Autonomous Realities: A Journey into Protocolizing Digital Object Permanence in a Future of Many Mixed Realities

Published on Aarhus 2025

Autonomous Realities: A Journey into Protocolizing Digital Object Permanence in a Future of Many Mixed Realities

Abstract

As see-through Mixed Reality (MR) glasses become more prevalent, the inherent asymmetry of MR challenges how we share realities: although see-through technology allows wearers to share the same physical environment, their augmented layers are unique and private to each individual by default. Much of the existing collaborative MR research presumes that all wearers run the same augmented layer—an assumption that may not hold true in the future. This design fiction follows a digital pet rock as it traverses various augmented layers while underlying technology and protocols evolve, posing provocative questions: Can you see what I see, and if so, can you interact with it? What protocols govern these visibilities and interactions? Where do digital objects exist, and what are their ontological natures? How do mixed realities merge across personal devices, clouds, and blockchains? Through a comic-style narrative, we explore four chapters—Centralized Realities, Distributed Realities, Persistent Realities, and Autonomous Realities—to spark reflection on the sociotechnical implications of object impermanence in social MR systems and the challenges of achieving metaverse interoperability.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Ethereum Foundation and the Summer of Protocols program for their financial support.