The Metaverse, Gaming and the Metabolism of Cities
Building connection across boundaries
Bernelle Verster indiebio.co.za Talk lives here: indiebio.co.za/slides/DebConf19_Bernelle_Verster_20jul19.html
A talk in three parts
- What I want to do and why
- How I plan to do it
- What I've learnt so far
Part 1: What is the issue, and why did I choose this approach?
#DayZero 12 April 2018.
Level 6b restrictions:50L/day per person
More info: Cape Town drought
Where does your water come from?
Even in the most severe stage of the drought, enough rain fell on the metropole to provide everyone's reasonable needs.
| Cape Town | Sao Paulo | |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 4.5 million | 12.8 million |
| Water use (ML/day) | 1000 | 1320 |
| Water use (M3/year) | 365 *10^6 | 481 *10^6 |
| Average annual rainfall (mm) | 800 | 1000 |
| Annual rainfall in worst drought year (mm) | 340 (2017) | 500? (2013) |
| Surface area of metro (km2) | 2400 | 8000 |
| Total rain in metro during worst drought year(m3) | 816 *10^6 | 4000 *10^6 |
| Enough water for people in city? | Yes, DOUBLE! | Ten times more? |
A different way of doing things: Water Sensitive Design (WSD) Water Smart Cities Sponge Cities Low Impact Developments
Expertise discovers its limits when the predictables are no longer predictable.
Expertise that is based on the patriarchal and militaristic “command and control”, is based on the idea that expertise has no limits.
Lesley Green, Environmental Humanities South
By imagining that we and our peers have the necessary expertise to solve problems we limit the experience, wisdom and insights that we draw on in finding solutions, thus hampering innovation.
By assuming we know best, we break the all-important connections and relationships that integrated, systemic planning is built on.
Stuart Waters, The Source Magazine, "Letting go of the need to know"
OK, so...?
A big issue
We do not have the data to facilitate bottom-up decision making.
We do not have a good way to communicate and work with different groups of professionals and everyday people to manage our urban resources.
Part 2: How do I plan to address the issue?
| Item | Icon | Generating Data | Verifying, Organising Data | Using Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information Design |  |
support, communicate, generate income :) | ||
| Game |  |
people data | build game physics | |
| Metaverse |  |
geographic data | probably | |
| Magicverse |  |
definitely | ||
| Metabolism of Cities |  |
academic data | main purpose | policy, traditional research |
2.1. Information Design
2.2. The game
- Fight zombies, and/or build things, and or plant things (you can choose)
- But based on real data, real resources. Real cities, real challenges.
- Higher levels can start messing with physical constants, change gravity etc
- Level/bonus incentive for gathering, verifying real world data
- Cross platform, freemium, mod-able, FOSS
www.thomasnideroest.comUseful guide to make these graphics
Game mechanics like Township, SimCity
Aesthetic, modify natural laws (higher levels) like Godus
Augmented reality aspects like Pokemon, Ingress
Papercraft quality, real-life campaigns like Luminocity
2.3. The metaverse
“ A collective virtual shared space that’s created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and persistent virtual space. ”
Metaverse ala Epic Games's (Fortnite) Tim Sweeney
Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash
…the concept of the Metaverse means forging connections across and between numerous platforms, content and experiences: allowing a player to literally walk through a door as a Fortnite character and be in another world (and using a character custom to that world)
Imagine if we can integrate models between different disciplines – hydrologists, geologists, whatevers, and make it into the experience, and gain knowledge from players back into those models, bottom-up.
2.4. The magicverse
"The Magicverse is an Emergent System of Systems bridging the physical with the digital, in a large scale, persistent manner within a community of people." - magicleap op-ed, Feb 2019
2.5. Metabolism of Cities
Volunteer academic initiative metabolismofcities.org, seminars.metabolismofcities.org/cape-town
Info DesignGameMetabolism of CitiesMetaverse
Part 3: What have I learnt so far?
Tools for Information Design
FOSS Tools for Information Design
| Data Handling | Charting | Programming | Mapping | Illustration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Python | R | .js | QGIS | Inkscape |
| more Python | Python | more .js | Grass | Blender |
Successes so far
- Manage presentations in reveal.js - YAY!
- Getting there with d3.js
- Busy with the 3D Modeling for virtual reality creation short course of Aquant's Gymnasium, and can almost model a coffee mug in Blender
- Learning how to work with QGIS next week
What's next
- Learn all the stuff
- End 2020: have mock up / prototype / video / animation illustrating idea
- Build portfolio, define my niche, do work in information design to survive
- Then, apply to initiatives, competitions, e.g.
- If successful, gain funding, build a team, else write it off as a fun sabattical.
Why Debian?
- Fit things together reliably
- Good for cross-platform initiatives
- Strong culture of bottom-up building
Ultra noob!
First, learn to package.
Then start with a package related to information design
- Any of the ones listed by the Aquent course, probably a .js package, hopefully related to d3
- Join up with a team: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams
- Best option: adopt an orphan package, or volunteer to help with one: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested
- FYI, all the .js packages: qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-javascript-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
- also useful: codesearch.debian.net/
- and contributors.debian.org/
- and tracker.debian.org/ (thanks ginggs)
Combining the joy of gaming, the beauty of information visualisation and the rigour of urban metabolism studies to better understand urban resource flows at an everyday level.
Thank you!
This talk lives at http://indiebio.co.za/slides/DebConf19_Bernelle_Verster_20jul19.html
Reach me at bernelle@indiebio.co.za or IRC (indiebio)
This presentation was built using reveal.js