“Empty space is the biggest untapped resource on the planet. Out of thin air, this empty space will be transformed through holographic habitats to enrich our lives”
The spatial realm is the name I give to all the space that surrounds us as we move through our lives on earth. For millennia, time was money. Economics revolved around the organization of time. But curiously, space has never been viewed that way.
Until now.
Space is money. Empty space is the world’s most abundant, most untapped natural resource and now that holographic telepresence has reached maturity and a plethora of smart devices exist to unfold it, we are about to experience a whole new mass medium – the Spatial Realm.
This is a world of holographic people, products, places and data – transforming the empty spaces around us into a spatial realm.
I wrote The Spatial Realm, Moonshot for a New Mass Medium because I believe this is the biggest evolution in our lives since the emergence of the mobile internet two decades ago.
First the internet, and then mobility transformed the way we live, work, travel, educate and entertain ourselves.
Whereas the metaverse represents a deeper escapism into the virtual world, the spatial realm represents a return to our real environment – just enriched with holographic telepresence.
Holographic habitats involving speakers and performers, new products and innovations, venues and locations as well as data and information will transform how we experience the world around us.
This is not digital transformation, that has happened or is happening already. This is cyber-physical fusion and involves a whole new engagement with our immediate surroundings.
This is not just a new platform economy – this is a new form of education, culture and healthcare.
Whether you are a business owner or an educator, a surgeon or a financial analyst, a retailer or a consumer, the spatial realm is a whole new field of engagement, interaction and creation.
Holograms have been around for at least seventy years in more or less tactical form. The internet has been with us for around half that time. Bring the two together, sprinkle in some AI and see how they revolutionize the real world.
But this is not merely about single holograms, this involves episodic content which weaves continuous pathways through our life events be they commercial, educational, cultural, health-related or whatever.
My dream for The Spatial Realm is that it will inspire you to see the empty space around you differently.
When you travel, to see the spaces around you differently. When you engage with data, to experience it differently. When you encounter new products, to relate differently. And when you attend public events, to transform your level of attention, engagement and enjoyment.
Moonshots are what we call the great projects that reach for the stars. Science fiction is full of them, until they become science fact.
A holographic realm has long been associated with our scientific fictions – today it is becoming fact.
I hope that like me you will view the Spatial Realm not as a parallel universe but a platform to enrich the real world we inhabit.
Spatial reality is the next frontier beyond the virtual world we have created. Its third dimension is a vital corrective to the flatscreen unreality we have escaped into of late.
May this new vision inspire your own moonshot.
~ Paul Duffy, June 2023
