＂Metauniverse＂ is a hot topic. How does Dune build a science fiction world？

Original title:To the left, "Metauniverse" to the right.

The annual sci-fi blockbuster "Dune" directed by a new Hollywood director was recently released. However, in sharp contrast to the eager expectation of sci-fi fans, the domestic box office of Dune has always been tepid, with only 245 million box office in the past month, which is far from people’s expectations before its release.

However, while the film Dune was cold in China, another topic with a sense of science fiction — — The "meta-universe", however, became popular because Facebook changed its name to "M e t a v e r s e" (meaning "meta-universe"). The so-called "meta-universe" is a virtual space that provides immersive experience and realistic feeling. The discussion on "Metauniverse" once went beyond the fields of science and technology and finance, and even rose to the humanistic height of the future destiny of mankind.

However, in the author’s opinion, the film Dune is cold and the topic of "Metauniverse" is exploding. These two seemingly completely unrelated topics actually have an implicit internal connection. To understand the essence of this connection, it is necessary to go deep into the field of science fiction literature history shared by these two topics.

Frank Herbert, the original author of Dune, was only a little-known independent journalist before he created this classic sci-fi work. Herbert, Washington, once lived in La Push, Washington for many years, and witnessed the process of local desertification due to ecological destruction. In the early 1960s, when the trend of ecologism was just emerging, the professional sensitivity of journalists inspired creative inspiration. Dune was officially published in 1965. Since then, Herbert has been developing this huge story universe for the rest of his life. Finally, one year before his death, The End of Dune was published, forming the true story of Dune. Dune, with its huge and rigorous world outlook and ups and downs of story, is closer to the writing techniques of mainstream literature in Europe and America. It won Hugo Award and Xingyun Award in one fell swoop, and was also selected into many lists such as Amazon’s "100 books that must be read in life", BBC’s "100 most popular books in Britain" and National Public Radio’s "TOP100 of science fiction and fantasy novels".

The success of Dune is closely related to the background of its creation. In the 1960s, the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union gradually fell into a stalemate, and the space competition between the two countries became more and more intense, which objectively accelerated the development of human space technology. The gate of the stars and the sea seems to have slowly spread to mankind. At the same time, with the development of computer technology, the automatic production technology represented by industrial robots began to spread, and the theoretical research and engineering practice of artificial intelligence were also progressing steadily. Herbert obviously noticed these developments. About 10,000 years before the true story of Dune, he designed a man-machine war called "Butler Jihad". The cause of the war is that human beings realize that the development of artificial intelligence has threatened human survival and may turn human beings into "slaves". As a result, a two-generation war broke out between the camp that supported artificial intelligence and the camp that opposed artificial intelligence. In the end, the anti-artificial intelligence side won a complete victory, issued a decree to destroy all intelligent machines, and permanently banned the existence of any intelligent machines that simulated human beings. Without the help of intelligent machines, human beings can only strengthen their own abilities, and then differentiate into "new humans" with special abilities such as navigator, Mentat and Dr. Suk. The "spice" on the planet Erakos has become a necessity for space navigation in the dune world because of its special functions. And the only thing that can produce "spices"The planet Erakos has become the eye of the storm in all struggles.

As a big IP with "debut is the peak", Dune has naturally attracted the attention of Hollywood. However, as a film and television project, Dune is regarded as a "curse" by the industry because its content is too complicated and requires a lot of film and television special effects. However, Dune has provided creative inspiration for countless Hollywood directors, such as space empire in China, space mining in China, man-machine war in China, and so on.

However, back to reality, the world after the publication of Dune is getting farther and farther away from the "space future" described by the author. In fact, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union is more like a "national strength show" between superpowers, which will eventually end because it is unsustainable. Today, the development of human space technology has also shifted from space exploration to space application. Compared with the 1960s and 1970s, there is no breakthrough.

In contrast, it was originally only used as a subsystem of the missile defense system — — However, computer network technology shows amazing development potential, and in the 1980s, it attracted wide attention of sci-fi creators. In 1982, a film containing artificial intelligence, consciousness uploading, Cyberspace and other elements was released; Two years later, William Gibson’s novel Nerve Wanderer won three science fiction awards, such as Hugo Award, Xingyun Award and Philip K. Dick Award. In 1992, neal stephenson described his imaginary cyberspace with "verse" in the novel Avalanche. The concept of "virtual world parallel to the real world and always online" now has a more resounding name — — "Metauniverse".

Are the "Space Empire" and "Metauniverse" in Dune really incompatible? I’m afraid not! In fact, since mankind entered the industrial age, science and technology have been continuously integrated. The underlying logic of scientific and technological development is to transform "non-resources" into resources and commercialize them to generate economic value. Today’s "stagnation" of space technology, on the one hand, is due to the lack of significant economic benefits of cutting-edge space technology, and it is difficult to attract capital attention. Another fundamental reason is that the human body structure evolved for the terrestrial environment of the earth. Let alone leave the earth and enter space, even if it leaves the surface, or comes to the underground and marine environment, it is difficult to survive. It can be seen that even if humans master interstellar space technology, large-scale space migration is unlikely to be realized.

Similarly, "metauniverse" is just a concept that needs technical support. It is not necessarily less difficult for human beings to create a virtual world in which they can live than to immigrate to Mars. But the reason why "Metauniverse" is favored by the capital market is that its ultimate goal looks more economically feasible — — If we can create another "world" outside the real world, it will inevitably bring considerable economic growth. This expectation itself is enough to make the real capital market crazy.

So, how can we keep mankind from being trapped in the earth forever because of indulging in the "meta-universe"? In fact, as shown in the movie: As a star, the sun will "die" one day. If human beings want to continue their own civilization, aerospace technology will inevitably become a necessity. If we believe that "space empire" and "meta-universe" can coexist in the future, then the subject of space immigrants may not be real people, but the consciousness of immigrants will be digitized and stored in the server of "cloud universe". It is obviously much easier to launch a server into space through a spaceship than to immigrate a real person into outer space. In this way, the goal of "immigration" will no longer be limited to the so-called livable planet, and human civilization will also spread to a broader universe.

Of course, the above is purely the author’s "scientific fantasy". This is also one of the most important values of science fiction for modern people, that is, to provide a field of thought experiments that can be infinitely extended. Whether it’s the space empire or the meta-universe, maybe the direction is different. But as long as the direction of human pursuit of happiness and rationality remains unchanged, we have reason to look forward to a bright future. (Author: Liu Jian, associate professor of Tianjin Art Vocational College, special expert of China Science Fiction Research Center)