Stories & Simulations: Playing vs. Learning
In Janet Murray’s “Hamlet on the Holodeck”, she describes a story that could be played through like a game is played through. The holodeck, as described in Star Trek, is a virtual reality room that builds solid objects out of energy, and also creates holographic images. The crew of the Starship Enterprise is in space for long periods of time and they use the holodeck to replicate their home environments and relieve stress from being isolated on their space ship for so long. However, they also use it for simulation and training exercises. Murray has an idea that we may experience narratives through a holodeck some time in the near future.
Currently, we experience narratives through video games, movies, and books. If we had a holodeck, or something like it, we could experience stories in whole different way. We could either be playing a guided simulation (like we currently do with video games but it would be %100 immersive), or we could simply experience a story somewhat like we do in a movie.
These simulations on the holodeck could work in a few different ways. If it is a gaming simulation, there would be more choices to make, it would be more of an open environment. A good example is the first person shooter genre we have today. In these games the environment gives the illusion that it’s open, but it is very apparent that there is a certain path you have to follow in order to beat the “objectives” of the game. If a game has no objective, then is it more a simulation than a game. In the holodeck, “games” would work similar to a way that video games work today. There would be certain objectives you had to complete in the holodeck to beat the game.
If it is just a story simulation, such as a film is today, it could work at least three different ways. In one way, you could be nothing more than an observer, an invisible entity walking around the environment as the story unfolds. Another way would be to actively participate in the story. You could have predetermined lines, or at least guided lines so the story unfolds in the way it’s supposed to but you are participating in it. Another way, and my favorite way, would be to have a basis for a story to begin with a few predetermined characters, but you do whatever you want to do and the holodeck program generates responses based on the personalities of the characters and your actions. A narrative like this could essentially be infinite and the possibilities are limitless, much like Borge’s The Garden of Forking Paths.
Besides playing games and experiencing narratives we can learn a lot from simulators and we don’t even need a holodeck for some situations just yet. Professional pilots (whether airline or NASA) train for thousands of hours on flight simulators before they are ready to fly the real thing. These simulators allow the pilots in training to experience real life scenarios without actually putting their lives in danger. With these simulators, pilots can learn how to deal with things like unexpected severe weather, equipment failure, and even engine failure. Thanks to these simulators, people can learn to save their lives and the lives of others without actually being in harms way.
If a holodeck is ever invented we will essentially be able to simulate anything. I imagine the military and police will make this a huge part of their combat training. The military is constantly running exercises to simulate air, land, and sea combat. They run drills simulating how they would react in certain scenarios and those “simulations” are a huge part of success when comes to live battle. These drills are often run using “blank” ammo, or ammo that simply marks whether or or not they hit the target. However, if a holodeck is used for training then real environments will be generated as well as holograms of enemy combatants. They will more than likely not use live ammo, but will use something that mimics it. This way they will essentially be in “real” combat without actually being in harms way.
Operation Entebbe (1976) proves the potential effectiveness of military training in a holodeck that creates a combat environment similar to what the soldiers are going to go encounter. On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked shortly after its take off from Athens, Greece. The hijackers demanded the flight land at Entebbe Airport in Uganda where Ugandan soldiers helped support the hijackers and kept the hostages, well, hostage. Instead of using a holodeck, the Israeli soldiers who rescued the hostages in Operation Entebbe practiced what they were going to do in a constructed replica of the airport terminal where the plane was being held so when they got to the airport, they knew where to go and what to do because they had “already been there”. Of course, the Isreali soldiers did not have access to a holodeck. While the operation was a success, if and when a holodeck is invented scenarios like this could be handled much more easily, effectively and quickly.
In the X-Men series, the heroes of Professor Xavier’s school practiced their combat in a room similar to the holodeck called the Danger Room. This room does exactly what the military would use the holodeck for. Programs are entered into the Danger Room where the X-Men can fight different types enemies whether it be giant robots, general bad guys, thugs, etc. While we do not need to train super heroes, the Danger Room shows us similar representation of what a military training holodeck might look like.
In the future, holodecks will allow us to experience stories in completely different ways than we experience them now. We will be able to learn while we are playing. Like the crew of the Starship Enterprise, we could use them to experience environments we have never had the chance to experience. Whether it’s just information, learning to fly, military exercises, or learning how to do something for the first time, holodecks could provide us with the means to perfect our skills before we have to use them in the real world.
