{"id":8296,"date":"2013-04-09T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=8296"},"modified":"2013-04-07T00:24:38","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T06:24:38","slug":"h-is-for-hologram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/h-is-for-hologram\/","title":{"rendered":"H is for Hologram"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cortana\"<\/a>In real life, the term “hologram<\/a>” means something fairly specific.\u00a0 But in science fiction<\/a>, it can mean a number of different things.<\/p>\n

For example, in Star Wars it’s basically a three dimensional video recording projected on a flat surface.\u00a0 In Halo, it’s the visual form that the AI character Cortana takes when she wants to interact with the Master Chief.\u00a0 And in Star Trek, the holograms actually have a degree of physical substance, so that in some episodes they go rogue and try to take over the ship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The basic underlying idea, though, is the same: blurring the line between the virtual world and the real world through a virtual projection that we can interact with.\u00a0 And in that sense, this is actually an area where science fact is fast catching up with science fiction.<\/p>\n

Some sub-genres, such as cyberpunk, focus almost solely on the tension between the real and the virtual.\u00a0 Often set in a near-future world, cyberpunk stories often feature a crapsack future<\/a>, from which the only meaningful escape is a virtual reality.\u00a0 But the thing about virtual realities is that they can be reprogrammed in such a way as to give the ones controlling it almost absolute power over the lives of the people inside.\u00a0 For that reason, the main characters are often hackers, struggling against the corporate evil overlords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But holograms aren’t restricted to cyberpunk.\u00a0 They’re quite common in space opera, too, and not just because they’re cool<\/a>.\u00a0 For one thing, they can be really useful for training simulations<\/a> (which often leads to holodeck malfunctions<\/a>, courtesy of the rule of drama<\/a>).\u00a0 They can also be useful as disguises or decoys<\/a>, especially in the Halo series.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most memorable holograms are the ones who develop a close relationship with their real-world human counterparts.\u00a0 This may include romance<\/a>, which, combined with the existential angst that typically surrounds androids, robots, and cyborgs<\/a>, makes for some very interesting tension.\u00a0 A good example of this is Cortana from the Halo series, an alien AI who took on a younger form of her human handler, Doctor Halsey, and then developed a very close relationship with her Spartan bodyguard<\/a>, the Master Chief.\u00a0 It never actually went anywhere (at least in the main series arc), but it certainly made for an interesting story.<\/p>\n

Jane from the Ender’s Game<\/em> series would probably be my favorite hologram, though she’s more of a shapeshifting AI who can take many different forms, depending on what suits her.\u00a0 Cortana is definitely up there too.\u00a0 I haven’t used this trope much in my own fiction yet, but I’m playing with it in Heart of the Nebula<\/strong>, a currently unpublished direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not sure exactly where I want to take it yet, but it should be interesting.<\/p>\n

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