Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace Chapter 8, 9 & 10 Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

Eliza’s Daughters Chatterbots More interesting representations Julia – MUD agent that provides information as well as entertaining conversation Fails Turing test Self-absorbed, evasive, and obsessive characters are easier to author More interesting representations Temporal model of character (salesman) Modeling inner life (PARRY and neurotic woman)

Goal-based Behavior Intelligent agents Lyotard – goals change over time Cognitive simulation combining goals and feelings Interesting and potentially fun and useful but … “it seems like the very antithesis of what we value in literature, which is the careful examination of ambiguous situations open to multiple interpretations” Challenge of purely mathematical models Ad-hoc rules and glitches enable most human/intriguing actions Lyotard biting interactor Shrimp banging head on ground

Multi-character Environments Simple joining of chatterbots Zippy meets Eliza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr7qVQ3UoSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=invgqeawT0Q Woggles Difficulty of interactor to focus on important activity Need for staging https://vimeo.com/47883775

Multicharacter Environments Lessons from commedia dell’arte High-level scenario implying goals Stock characters Set of potential scripts/schemas for action Improvisation (simulation) for instantiation

Emergent Behavior Autonomous agents, particularly in combination, can walk away from plot Interaction is complex and unpredictable Ambivalence and the comically neurotic wolf

Emergent Behavior Flat vs. round characters Flat are more likely to stay in character Random – flat pretending to be round Round characters exhibit revelation Consciousness as emergent behavior Simon’s argument about simulation Minsky’s meat machines

Emerging Formats Combining broadcast and participatory formats From sequential, to simultaneous, to merged experience The serial drama archive and hyperserial Other ideas: Branching video, thought track, consensus narrative

Dual Screen Use From study in 2012

Interacting in Virtual Places MUDs (to MMOGs) to VRs Moving from immersion and navigational agency to transformation? Tension between author and participants? Difference between game player and actor? Personal vs. social?

Virtual or Augmented Reality Virtual reality enables greater immersion and channels for distance communication But takes us out of the here and now Good for stories but bad not great for collaboration or including the current context. Augmented Reality Enables media that are based on current context (physical and social). Can include pass-through of context

Hamlet on the Holodeck Conclusions Narrative beauty is independent of the medium It helps us understand who we are and what we are doing here Procedural authorship is key Need to move from individual to social authorship? Narrative formulas must be refined for great work in a new media Juvenalia stage is necessary to explore formulas Future of media that combine pre-defined narrative elements/moments with emergent interactions among complex systems