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AR in the Wild -- City Games and Communities

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I've been interested in virtual and augmented reality for a long time. I've also been interested in how these technologies can be used to create new experiences and communities, in particular, if they can be used to create communities around games and experiences as outlined in the boo Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez.

This post will explore the idea of using augmented reality to create games and communities in the real world. It will also explore the technologies that can be used to create these experiences.

This post will not address Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or the Daemon as described in the book. For more information on AGI, check out these episodes of the Google Deepmind podcast.

Google Deepmind Podcast: The Future of AGI
Google Deepmind Podcast: The Future of AGI

The idea: What is the Daemon? What is the Darknet? #

In order to understand the idea of this post we need to understand the Daemon and the Darknet as described in the books.

In the novels, the Daemon is an advanced AI that operates autonomously, executing its creator's vision without human intervention. It uses a decentralized network to coordinate actions and influence events globally. The Darknet is a self-organizing system that operates outside traditional power structures, allowing individuals to connect and collaborate without centralized control.

The Darknet, overseen by the Daemon’s evolved AI, leverages advanced technologies to create both a defensive force and a means of social organization.

It also has created Holons, self-sufficient communities that operate on principles of sustainability and cooperation both locally and as a global network. These Holons are designed to thrive independently while contributing to the overall resilience of the Darknet.

It is the Holons that I want to focus on this post.

Can we build the daemon? #

To me, Suarez's novels present a series of interesting challenges and questions:

  • Can we build communities around games and experiences in the real world?
  • Can we use augmented reality (as it exists in 2025) to create these experiences?
  • How to structure these experiences?

There are other questions to answer but I believe that, for this post, these three are the most important ones.

I believe that, while we might not be able to build AGI like the Daemon (yet), we might be able to build some aspects of the Darknet using existing technologies.

Understanding the technologies #

Niantic Lightship platform

How it may work #

Future Considerations #

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