Science Fiction Prototyping. Brian David Johnson
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century have to do with anything? Don’t you see all this datuk-datuk by the roadside everywhere, with all their elaborate shrines and offerings? Rites are still being performed prior to important events.”
“And … your point?” asked Kim.
“Look, you said those are not tiger-like gaits, yet the software has identified them as a tiger like gait, it is a tiger that does not have a tiger like gait. We know our software and AI works, we tested it, rigorously. So, what does that tell you? Do you know that it is believed that the bomoh with sufficient ilmu can transform into were-tigers. These were-tigers can be recognized by the lack of the groove in the upper-lip and by their gait. This is because their heels are reversed! Don’t you see, this is precisely what the software has detected, the unusual gait is caused by the reversed heels, can’t you see it in the sensor pattern on the screen?”
“Are you seriously suggesting that we are tracking were-tigers?” asked Kim, incredulously.
“Well …” Raja, confused, stalled as he couldn’t really put in a satisfyingly coherent reply. (Loke and Egerton, 2010)
This too is not science fiction. The authors of the story have been doing work on a sensor-based environmental monitoring system. In the introduction to the story, they explained their approach:
The environment and the world we inhabit today is perhaps the most precious gift we have to pass onto the next generation. Those who will inherit tomorrows’ environment and tomorrows’ world will no doubt question how we managed their legacy. To help us understand the complexities and sensitivities of our finely interwoven eco system and our effects on that system, we need to build accurate models from which we can derive theory, make predictions and define policy. A complete model would measure all forms of environmental data, both flora and fauna, such as plants, animals and micro bacteria, across the world, measured at frequent intervals, ideally in real-time [1]. However ideal this maybe, it is currently very impractical, there are too many species to measure and monitor, and data collection if often tedious and time-consuming and on the whole, carried out less frequently than desired.
Since it is impractical to consider all biotic taxa for measurement, ecologists have identified a small number of key indicator species, namely, Plants (Trees), Bats, Birds, Aquatic Macro Invertebrates, Moths, Ants, Figs & Frugivores, Dung Beetles, Stingless Bees and Large Mammals, ordered for their importance as a general environmental indicator [2]. Their sensitivity and stabilities to environmental conditions such as air pollution, climatic variation, foliage-densities and so on make them a practical bio-indicator, moreover, they are present, in some combination, across all continents and environmental conditions. This commonality has the advantage of facilitating a common frame of reference for data analysis.
Data collection typically involves a protracted manual process; a good example is the collection of moth data. The collection of moth data requires the ecologist to physically travel to the area of interest, assemble the collection apparatus (light-trap(s) in this case) either camp overnight, especially if the area is in a remote location, or leave and return at a later point, the raw data need sifting and cataloguing by an expert taxonomist, picking out the targeted moth species from the other collected moths and insects, only after this process can the processed results be used for modelling purposes [3]. This process typifies bio-indicator data collection and is the process our proposed system is designed to automate.
In this paper [SF prototype], we have envisioned a global real-time sensor network for the automated collection of key bio-indicator data, our so named Automated Eye on Nature (AEON). Although AEON is primarily to collect biotic taxa data to model the biodiversity and health of the environment, the data could also be used to drive real-time environmental models to help us better understand the complexities of our ecosystem. Our fictional prototype explored one such extended usage, where the taxa data from large mammals, tigers in the story, was used to drive AI gait models which in turn enabled identification and behavioural tracking of tigers. This type of tracking is being actively researched, although using more conventional methods (IBID).
The authors use their SF prototype to imagine the effect their monitoring system might have on the people society and ecosystem that it is monitoring. The virtual world they have created in the SF prototype allowed them to further innovate and imagine expanded uses of the technology.
SF prototypes allow us to create multiple worlds and a wide variety of futures so that we may study and explore the intricacies of modern science. They are a powerful tool meant to enhance the traditional practices of research and design. The discoveries that we make with these prototypes can be used to question and explore current thinking on a level we have not approached in the past, namely using multiple futures and realities to test the implications and intricacies of theory. Additionally, the output of the science fiction prototype can feed information back into the science and technology development process (more info in Chapter 7), investigating and shaping how a user might encounter, explore and ultimately use that technology.
Science fiction allows us to see ourselves in a new light, in the light of a new future, one that is not our own but reflects directly upon who we are and where we might be headed. The SF prototype brings this same lens to science fact, allows us to see the multiple futures in the theory we are constructing today.
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CHAPTER 3
How to Build Your Own SF Prototype in Five Steps or Less
So now it is time to create your own SF prototype. As we talked about before, the goal of the SF prototype is to use science fact as the basis of your vision of the future. In this chapter, we have broken down the SF prototyping process into five discreet steps. Each step in the process will take you through a kind of framework for getting started and collaborating. At the end of the five steps, you will have an outline that you can use to expand, develop and build your own SF prototype.
The final form of the SF prototype is up to you. Later, in this book, we will give you some examples of the three different forms of SF prototypes: short stories, movies and comic books. Each chapter on the different forms will give you a little history and background along with a discussion with an industry expert. These experts will provide you with their own personal take on the form of storytelling and how to best use the SF prototype. At the end of each chapter, there are also some practical steps to take for your outline and build it into an engaging prototype.
But, first, we have to pull together an outline.
THE OUTLINE
The outline of the SF prototype is where your ideas and reflections on the broader contextual issues will really get explored. The outline will force you to think about science in a realistic setting of people and society, without forcing you to actually become a science fiction writer (although there will be nonrequired opportunities to flesh your outlines into complete stories, if you so desire).
The purpose of the outline is to capture the idea behind the story and put it into a plot. Alan Moore, the legendary comic book writer and creator of The Watchmen, V for Vendetta and the Sandman series, describes the distinction between the idea and the plot in this way:
The idea is what is the story is about; not the plot of the story, or the unfolding of the events within the story, but what the story is essentially about. As an example from my own work (not because it’s a particularly good example but because I can speak about the work with more authority about it than I can the work of other people). I would cite issue #40 of Swamp Thing, “The Curse.”
The story was about the difficulties endured by women in masculine societies; using the common taboo of menstruation as a central motif. This was not the plot of the story—the