Time geography in a hybrid physical–virtual world

Abstract

Time geography was conceptualized in the 1960s when the technology was very different from what we have today. Conventional time-geographic concepts therefore were developed with a focus on human activities and interactions in physical space. We now live in a smart, connected, and dynamic world with human activities and interactions increasingly taking place in virtual space enabled by modern information and communications technology. Coupled with recent advances in sensing and mobile technologies, it is now feasible to collect human dynamics data in both physical and virtual spaces with unprecedented spatial and temporal details in the so-called Big Data era. The Big Data era brings both opportunities and challenges to time geography. While the unprecedented data collected in the Big Data era can serve as useful data sources to time-geographic research, we also notice that some classical concepts in time geography are insufficient to properly handle human dynamics in today’s hybrid physical–virtual world in many cases. This paper first discusses the evolving human dynamics enabled by technological advances to illustrate different types of hybrid physical–virtual space performed through internet applications, digital twins, and augmented reality/virtual reality/metaverse. We then review the classical time-geographic concepts of constraints, space–time path, space–time prism, bundle, project/situation, and diorama in a hybrid physical–virtual world to discuss potential extensions of some classical time-geographic concepts to bolster human dynamics research in today’s hybrid physical–virtual world.