Autonomous World: When a system of entities and rules is given life, it becomes a world.
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Autonomous World: When a system of entities and rules is given life, it becomes a world.
No longer needing to trust institutions, residents of the world can run consensus algorithms to automatically reach agreement on the history of the world.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Lattice
Translation: MetaCat
We live in many different worlds, each with its own unique customs, rules, history, and accepted truths. Some worlds are serious, while others are playful. Think of the world of your favorite sci-fi novel, the realm of any major religion, or World of Warcraft. When you enter one of these worlds, it feels profoundly real. Worlds come in all shapes and forms, each governed by self-consistent rules and entities.
These worlds are alive. If a world is successful enough, millions will pay attention to it, immerse themselves in it, and integrate it into their daily lives—sparking drama, conflict, and other sparks of life.
These worlds are brought to life through various mediums—be it films and sci-fi conventions, the Bible and places of worship, or Blizzard’s game servers.
These worlds also have owners. Authorities, authors, institutions—they determine the rules of the game. The owner records the world’s history and defines what is possible and impossible within it. The owner is trusted.
But owners can also break trust and arbitrarily change the rules. Especially in digital worlds, server owners can rewrite actions, delete achievements, or even tamper with or erase history altogether.
What if we could create the same "aliveness" in a world that belongs to no one? What kinds of emergence and creativity might flourish in a world where anyone is free to build?
Some games and online spaces become worlds unto themselves, developing deep narratives, histories, and cultures as if they had always existed. We believe these digital worlds can be as meaningful, impactful, and resonant as the physical world. We call such digital spaces “Autonomous Worlds”.
Autonomous Worlds introduce the possibility of reality without an owner. They are feasible in digital realms, finding an ideal substrate on blockchains. Blockchains guarantee the long-term persistence and autonomy of these worlds, while enabling creation beyond their original designers by transparently executing and recording their internal logic.
"Autonomy" does not mean the absence of humans or participants, but rather that the world's existence does not depend on any specific individual or institution. Without owners or institutional gatekeepers, anyone is free to build atop Autonomous Worlds.
Blockchains provide a new mechanism of trust for Autonomous Worlds: instead of trusting institutions, the world’s residents (or anyone who cares about it) can run consensus algorithms, using computers to automatically agree on the world’s history. No owner is needed to decide what is or isn’t part of the universe.
Blockchains are also highly composable and modifiable—anyone can deploy code that interacts with the rest of the world, as long as the rules are followed: like chess pieces with limited moves, yet giving rise to millions of possible game states.
Owner-controlled worlds resemble theme parks—highly curated, tightly controlled environments. Autonomous Worlds, by contrast, are more like evolving cities, where anyone can introduce new customs, cultures, political systems, or economic rules, and feel their ripple effects across the world. They may be messy, but they are self-consistent.
Because Autonomous Worlds are built on blockchain infrastructure, residents can be confident that their actions and modifications will persist forever.
Each Autonomous World has its own digital physics: immutable laws that impose constraints. Paradoxically, these limitations are precisely what drive creativity among its inhabitants. Simple, fixed rules give people space to build original, creative things on top of them.
Autonomous Worlds, powered by a new kind of computation, create persistent, multi-author virtual domains capable of collaborative evolution and transcending traditional digital experiences.
At Lattice, we’re fascinated by emergent, unforeseeable behaviors that can arise in digital realms. We provide infrastructure and tools for developers, creators, storytellers, and disruptors to build Autonomous Worlds.
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