High-Dimensional Problem Solving Enabled by Metaverse
The human brain has an innate ability to recognize patterns, perceive relationships, and generate new ideas – these are the capabilities that enable creative problem solving. As problems become more and more complex with dozens to hundreds of intersecting factors, our current systems and traditional approaches struggle to parse the high-dimensional solution space. Traditional methods are constrained by linear, sequential workflows that fail to fully activate our intuitive, spatial thinking. Without an integrated representation of all the problem's variables, high-dimensional challenges remain intractable.
Enter the metaverse – fusing physical and digital spaces through immersive reality, it constitutes an intuitive medium for representing and manipulating problems with potentially thousands of interconnected variables. Rather than discussing elements abstractly (which can be done through mathematics for instance), we can embody, visualize and dynamically reshape all parts of a high-dimensional challenge in a virtual experience. There is a scarcity of information on how metaverse and XR technologies can be applicable to complex problem solving. Most concentrate on the commerce and business aspects, which is by no means omittable. But the world today is unbelievably complex. So complex, that we had to invent a scientific field to just deal with that – complexity science.
Large-scale networks, global infrastructures, multi-dimensional modeling are multi-faceted areas that desperately need adequate solutions. But not just theoretical – actual practical tools in forms of technology and software. We need solutions to:
• Integrate holistic, spatial models of all relevant factors
• Enable fluid, intuitive interaction with the unified representation
• Facilitate ad hoc, immersive collaborative network among distributed experts
• Foster serendipitous insights through complex simulations and what-if scenarios
This article will present an analysis and application that illustrate how an immersive metaverse could empower groups to tackle "wicked" problems previously seen as intractable – from reimagining urban infrastructure to modeling financial systems to designing sustainable supply chains. By activating our full cognitive capabilities, the metaverse may provide a pathway to solving humanity's most pressing high-dimensional challenges.
The Nature of High-dimensional Problem Space
When we try to reimagine systems and structures – any for that matter – we face many issues characterized by extraordinary scale, complexity and non-linear dynamics. That's what we refer to as high-dimensional due to the vast number of interrelated factors that influence potential solutions. The nature of high-dimensional problem spaces presents unique obstacles for traditional approaches to problem solving. Classical approaches specifically cannot deal with:
Complexity on Scale – The number of variables within high-dimensional problems, and their intricately tangled web of relations, strains our cognitive abilities to reason systematically about potential solutions. We simply do not possess the cognitive capacity and combinatorics to even visualize and discuss the problem at full, let alone develop a solution for it. As a result, abstracted, simplified representations are employed. But these go beyond nuance and accuracy of details, which are rendered secondarily.
Nonlinear Dynamics – The interconnected factors within high-dimensional systems interact in non-proportional, non-intuitive ways that defy prediction. Small changes to one variable can produce disproportionate, unforeseen consequences in others due to feedback loops and higher-order effects. Similarly, seemingly minor constraints or ignored factors may significantly limit feasible solutions.
Emergent Behaviors – Novel, higher-order phenomena often emerge spontaneously from the interactions of low-level variables within complex systems, further confounding the task of rationally deriving optimal solutions. Unanticipated dynamics and constraints regularly surface that were invisible from abstracted, component-level views of the problem space.
Distributed Knowledge – Expertise relevant to different aspects of high-dimensional challenges tends to be dispersed among distinct domains, requiring integration mechanisms that can synthesize diverse perspectives into a unified working model. However, traditional forms of group collaboration often fail to fully activate the synergies latent within distributed knowledge.
Socio-Technical Constraints – Both social factors like organizational culture and technical issues like data availability place practical limits on the problem-solving process that must be reconciled within proposed solutions. The socio-technical constraints are often ignored or obscured in abstract representations, which marginalizes feasibility in pursuit of theoretical ideals.
Rather than abstract away from, we need to embrace multidimensionality. An immersive metaverse represents one promising approach by activating our full cognitive capabilities within a responsive, interactive representation of the problems.
The Metaverse Approach
Embodied Cognition at the Core of the Metaverse Approach
The metaverse holds potential to transform problem solving by situating human intelligence within interactive, responsive representations of high-dimensional challenges. At the core of this transformative approach lies the notion of embodied cognition – the idea that our thoughts and reasoning are shaped by having a physical body with sensorimotor capacities that interact with the environment.
When immersed within virtual reality recreations of complex problem spaces, embodied cognition is activated in ways that traditional conceptual frameworks struggle to achieve. The embodied problem-solving space of higher order offer possibilities to:
Literally embody perspectives within the problem – the vantage point of specific elements or stakeholders related to the challenge. This shifts reasoning from an abstract, disembodied view to one situated within the system – cultivating intuitions that mere mental simulation fails to generate.
Physically (phygitally) manipulate variables within the model – Participants can grasp, rearrange and reshape elements of the interactive problem representation to mentally "try out" alternative configurations. Performative, hands-on engagement fosters insights that static conceptualizations often miss.
Embark on "what if" journeys to generate hypotheses – By dynamically modifying variables and constraints within the virtual environment, the simulated pathways through the problem space can unpack hidden dependencies, feedbacks and emergent outcomes. Here, mental models are reshaped through direct experience.
Coordinate perspectives and ideas through embodied action – Collaborators immersed within a shared virtual representation coordinate perspectives and generate ideas through embodied gestures, gaze and movement. The very act of co-presence and joint action within the problem space incubates synergies beyond what distributed conceptualizations allow.
Learn through an experiential, evolutionary process – Participants incrementally reshape their embodied engagement with – and manipulation of – the interactive model based on insights gleaned from direct experience. Situated learning spawns a co-evolution of human intelligence and the problem representation over time.
In these cases, human problem-solvers within world-embedded interactive models are situated into a new problem solving space with different qualities and dimensions. It’s space that allows them to literally grasp, rearrange and experience elements with their own bodies. That can be activated by the metaverse as a situated form of cognition that traditional methods fail to engage. Insights are generated through performative engagement that abstract conceptualizations can match only to a degree, and are not accessible to everyone (certainly not those who cannot think in abstract models). Embodied cognition thus lies at the heart of the metaverse's transformative potential, empowering the navigation of complexity.
Situated Problem Solving
When situated within virtual recreations of complex problem spaces that encode relevant data, nuance and constraints, human cognition essentially becomes "coupled" to the environment in a way that extends our cognitive reach. Situated problem solving within the metaverse carry certain characteristics:
An Intimately Informed Perspective – Once we embody elements and perspectives within an integrated model of a complex challenge, we gain an intimately informed vantage point from within the problem space. This situated perspective cultivates intuitions that abstract conceptualizations, removed from experiential particulars, often lack. We can perceive non-obvious dynamics, feedbacks and constraints that transformations from the outside fail to expose.
Direct Perceptual Coupling – Rather than discussing elements of a high-dimensional problem abstractly, we perceive – and reason from – an interactive virtual representation that encodes multivariate data and nuance perceptually. The immersive perception of patterns, dependencies and qualities of the problem activates harmonious, intuitive modes of thinking that traditional conceptual abstractions struggle to generate. Participants perceive the problem, rather than a conception of the problem.
Fluid Manipulability – When situated within an environment that allows direct manipulation of elements, variables and relationships within the problem space, insights emerge from the very act of reshaping parts of the whole. Based on that, we generate hypotheses by literally trying out alternative configurations, exposing unseen causes and effects through performative engagement. The mutability afforded by virtual worlds cultivates an experiential, experimental approach to hypothesis generation.
The Amplification of Intelligence – By coupling human intelligence within a responsive model that encodes enormous amounts of data and contextual nuance, the representational powers of the metaverse essentially amplify our cognitive capabilities. Situated within such an interactive "exoskeleton" that extends perceptual and reasoning faculties, problem-solvers gain a cognitive reach that isolation within the mind alone cannot provide. The metaverse transforms intelligence into a problem-solving "organ" embedded within the environment.
An Evolutionary Process of Inquiry – By providing a persistent environment that can be re-entered repeatedly over time, the metaverse facilitates an evolutionary approach to hypothesis generation and testing. Insights spawned from situated engagement inform iterative refinement of the model, gradually scaffolding understanding that grows out of the embodied interaction between human intelligence and the world-embedded representation. Progressive insights emerge from this coupled, co-evolutionary process.
Immersion within virtual recreations of complex problem spaces that perceptually encode multivariate data and constraints essentially "couples" our cognition to the environment in productive ways – cultivating fluidity, intuition and synthesis necessary to navigate complexity at unprecedented scales. This is an immersive inquiry at its core, that allows collaborative sensemaking.
Conclusion
Metaverse potentially presents an opportunity for intuitively representing and manipulating high-dimensional problems through immersive virtuality. Via integration of holistic spatial models, enabling fluid interaction, facilitating distributed collaboration and fostering serendipitous insights through simulations, the metaverse aims to empower collective problem solving abilities that transcend what any individual mind can achieve in isolation. If realized at scale, it will provide humanity with the integrated, exosomatic "intellectual organ" necessary for navigating complexity at the planetary level.
Whether the metaverse ultimately becomes a tool for amplifying our shared creative potential to solve problems, or an isolating realm characterized by disinformation and division, depends on how ethical, inclusive and evidence-based its development path becomes. The evolution timeline is not clear and can go many ways. There’s still no aligned purpose nor the powering technology to give us tools for high-dimensional challenges in service of the common good. But after a long time, something emerged that gives hope (at least) that the necessary infrastructures will become realized.
Title image credit: David Koblesky