The paracosms, new digital realities
The child within us is an endless source of inspiration. In the era of Meta AI and other ChatGPTs, buried dreams might well come to life.
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The paracosm, a neologism whose etymology comes from the Greek cosmos (the ordered universe) and para (beside), is a concept in full effervescence since the recent announcements from Meta and OpenAI. At stake: the possibility of creating immersive universes alongside and within our realities, while developing parasocial relationships.
The paracosm is an imaginary world generally created during childhood. In a paracosm, the individual develops deep feelings in this subjective universe, which can include heroes, characters, and conventions that are real or purely invented. It is part of the world that children create when they play alone or before falling asleep. A world that has its own topography, its own stories, and artifacts. It is populated with heroes and monsters, and in which the child plays a key role. “The universe exists for me to exist,” wrote Amélie Nothomb in Le Sabotage Amoureux, insisting on her childhood ability to superimpose her own fictional interface and rules onto factual reality.
Permanent and recurring worlds
This paracosm accompanies the child for long periods according to specialists. “Children (…) interact with a companion that is the product of their imagination, and converse with it for long periods, varying between four and six years.” Sometimes even into adulthood.
Paracosms are increasingly explored territories in digital ecosystems. They offer new imaginaries that blend into new digital capacities to transform them into immersive experiences. They are engines of liveness (the quality or state of being alive in digital spaces).
A source of inspiration for many creators like Tolkien, according to George Janes, who also emphasizes the importance of many parameters: major historical moments, family situations, or technological changes.
“For Tolkien, what began as a childhood creative endeavour in which he created complex languages began to take serious form in his early 20s, drawing heavily from his wartime experience whilst serving at the Somme during the First World War.”
George Janes
In video games or art, the paracosm frees itself from terrestrial constraints, from reality, to impose new physical laws or explore new attributes. In Zelda, we have all dreamed of being Link, collecting rupees, and taking a portal instead of the subway. A reading contract is made with the authors of these paracosms: accept to believe and follow their rules, and tame this gameplay.
The difference is that the game does not stop when you unplug the console or close the book: the paracosm follows the child (and then the adult!) who returns to it voluntarily or not, or calls upon it when needed. Through a form of screen memory as explained by Ruby Justice Thelot.
Shared paracosms, felt parasocial relationships
The acceleration of technologies in “spatial computing” and the way digital companions are designed amplify the importance of paracosms.
“members of an audience can feel and develop a psychological relationship with artists, performers, and celebrities, whether in pure fiction (such as a series) or staged scenarios like talk shows.
ChatGPT adapts to our most intimate selves and offers a growing field of expression around our paracosms: text, audio, images, etc. Meta AI technology is beginning to be deployed everywhere, especially on WhatsApp, allowing many digital characters to come to life. They are made to help us in daily life but especially to entertain us. The imaginary friends we created as children will suddenly come to exist, in a permanent and evolving way. They will fully play out parasocial relationships:
“Members of an audience can feel and develop a psychological relationship with artists, performers, and celebrities, whether in pure fiction (e.g., a series) or staged scenarios like talk shows.”
In video games, we often talk about NPCs - the non-player characters that are part of the decor. With artificial intelligence, these digital beings will have a role to play. Individually, of course, but also collectively: we can quickly imagine that characters created on WhatsApp will be more sought after than others, and therefore only certain members of a circle will have access to them.
Meta AI has just opened its first feature, aptly named “Image Me”: waking dreams, in essence.
Date of the week: July 16, 2010
The first post shared on Instagram is 14 years old. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom shared a photo of his dog with a laconic “test” as a caption.
Amazing links
Visibrain published a study on TikTok communities regarding the French legislative elections. Read it on their blog.
Vice shows the importance of politics on…drugs. With the presence of the Nazi eagle on pills. Decryption to read on the Vice website.
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First IG post - what a wild throwback. We're gonna be seeing that in a museum someday lolz