll be hanging around the Central Plaza, you can enter competitions to win exclusive merchandise and certain in-game privileges. So what?

What are people saying about it?
FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta. "The idea of having a FC Barça virtual club house in an online world dedicated to sport is mind blowing. It takes our motto ‘more than a club’ to a whole new level –  and we hope that our presence in Empire of Sports will continue to increase the level of support for both FC Barcelona and football."

Alexis Galley, chief executive of Empire of Sports, said: "We couldn’t ask for a more prestigious partner than FC Barcelona. We are really proud to welcome them into our virtual world of sport and give them the space to work closely with their fans and supporters. Empire of Sports has limitless potential and offers amazing opportunities to our ever-growing list of partners– the fact that worldwide brands such as FC Barcelona see this opportunity, only serves to strengthen our confidence in making the first worldwide sports-based gaming platform."

Quote from EoS
The site reads:
"From Wednesday, May 27th you will be able to visit the FC Barcelona Clubhouse to get special items and information about this prestigious club!

And to celebrate this occasion a special event will take place! You will have until Sunday, June 14th to surpass yourself in official competitions and gain as much football ranking points as you can. Each day your progression will be saved and at the end of those three weeks a day will be randomly chosen. The player who made the best ranking progression this day will win a genuine FC Barcelona jersey signed by the star player Lionel Messi!"

For more information, visit Empire of Sports here

What do all these things have in common? They are all examples of how looking for different kinds of information will determine the path you take to get there. It sounds simple enough - it is - but it's still worth exploring a little bit.

Your First Day at School
You're going to speak to people to find out where your classroom is because they know the place, you trust strangers to point you in the right direction because once upon a time they were in the same position you've found yourself in. It's also a good opportunity to bond with peers and bonding may come in handy one day, when you want to meet friends or join a club or speak to the pretty girls (or guys!).

Fire Exits
If there's a fire in your building, you're more likely to look at a wall map than ask someone where the exit is. Maps are easy to get to directly, have less room for error (none) whereas peers may panic under pressure or may not have been paying attention in the drills. Your life is at stake here, so it's quicker and safer to go with 'the writing on the wall'.

Star Trek
When it comes to exploring an area that's entirely new (like Space!), it makes sense to surround yourself with likeminded people who have the same goal as you but with different skill sets, just like Star Trek. If you don't happen to be on the SS Enterprise then it's good for you to be within easy reach of it, in case you need anything from them - particle matter, phasers, tractor beams etc. After all, they're the experts.

The illustrations above are analogies for how we navigate information. Websites are sources of information, but how we get there and what we encounter along the way is where the whole experience lies.

Being on the Enterprise would be awesome... at least for a while. A utility that allowed people to go back and forth from deep space, while giving them access to the knowledge and information the spaceship provides, would be an ultimate utility. For school, a utility that told you not only what you need to know, but what you may want to know, too - perhaps with different people's interpretations, would be more valuable than simply a list of sites. As for fire exits, lights and directions are utilities - the exit itself is the website. Sometimes all we want is direction.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the future doesn't lie in compiling information in a website, but in offering a service with which to digest it however you want - personal utilities.

In the future I don't expect to see websites appearing on Google. In fact, I don't expect Google to exist as it does now. I expect a sheet with a series of app-style tools that do the searching for me and don't offer me sites, but offer me information. More info, fewer sites, less clicks, more time.

Lyndon