Spatial: The Final Frontier?

Star Trek Title Sequence – Original Pilot – via YouTube

Probably everyone has heard the iconic line: “Space: The Final Frontier.” I hear it in the voice of William Shatner, as will anyone who remembers Star Trek (now generally known as “Star Trek: The Original Series”, or “Star Trek TOS”).

Star Trek is a cultural phenomenon of great significance, but I’ve actually only watched a relatively small number of the extraordinary number of works. I’ve seen all of the original series multiple times, watched most of Star Trek: The Next Generation, some of Deep Space Nine, some of Star Trek: Voyager, and several of the movies, but I haven’t seen any of the “reboot” movies, or things like Enterprise, Discovery, or the various others. I’m not entirely sure why – I’ll need to think about that.

I even remember reading several of the Star Trek novels, by James Blish, and I think I have several of the comic books from the 1970’s somewhere...

Either way, I was delighted to find something that I had never seen before. While I was a fan of Saturday Night Live (SNL), I only started watching more-or-less regularly in the early 1980’s. And, while I certainly know figures like John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Dan Akroyd, I rarely saw the material they did on SNL.

And then I discovered a reference to a Star Trek parody called “Star Trek: The Last Voyage”, with Belushi as a wonderfully over-acted Kirk, Chase as a Spock who has an emotional breakdown, and Akroyd as a near-unintelligible McCoy. The skit is about the Enterprise being chased by a “1968 Chrysler Imperial, with tinted windshield and retractable headlights”, driven by NBC executives Elliot Gould and Garrett Morris, who are there to inform them that the series has been cancelled.

I’d have made a comment about spoilers, but this skit really can’t be spoiled. It’s absolutely brilliant!

And that’s how we come to the spatial part.

In episode 1048 of The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe, Bob Novella discussed the newly-released “Spatial Web standard”, and some of the ways in which it could potentially revolutionize the way the world works, by defining a framework for connection between digital and spatial systems. I found this fascinating, so I went digging.

To set the stage, consider the evolution of the World Wide Web. Without getting into the ongoing debates around terminology and definitions, “Web 1.0” is generally associated with static web pages and file-based content, and users were mainly consumers of content, with only minimal participation.

In contrast, “Web 2.0” is generally associated with larger-scale, database-driven content, and far more interaction from users, including the beginning of “true” social networking. And, while HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) has expanded, both organically and through the addition of tools like XML (Extensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), the current file-based digital infrastructure appears to be approaching its limits.

This is where the idea of the spatial web comes in. By adding spatial elements, and the ideas of agents and contracts, it becomes possible to integrate bleeding-edge technologies in ways that were not previously possible – at least not in a generic, standards-driven way.

Consider IoT (Internet of Things, which is pretty much everything labelled “smart”) and robotics, and the implications of a standards-framework which can precisely describe spatial position and orientation, in order to enhance our ability to manage and control actions.

In a summary of the new standards, one of the examples describes how HSML (Hyperspace Modelling Language) can be used to define altitude limits, flight windows, and no-fly zones for drones. These constraints could be published to the UDG (Universal Domain Graph), where they can be read by any drones in range, and even be modified in real-time. Before takeoff, a drone might query the restrictions along its travel route, and determine that it must stay below an altitude of 120 meters within 500 meters of a hospital. Such a framework would also allow near-real-time modifications to these constraints, such as a temporary authorization to access restricted zones, in case of a natural disaster. And, of course, all of this would be secure, and trackable.

You might have noted that I said “spatial”, rather than “physical”. That’s because this can all be as easily applied to virtual worlds as it can be to the physical. It seems likely that, if we ever create a “true” metaverse – unlike the apparently-failed attempts by Meta to build one – it will be based on these new standards (or their descendants). In the meantime, it’s likely that future VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) will benefit immensely from the evolution of standards such as HSML and UDG.

But wait! There’s more!  What about AI?

That’s where HSTP (Hyperspace Transaction Protocol) comes in. In the drone example above, HSTP would be used by the drone to confirm its airspace authorization, share its intended path, and adjust mid-flight, if required.

Another example provided was with AI agents controlling a thermostat and a battery system in a test house. The AI “agents”, the physical “things”, and the constraints under which they operate are defined using HSML (ie, “nouns” and “verbs”) and stored in UDG (ie, the “directory”). The thermostat agent prioritized occupant safety and warmth, while the battery agent prioritized charging during off-peak hours. The HSML code describing this is below:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/spatial-web-standard

The two AI agents used HSTP to “negotiate” a strategy to optimize efficiency, while meeting all of the constraints required. In the test home, they cut both energy costs and carbon emissions by 15-20%.

While all of this is extremely exciting, it’s important to recognize that this standard is new, will almost certainly change over time, and may take years to be picked up in any meaningful way(if at all). That said, there certainly appear to be a number of applications which would benefit immensely from this standard, so it could also be picked up and used very quickly.

Either way, it looks like we’re on the edge of a new frontier.

Now, isn’t that spatial!

Cheers!