Perhaps one of the most exciting technological achievements are game engines – those virtual machines for creating virtual worlds. In order for the engines to work, as much of the real world as possible – landscapes, people, things – must be photographed, measured and recorded on the computer. The gaming industry, Hollywood, the US military – they are all working to recreate the world as realistically as possible . (The military simulates fighter jet flights in virtual worlds or tries to treat soldiers’ post-traumatic disorders there) Anna Wiener traces the new measurement of the world in this essay report for the New Yorker.
Cameras, computing power and financial incentives are now big enough that billions are being invested to record entire landscapes from Iceland to Honduras as “assets” in digital databases, as well as banal objects from pillows to suckling pigs, as served at medieval banquets . Anyone who has a license for the corresponding engine can download these individual lines and textures in photorealistic quality. The whole world is mirrored.
The central figure is Tim Sweeney, head of Epic Games. The US company is not only known for the game Fortnite but also for its Unreal Engine. Countless other games have been built with it, and it is also used in the film industry. Sweeney, who the text assumes has a slight God complex, estimates that ten percent of the physical world has already been covered.
The central, philosophical and economic question is: Can virtual worlds replace the real world – and thus devalue it? (The Metaverse flop suggests a “no”, while the incredible and successful gaming worlds indicate a “yes”).
The text is long, but it is worth it to understand the scope of this gigantic project and its possible consequences.
Synthetically recreating the physical world and its texture feels cold at first (at least if you’re sentimental). But the story has a point. In the end, when humans and other disasters have destroyed part of the world, trees, swamps and suckling pigs live on as photorealistic ghosts in hundreds of games.