Disclaimer: A mere mortal’s attempt to understand the cosmos.
Thread I: PTS Experiment
I did have a “Eureka” moment once in my life. The story (it’s all about the story now) began as I bicycled from Portland to Seattle, while listening to Patrick Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind. I had a GoPro connected to the head of my bicycle, so I managed to capture footage of my tour.
After nearly a year and in pursuit of some motivation, I decided to review the forgotten footage. To my surprise, while watching it, I was able to recollect the very page & line of the audiobook I was listening to at each moment of the ride. By looking at the trailhead, I knew what Kvothe, an adventurous musician, was up to.
Somehow, I subconsciously mapped my audio experience to the place I was at that time.
And I was able to recollect it clearly even a year later.
Eureka!
Thread II: Cognitive Memory Maps
Fast forward, I started doing some research on the subject and came across cognitive maps and the link between the brain's positioning system & memory.
Brain’s Positioning System Linked to Memory:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/brains-positioning-system-linked-to-memory-20141007/
Thread III: Narrative Map Layers
I wanted to put together a system that could capture, recreate, and adapt this phenomena. After having a fair bit of experience in mapping and perception, I decided to take a shot at this model. And what I came up with was a concept to create an “Adaptive Narrative Story Thread” linked to hyperlocal mapping and positioning.
Its core features are:
VSLAM: Identifying the User’s Head position is the first task, which can be achieved via running a VLAM Algorithm on the Cloud (which has the global map stored).
Adaptive Threads: Adaptive Audio storylines correspond to a specific location in space and time. Responsive & fluid in nature.
Memory Tags: Personalized memory tags cater to a specific user’s behavior, both past and future.
Lambda Function of Threads:
A Lambda function breaks down logic into its simplest form. By decoupling the narration into smaller threads, you arrive on snippets of small stories - as small as they can possibly be. But that begs the question, what is a story?
At its core, a story is a conflict. It’s through identifying or defining modular conflicts and understanding their life cycle that one can create these conflict threads.
Narrative Simulations:
By knowing where one is now, and where one will be, a simulation can be run to quantify the time interval between now and then, and the narrative conflict thread can adopt that lifespan.
“Bilbo used to often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.”
Edge Smoothing:
When transcending different levels of terrain, the narrative threads need to smoothly blend into one another.
End Result:
The end result is an Adaptive Audio Experience based on where you are & which path you will take.
Thread IV: Note to future Self
Find a better name for this model.