The Island Metaphor
Bill Tomlinson, Eric P. S. Baumer, Man Lok Yau · 2006
This paper presents an “Island Metaphor ” for interactions with systems of heterogeneous computational devices employing mobile agents. In this metaphor, stationary computers represent islands of virtual spaces, and mobile devices represent virtual rafts that allow agents to move through a sea of real space. The Island Metaphor provides several benefits over existing computational metaphors, and may be relevant to applications in education, entertainment, and social technologies. 1 The Island Metaphor As computational systems become more complex, it is both necessary and desirable for users to interact with them at higher levels of control. This high level interaction requires systems that are capable of greater autonomy. The desktop computing metaphor, however, does not lend itself to computational autonomy. Real desktops do not feature autonomous entities, so people do not have a natural understanding of how to interact with autonomous entities in the context of a real desktop- a real paperclip that stood up and addressed the person seated at the desk would be viewed with a certain amount of suspicion. This makes it hard for users to draw on their previous experience to know how to behave when confronted with autonomous agents in the context of a virtual desktop. This poster presents the “Island Metaphor, ” which could help to integrate autonomous software into people’s lives. In this metaphor, stationary computers are islands of virtual space, and the physical separations between stationary computers are oceans of real space. The inhabitants of these virtual islands are autonomous software agents, which can use mobile devices as virtual rafts to cross that ocean of real space. Humans can play multiple roles, including the forces of nature moving the rafts, or the government in control of ocean travel. Security in this metaphor can be implemented in terms of a Customs office that Figure 1 – Animated agents transferring in the Virtual Raft project.