Present Company

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

Nikola Tesla

THE history of the human being is an adventure in space. We are born in time but also space, a dimension we grow into, unlike time which is always diminishing. We live our lives in bodies which occupy space, and we move around in space, if we are lucky, all our lives. The world around us consists of organized space and, if we remain lucky, wild spaces organized by Mother Nature. To live life as a human is to be unconsciously aware our whole lives of space and spaciality. We occupy one space at a time, but omnipresence has forever been a mythical desire we assign to God or whatever Gods we choose to believe in. Human empires have always been obsessed with space, often for its own sake. As if space itself were the asset, long before any riches discovered. The digital revolution has transformed the space-time continuum, allowing us to zoom between continental business meetings, flitting between time zones at will. But essentially we remain creatures of space, localized and always homing to base. Despite all the telephones, televisions, internet environments and metaverses, we still gravitate to other human presence as a preference. Humans dream of ubiquity but live lives of quiddity, creatures of flesh and blood moving around in space. Holograms, and the spatial world they build out into, not only promise to enrich our surrounding spaces but offer us wholly new ways to be present with others.

Technically speaking, holographic telepresence is a faculty currently reserved for celebrities, rock stars and politicos. Like the first automobiles on the road in the late nineteenth century. Eye-catching, but few and far between. But now is the time to explore the possibilities of mass adoption, and to prefigure how our world would work should telepresence become ubiquitous. And the technology is very much available for it to.

Telephones were a prestige item in households for decades. Today, only the Luddites forego smartphones. Technologies have a habit of hanging around a while in beta, before snowballing. Gradually, and then suddenly. Human telepresence is currently reserved for concerts, for political appearances and for legacy cultural heroes. But what if it were as available as, say, that zoom call? What is the spatial realm exactly, and how do humans inhabit it? Most of all, what can we do in it we couldn’t already? To answer, first think of yourself as spatial.

More than any technology capability, the spatial realm is a mindset and an attitude. Automobiles, cinema and flight revolutionized human lives in the last century. Our ability to move about, to experience other lives and to flatten distances became godlike, decade by decade. In the last thirty years or so the internet – and especially its mobile incarnation – again revolutionized our life. These inventions have delivered the illusion of ubiquity, but they have also at times detached us from our reality. ‘Meat space’ was a term that geeks deployed to mean life. And many of them, increasingly the young, abstained.

Technology has supplied the illusion of global ubiquity but has also removed us from local contexts and spaces. In contrast, the space around us appears impoverished. Everywhere can begin to feel a lot like Nowhere in human terms as our local space loses its human touch. The spatial realm is not a fantastic escape into an otherworld of super-reality. A fork in the road tells us we’re not in Kansas anymore and here comes the metaverse beyond. But real space is just getting started.

There are essentially two ways of looking at the universe, as perfect already or crying out for change. But what if there were a third option, liking the perfection of the meat space we inhabit but also aware of possible extensions of the enjoyment it provides? You can disappear behind a headset never to surface, or you can use technology to reinvent the limits of what is. People are the first ingredients of the spatial realm, and this is a new space that allows us to become more rather than less present to the other people we share life with. Self-actualization and transcendence form the apex of Maslov’s pyramid, the pinnacle of our human needs - aspects of our humanity open to us in the spatial realm.

What does it mean to self-actualize or to transcend? It means expressing who you truly are beneath it all, wisely putting your talents to work so they multiply. Transcending the limits of time and space around us. We call such people stars, and such ability star quality. Holographic appearances may be limited at present to the already famous, but pretty soon every street will have cars, every household a telephone, every pocket a smart one. What will telepresence mean to you in time?

If you are a knowledge carrier in this world, it will mean a whole new kind of omnipresence as you get to share your wisdom with others from any location. If you are a talented human, artistically or intellectually, it means your audience is potentially everywhere now. If you are a leader of any kind in business or society, it means closing the distance that diminishes your light. Telepresence is not just for the grand stage or the conference room. It’s not just for being beamed down by Scotty. The new Star Trek will be humanizing.

Absence and distance have caused most of the troubles of our species. Not being able to be present, through circumstance, ill health, disability or death itself. Not being able to be intimate, through geographical fact. Being alive here and now is the enemy of being present there and then, and we have all suffered from nostalgia, from displacement, from disconnection and marginality. The spatial realm is a holographic possibility that offers the human being a whole new locus of vivid presence.

Take the hybrid, globalized way we work together today. Work from home has become work from anywhere, physical location has become decoupled from career. Along with all the benefits and disadvantages of this, how have we negotiated our newfound spaciousness? How are digital conferences and virtual calls eroding the very humanity that makes for productive exchange? And what can a holographic extension supply in repair?

Human interaction is not simply a question of information exchange. We think and feel with our bodies and linguists tell us that paralanguage (body language) supplies the bulk of all human conversation. Holographic telepresence is not a detached head, or a black screen speaking out of an abyss. A full human being is present at a distance, they are present company. Language doesn’t just consist of verbal prompts – of phonology, morphology, syntax or semantics. The wider ripples of paralanguage from gesture (kinesics), touch (haptics) and eye contact (oculesics) are all present and much more meaningful for communication. In fact, proximity itself is a form of communication, a language the linguists call proxemics. Mobile and zoom calls might convey messages, but telepresence means proximity. And proximity builds kinship, tribal communication. Holograms turn distance into intimacy.

And what about the cultural event, the pop concert or sports extravaganza punctuating each year with gusto? What could telepresence possibly add to these churches of physical congregation? For a start, the entire concert might be holographed, allowing the stars to appear in all their youthful glory as did the Swedish group Abba. With so many legacy acts seeking immortality as the great era of popular music recedes, who else will join? Dozens of individual stars from all musical genres have already appeared telegraphically on stage, and who knows how this musical ubiquity might yet evolve?

The spatial realm allows stars and sports teams to cancel the laws of physics and become omnipresent. This is not a question of deciding the superiority of one type of event over the other, the options are not binary. Holograms allow distant stars – absent or deceased – to appear alongside the living. They allow time travel between the decades and future generations to experience the great events of the past for themselves. Yes, there are issues to iron out in the process – intellectual property rights and ethics for starters. But the possibilities already exist to discover and explore.

Why would I as a person wish to be holographed and appear elsewhere? There are a hundred answers. I may wish, for example, to appear to my relatives in the future as the fully human speaking version of myself, and not just a film clip detached from three dimensions. I may wish to share my expertise and knowledge, and not simply to earn money elsewhere but to help others. I may be a medical expert, an educational leader, a healer, a diplomat, a financial wizard or an activist. I may be a public speaker unable to be in two places simultaneously. Or an entertainer stuck at home caretaking the elderly. I may be fully capable of giving to humanity, just not now and not here. My Space is not a discontinued website but a whole new way of being with other people. And, of course, I may be the audience waiting and wishing for this person to share their unique skills.

For every human being looking to port themselves holographically, there are hundreds and thousands who will directly benefit from their telepresence. The crucial business negotiation which affects whole communities. The medical procedure relying on ultra-rare skill sets. The educational opportunity lifting others from poverty. The entertainment experience long thought impossible. Yes, holographically speaking, you do go to the ball.

And, of course, there remains the self-actualization and the transcendence available to all of us as the spatial realm evolves from single holograms to user creativity. I can transport myself to another part of the world – to teach, to entertain, to inspire, to instruct, to have fun. The same human yearning for ubiquity that motivated cinema, flight and the internet drives the spatial realm. Not to escape this world, but to take fuller, richer part.

The metaverse is a purely virtual domain where we get to meet each other, legs or no legs. By contrast, the spatial realm is this world right here, just augmented. If I’m speaking from my home to the world at large, I can appear fully integrated into other people’s worlds too. Their connection with me is life-size, lifelike, for real. I haven’t removed them from their present surrounds and I haven’t forced them to divert attention onto a screen. I can interact with them in real time, make eye contact, pick up body language and communicate fully using all the features of linguistic and paralinguistic exchange. When you think of yourself as spatial, you have enriched their space rather than making them ignore it.

“I’m excited about Augmented Reality because unlike Virtual Reality, which closes the world out, AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on what’s happening presently.”

Tim Cook

When Princess Leia appears holographically before Luke Skywalker as the compelling event which kickstarts the STAR WARS universe, she communicates far more than what she says. Sharing a plea for rescue, her body language communicates dread. And Skywalker responds to her more for what she is than what she says. The hologram is, literally, the information in full, as in the original Greek word’s meaning. Holographic telepresence is currently being advocated as a response to climate protection, removing the need to physically travel. But the full import of holography also transcends the environment. People teleport themselves holographically to build their tribes. They are not merely economizing – they are strategizing.

I’ve been involved for many years now as a holographer in the spatial realm, and I’ve worked with many well-known personalities across social milieus. I’ve patented technology advances in this crafty science, and I’ve imagined a whole lot what is coming. We are moving from a contemporary focus on spectacle and presentation to an emerging focus on interaction. As the spatial realm matures in time, holography will undergo the narrative evolution all mass media have.

Newspapers evolved in Europe during the Middle Ages, first as a functional technology for sharing new events across what was still a largely agricultural society. It is no surprise Daniel Defoe was a journalist before he developed the first proper novel in English – Robinson Crusoe. Already the medium was being fictively formed into a narrative platform for the future era of literacy. Similarly, the hologram – born of the crossover between microscopy and lasers – will become an art as well as a science. Personal holograms will converse, interact and become active players in the spatial realm. Narrative design provides continuity over time and a motivation to extend connection over periods of time. Episodic narrative in the spatial realm will become the bonding agent that sustains our human attention to it. Today, as purely functional media such as advertising and the news take a hit, we see an explosion of narrative design across the main streaming and gaming platforms.

It is an error to believe that human attention is eroding. True, we have less and less patience with messaging, but that is only because we have more and more time for long-form storytelling whether filmed or gamified. Holograms will win attention initially – but to sustain it you require narrative thinking and an episodic strategy. Just as we now define strategies for our online presence, so too in the future will we strategize our spatial one. Our LinkedIn profiles may be the first arena to evolve. You can see how holography now extends across the STAR WARS storyworld, delivering key inflection points in plot and dramatic structure. Their spatiality acts as an intensifier, a harbinger of transformation. We have already reached the point in history when employers start asking for our sizzle reel. Where’s your movie? Soon they may start asking for your spatial act.

We start off as biological audience members in other people’s spatial acts, but soon we get to enact ourselves. And this is by no means restricted to entertainment. Imagine the holographed interview, the spatial surgery. People in the spatial world are not only able to connect, they can conduct their business and execute their plans. When the realm extends to include objects, places and information itself, the possibilities are endless indeed. We get to augment the local spaces we live and breathe in with all kinds of new knowledge and capabilities.

The technology itself is now around eighty years in existence, but we are rapidly nearing the junction between Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Generative AI is on the brink of firing its silver bullets. Soon people in the spatial realm will no longer be famous already, but choosing to conduct their normal business by means of holographic interaction. Whatever about the applicability of the metaverse in the modern world – and investors seem to have their doubts – the spatial realm will gain traction for its pragmatic value.

So, begin already to think of yourself as a spatial being. Just as you have accustomed yourself to think digitally. Our online presence is now every bit as valuable – and sometimes far more in terms of reputation – as the real. We give it thought on a regular basis, consider how to present and promote ourselves, dwell over our brand. We clamor for the right to be forgotten, but scurry to window-dress our lives for that perfect Insta moment. Digital is now present in the mind as much as the world. Spatial may be just a glimmer on the horizon, but now is the time to imagine and intuit these new possibilities. The spatial realm may conjure products out of thin air, it may activate venues with narrative experiences, it may provide tactile fields of data to explore by hand – but what can it do for you tomorrow personally? I believe it will become not only your calling card but your own theater of enactment for both life and work.

This is about more than being visible online, this is about appearing inside the world of other people. Those people might be customers, colleagues or just friends. If you work in public as an artist or performer, they are your audience. And you can perform before two separate audiences simultaneously. Before multiples. ‘Show, don’t tell’ is the classic dramatic dictum, and holography is a way of showing all you can be and do.

Applying episodic thinking to your spatial presence will require your thought also. Episodes were originally the spoken sections added in between songs in Greek drama. The word itself means ‘entering in between’. How will you enter in between all the other content in the spatial realm, and how will you connect it all? Human beings engage with holographic people who not only appear but also provide a meaningful narrative. We know that branding will appear in the spatial realm just as it did across the social media, but ultimately that kind of meaning is too message-driven and self-centric. How will you provide meaning for other people here? We can imagine holographic sales assistants, but what will they do differently or better than a human being? From the audience’s point of view, what is the point? Automation has scythed through the ranks of the employed and provided a seamless electronic experience – but at what cost? The point of the spatial realm is not pure efficiency, maximization of results.

Right now, the spatial realm exists as the empty stage. Now is the time to think through the excesses of the digital, the fantasy and the paranoia that have blurred the benefits of digital, and social media in particular. Remember holography is about the information in full, and it is much harder to bamboozle in three dimensions.

Intellectual expertise and artistic excellence are ideal for the spatial realm to popularize, but there are also other less glitzy but more pragmatic applications. Like appearing in the realm to teach more classes than one. Delivering specialist medical wisdom across countries. Fixing complex problems with the best brains available. Three dimensionality is not just an add-on, it is a core principle allowing for a much greater depth of focus.

If there were one event or circumstance in your life that could have been transformed through your personal hologram, what would it be? A far distant opportunity? A critical juncture that could have been negotiated? Gaming may be the launching pad for the metaverse, but problem-solving should be the starting off point for the spatial realm. Onsite entertainment – bums on seats – is a complex problem waiting for better solutions. But so is education, healthcare and cultural conservation. We don’t have to gamify these problems, but we do have to deliver the human expertise that solves them. The spatial realm is a new mass medium for doing that.

Space is the problem, but it is also the solution. Thinking spatially requires us to abstract the impact of our skills from their physicality and apply them elsewhere. A personal hologram is the essence of who you are, and what you can do for other people. Some of us entertain them. Some of us inspire, or heal, or teach. The spatial realm is a new delivery mechanism for that. People have always advertised themselves, and narcissism is the plague of the age, abetted by digital. But there are also so many practical purposes for putting space to work for you. Like making a difference. Contributing to society and to the future. What you know and you alone is not your IP to merely protect a career or propel you along your profession. There are other people everywhere who need it too.

So, I’m not a special person but what is so special about holograms? They have been deployed for everything from storage and security to artwork and advert display. How may I deploy them personally as a version of me? If I am honest with myself, I may not need them today. But I said that about smartphones. I can start now to think about the spatial relevance of what it is I do. I can spatialize the potential. How I work with others will come to mind immediately. So will important events. If I’m running a business I can imagine the spatial options – from client acquisition to knowledge exchange. And if what I do is perform in front of others, well and good.

The spatial realm is yours for the taking, and not simply because the technology now exists to take it. I can benefit already from other people appearing in the realm. But I am most interested in my own appearance. They say public speaking is the number one human fear, because we all dread exclusion from the tribe. What if speaking in the realm connected me with it? What if there were other tribes to connect with also?

Human beings are where the spatial realm first started because we began by holographing ourselves. Even if the realm as yet exists among professional entertainers, it’s a good time to start reflecting on future evolution. Especially as we are talking about augmenting reality. We no longer visit photographers for portrait shots but take selfies by the truckload. We are still protective of our digital appearances, we’ve just altered our relationship with photographs. Visuality has evolved.

Spatiality, on the other hand, is still a phenomenon. The mobile internet has gone from being a novelty to being the ultimate privilege of the rich to disconnect from. Between the eureka moment of the inventor and the growing discernment of the user, time is of the essence. You will experience other people’s holograms long before your own, but you will have the choice to take. Choose now to consider the spatial realm as an extension of your best self, of what you can do best for others on the planet, sharing what is the same space.