Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Blurring the lines - Virtual Vs Real World

For better or worse, it's not only happening but happening in a way that frankly is now irreversible. It is the extension of imagination in a more tangible form.

I say better or worse as I perceive there to be a discussion at present on whether the act of simulating real life events and activities in a games platform is helpful in a very broad sense of what it is to develop and mature as a person.

There is an unavoidable emotional response as ever which serves to skew discussion. Some friends quietly laugh. Others show an interest. For some the act of computer simulation in your living room is nonsense. There really is no wrong or right.

However, it is my position that a strong sense of self is needed to truly engage in full scale high fidelity computer simulations and that there has been a social mindset which has mitigated a faster growth in the field.

Representative opinions about "sim'ing" in general range from blind judgement, perhaps derived from a sense of embarrassment at the idea of trying it, through informed criticism, most often based on having attempted to achieve something and finding the experience lacking, to active engagement and enjoyment.

Personally, I've approached my simulation experiences from a measured perspective of a good big of regular old research and an open mind. I say measured because I am keenly aware of the limitations that exist between the virtual environment and what it is trying to simulate in the read world. I hold to, that I do not need to be an expert in the real world activity in order to have an informed opinion about it's representation in the virtual world.

There is a developing sense of online maturity which has grown out of the increasing numbers of people who are choosing to bring the gaming experience online into the multiplayer environment. Whilst the developers have vastly improved the capability of artificial Intelligent [AI] in their games, these AI are most valuable to a player when learning how the game works. Once a player's skills have improved to a certain point, more and more players venture into the multi-player work to pit their skills against other real players.

The game in question is actually irrelevant. The somewhat real if yet unseen barriers have come down with the advancement in technology and the social evolution of what is acceptable to do with ones free time. Gone are the days when a boy becomes a man and puts away childish things. The boy still becomes a man and still puts away childish things but what constitutes childish has changed.

An entire new industry has grown to provide enhancements to this gaming environment. People have built simple representations for a racing car to entire commercial airline cockpits in their spare rooms complete with real world interfaces, buttons, levers and furniture.  It is a growing business where the demand for high fidelity at affordable prices is driving innovation and entrepreneurship.

That line between the real and virtual worlds is blurring. I can drive an endurance race like LeMans 24hrs on a representation of  the actual LeMans track. I've never even been to it in real life yet I can experience the trills and spills that my imagination tells me are probably quite accurate. And the point here is, I'm not using the virtual experience in place of actually doing it in real life .... I'm using the virtual experience to actually do it in real life. The jump, which is difficult from some to make, is that this virtual experience IS my real life experience of driving for a team, as driver number whatever for 24hrs of Le Sarthe against other similarly minded people and it's first past the post wins!

I need to meet with other virtual racers and work together with them as a team in order to share in any success. The skills mimic the real world equivalent yet are different. The emotional response is real. The experience is somewhat contrived given that nothing is really real and the representation on the screen in front of you is exactly that, a modeled representation that may look very good but nevertheless is in no way real. All this is suspended and my imagination allows me to successfully bridge that gap. I allow sense of self to take a back seat and I get on with the game.

Validation of this point exists in both the racing and flying and indeed military worlds. It has done so for decades. Perhaps the military has spearheaded this initiative for much longer. Today, some real world pilots can and do virtually fly their assigned flight's route ever before arriving at the airport to begin the formal days work. Formula One, with the limitations of real world testing, imposed as part of cost saving strategies within the sport, is perhaps most noted today for the accelerated development of the use of simulators.  there are full scale replications inside the test building of actual cars, high-fidelity tracks, weather and conditions etc.
Even the home gamer can use programs which in many ways are similar to those used by these professional teams.

For some, this blurring is all good. It opens up new possibilities. For others, it seen as a threat. Some of simply not interested and other spend too much time on it. However I contend that the blurring of the line, if indeed this is happening is not really a problem. For sure, as a child, having watched TopGun, I was flying my bed that night as my imagination transported me to the danger zone. Only the calls from my parents to go to sleep punctured my little new reality.

Today, I can take that imagination and build and augment my physical environment to enhance my sense suspended reality.

When I am done, there is always work in the morning, a house to clean, bills to pay and so on!

JW

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Crisis of Leadership

When I was younger, I was consistently taught the principle of taking responsibility and making it your own. Upon reflection, I wish I'd done a little more of this at times, but on the whole, I was satisfied that I'd taken this principle on board in my life.

In my professional life in the tech industry, I've witnessed what I believe is a drain of positive leadership from the top all the way down. The soul has been removed from almost all business activity and the grey, clinical environment being created instead is one which serves to quash innovation and postive leadership. 
For example, whilst the logic of procedures and processes by way to managing quality and effectiveness are in no doubt, the oft forgotten bi-product, especially in large organisations, is over heavy bureaucracy.  Those organisation lacking good leaders soon get bogged down in the quagmire. Leaders who are afraid to challenge this cease being leaders and become mere administrators, typically relying on their subordinates to help them navigate through respective sections of the red tape.

It's 2011 as I write this article and I feel that one element of leadership decision making, namely 'risk', has today, become almost a very scary thing. When pressed, any exec or senior business leader is skilled enough to discuss it eloquently whilst ensuring it is absolutely avoided in their organisation. Today, decisions, that in more innovative and entrepreneurial times would have been considered merely day to day business decisions, get celebrated for their apparent maverick character.

 The costs are huge though those costs often do not get realized until later. Weak leadership appears happy to leave the difficult stuff to the next generation in many cases. But the momentum which is so difficult to achieve in the first place gets lost in very little time. Recovering it is harder the next time.

So, I've found myself somewhat focused when looking for similar characteristics within society at large and very often, when I think I'm seeing it, there are some individuals which give me hope that all is not lost and a generation of the future will find their way back to positive leadership.

There are just enough natural leaders still aware of why it's important to strive and work at postive leadership. The pendulum may well be over in the negative sector at the moment but when it swings back into the positive, some folks will be ready to take the lead.

As I've grown, with the younger generation around me, I've sometimes worried. Why was it, I got the impression that many kids were less engaging, less confident, less prepared to take the risk of being successful and much more comfortable, hanging back. Is it actually what I am seeing or am I biased in some way ... more quick to see thing how I perceive they are rather then how I think the should be?

Perhaps this is just my perception and limited to those few I'd happened to meet with.  Was I much different myself?

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