What if we built an operating system without apps and servers wrapping all of our digital stuff?
How about a 3D virtual world that hosts it all instead?
A single, global, linked web of 2D and 3D world objects, owned by each of us…
The Parallel Reality Computer
The “Parallel Reality Computer”, or PRC, is a new type of computer that I (Duncan Cragg, your friendly future computer researcher!) am working on.
A PRC doesn’t run Windows, or iOS or Android or whatever. The PRC runs a completely new kind of operating system.
All PRCs around the planet running this operating system will work together to manifest a virtual "Parallel Reality" - a digital 3D universe.
A 3D operating system
This is a universe that will contain all of the 2D content that we currently access through those mobile and desktop operating systems.
Stuff like text, photos, messages, posts, articles, calendar events, tasks.
Stuff that’s currently wrapped by their apps and online services, like Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc.
All of these 2D digital objects will instead be "out in the open" together in this shared universe.
Wait. What? Why?
With all our digital objects thrown into the same 3D space, we can interact with them and work with them in the same way that we would in our everyday 3D physical reality!
In our physical reality we organise ourselves and our stuff instinctively within the 3D space. We know which room to look in for any given item, everything is (usually!) where we left it and can be stacked, placed, pinned and dropped. People have presence and body language. It's how we, how our minds, evolved.
For the first time, in the Parallel Reality manifest by our PRCs, we can also interact with our digital objects in this way. You’ll spend less time switching between apps and more time just getting things done, or enjoying your digital world.
A digital universe like the physical universe
I can meet you in your virtual gallery room for a chat, then get your digital contact card and a photo, then go home to pin them both up together on my calendar on the wall to remind me of our next meeting. I can make notes about the photo and clip that object to the photo, then write a message to you and go back and pin it up on the message board in your gallery.
How that may look
In the picture below, there’s a room which could be a space shared between a number of people.
There are relevant 2D objects attached to the walls, plus some objects have been pulled out aside to float in front of you, or have been scattered on the floor.
At the bottom of the screen is a place for you to collect objects for use in any further context. These are actually links to the objects; links are used pervasively in the Parallel Reality to stitch it all together.
Merging physical and digital
The Parallel Reality presents the digital universe alongside the physical universe, allowing all of our 2D digital objects to feel tangibly real and part of our natural experience.
The virtual world of the PRC offers casual “ambient” engagement with our shared digital lives. It can be a simple, intuitive, freeing and empowering experience. A digital universe for chatting, sharing, co-creating, writing, sketching, thinking and playing.
Sovereignty
Of course, your stuff remains yours even if mixed up with someone else's and you can set it to private at any time. You get to choose who can see your stuff in the Parallel Reality, and who can (try to!) interact with it or change it.
Building from the metal up
The PRC is a new type of computer, ready for when Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, driven by pocket PCs, replace smartphones in our pockets, and truly bring to life the merging of the physical with the digital.
I’m building the Parallel Reality operating system and decentralised network from the “metal” up.
Of course, like the Web, it's all built with open source and open protocols, and PRCs will favour the most open hardware.
More scenarios
You can pop open some tabs with more detailed examples to read later:
There is an article here that gives a basic background to how this site began.
Get Parallel!
It would be great to hear from you if you like this idea or have any questions or suggestions. If you want to help out in any way you’d be very welcome here (3D HX and other creatives and tech evangelists especially so). You can be part of a community of people who want to make computer technologies more humane! You can subscribe here, then just reply to the emails you get.
