Emergent behavior in a three dimensional representation of history

Traditionally, telling the stories of history is the translation of simultaneous events into sequential media. Historians translate various levels of detail, simultaneous events and conflicting viewpoints into sequential speech, text or film. As so often is the case when re-purposing content from one medium to another, some of the essence of an event is lost in the translation. The most profound loss comes from shifting events that coincide to dueling or alternating plot lines. Also, inherent in this process is the historian's need to edit information to fit the format of sequential media. Editing, fundamentally, is a form of censure, thereby adding another layer of distance from the actual event to the retelling of the event. Indeed, history as written by the victors, is indicative of detrimental editing. Nonetheless, a historian must still choose which part of an event to include: tell the story of many people, sacrificing minute details; tell the story of one culture, sacrificing the perspectives of surrounding cultures; or tell the story of one event, sacrificing simultaneous events. Electronic space, however, offers the opportunity to lessen the current compromises of storytelling and give students of history a perspective in which events are permanently placed in context.

Electronic media, incorporating hypertext and three-dimensional electronic space can present historical events relationally and contextually, resolving two of the sacrifices made in sequential story telling: simultaneous events and simultaneity. The entire interface is based upon an x-, y-, z-axis in three-dimensional space. The y-axis represents the passage of time and events depicted on this axis are placed chronologically. The x-axis is the categorization of events, and elements are categorized into color-coded disciplines of history. Lastly, the z-axis is used to show events that occur simultaneously. Events that happen at the same time are represented by graphic elements coinciding on the line. Shades of gray differentiate the lines of the axes from one another and events are represented by dodecahedrons. The size of these nodes will connote the ramification of the particular event. Historical significance of an event will be decided by settings in preference for cultural bias that enables the users to chose a perspective.

Using this representation, the events of one day in a battle may follow the path of three intersecting lines in electronic space, while the battle itself is represented on three intersection planes. Furthermore, conflicting accounts of an event are hypertext links on the dodecahedrons. This feature allows previously suppressed perspectives or versions of an event to appear next to the traditional perspective. Additional hyperlinks enables the student to learn more details about a particular account. For example, a link may track the life of the author or explain the political/social/religious convictions of a group's perspective. This example demonstrates the ability of electronic space to present simultaneous events, conflicting viewpoints and, to some extent, varying levels of information in one overview. Historians no longer dictate the context of stories. Instead, students are able to change the flow of information by moving along different axes or following hyperlinks or changing the order of categories.

In the context of this history presentation, digital space works as both the binding force and a freeing agent. Simply, it is the Jell-O in ambrosia salad. It holds together different types of elements and different sizes of elements, while dispersing these elements throughout. Furthermore, one piece of fruit in the fruit salad is no longer dependent upon the other fruit for context. Instead, the Jell-O gives the context. Another, more intellectual example is that electronic space, in relation to the storytelling possibilities described, resembles gravity. Gravity holds the planets in an orbit around the sun, but the planets still have a relationship to one another. Gravity provides the cohesion of this solar system and enables it to have context. It also allows for movement of foreign objects between the planets, not unlike students moving from one historical event to another. Students are able to move unhindered between events, referencing the location of an event in time without loosing contextual placement of that event in the greater story of history.

The binding agent of three dimensions enables a critical third feature: the ability to augmenting the data space by zooming and pulling away from the event nodes. Much like David Gelernter's Mirror Worlds, an altitude option is key to success of the interface. Gelernter explains it as a way to see the environments as a whole and with the twist of a knob, access a sub-world. In this interface, it allows the user to see large passages of time. With a click, the user is able to focus the visible data to a particular time or period of time and continue to change altitude until the data reaches a certain micro level. A comparison can be made to the artichoke - the outer leaves are large, but one can peel away the leaves to reveal a smaller, delicate part of the plant. The importance of the feature is left to the user, but there seem to be benefits to visualizing the events en masse. Again, Gelernter explains the benefits of this ability. "What might these systems mean ultimately, when they reach this point? What does seeing the whole mean?"

One possible application of seeing the whole is the ability to detect patterns in history. It is common to say that history repeats itself, but an advance search feature of this interface would seek patterns of events and highlight the areas for study. William Gibson speaks to the issue of data patterns in his 1996 book Idoru. The main character, Laney, is able to see patters in electronic data, or nodal points. On page 329, Laney wonders if there is more significance if he were to view everyone's data. "What would happen in the future came out of what was happening now. Laney knew he couldn't predict it, and something about the experience of the nodal points made him suspect that nobody could. The nodal points seemed to form when something might be about to change. Then he saw a place where change was most likely, if something triggered it." Predicting the future from electronic nodes of information is best left to a Gibson novel, but regular appearances of patterns could aid in problem solving, similar to the methodology used in meteorology for patterns such as El Ninio.

The interface will also offer preferences. Not only will the user change altitude, but she can change the historian's perspective, identify related events and manipulate the categories of history. As mentioned above, history is written by the victors, so different time periods of history will have embedded bias. The user is able to set a preference to pick a particular bias. In turn, the nodal points will change size as the long-term relevance to that bias increases or diminishes. Fraught with the potential for abuse, bias allows a student to exclude views that advance a violent philosophy however; the student can view world events from the perspective of indigenous peoples and a rising empire.

Closely tied to perspective is the need to identify related events. The dodecahedron change in size depending upon their role in the course of history, but related events should also be identified. A sort feature allows the student to identify a particular event and the interface will highlight all related events. A search for Civil Rights, twentieth century, United States will highlight the Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, but also highlight Malcom X, Jesse Jackson's run for national president and the repeal of Affirmative Action. Again, this type of search is ripe for abuse, but the benefits seem to outweigh the advantages.

Similar in it's filtering ability, the option to choose categories of history will invite students to focus in particular areas. The interface will offer eight overall categories: art, music, science, medicine, technology, agriculture, government and business. Very broad in scope, these groupings can be refined with the zoom feature. Thus, at the top most level, eight categories will exists, but at the lowest level, there will be thousands. The success of this feature is ensured by the option to select a single category, a grouping of categories, or simply to re-arrange the order of the categories.

Implementing this interface is a much larger task. To encourage the broadest scope of information, the core of the interface needs to reside in one location. Historians and students of history will access it remote to either view data or update and add data nodes. Ideally, the warehouse will have unlimited memory and rendering space, so that anyone who wishes can enter detail to the level of minutia, should they choose. Unfortunately, the ultimate goal of limiting the loss of data from one medium to another cannot be resolved and censure will not be eradicated from the study of history by a three-dimensional rendering. A historian will both build the electronic structure and historians will gather the stories and events that make up the structure. The only solution to censure is an intricate system of surveillance - a joyless alternative. It is only with a multitude of voices can this interface become useful.

jh360@is7.nyu.edu