ale of the survey and what (and how much) to sample. Decide on whether or not to conduct remote sensing or invasive subsurface testing. How will you record this data? Will there be follow-up surveys allowing for more detailed collection and analysis? At the survey’s conclusion, can you develop any kind of predictive model for where one might find other artifacts or settlements?
The survey and research plan points are applicable to the archaeological investigation of synthetic worlds. Any archeological fieldwork much be driven by research questions and a plan on how to answer those questions. For my online archaeological survey, I needed to find a site that extensively used procedural content generation, which would perhaps exhibit evidence of “machine-created culture,” material remains created and organized by algorithms that would populate a synthetic landscape. No Man’s Sky seemed to be the best fit for this need. I wanted to check distribution of sites and artifacts, to see how buildings and landscapes interacted, to look at animals and vegetation and their relationship to the landscape and these structures, and to see how these manifested in the nearly infinite worlds that could be explored. Barring a multi-player option (which would materialize in a basic way one year after the game’s initial release), I had to conduct my surveys as a lone fieldwalker and as a lone pilot. I used different levels of granularity in my surveys, less detail when flying (counting structures and times between them), and more detail when on the ground (noting artifacts, brush density). Future surveys can be undertaken in synthetic worlds that actively encourage guilds (groups of players) who can survey together in the same landscape on the same server. This will also allow for specialization. Depending on the synthetic world, we can sample and “shovel test.”
I mentioned non-invasive survey techniques above. Paul Cheetham covers this for natural worlds in “Noninvasive Subsurface Mapping Techniques, Satellite and Aerial Imagery in Landscape Archaeology.” Prior to starting a non-invasive survey, consider: survey objectives, archaeological questions, previously remotely sensed evidence and results, current land-use, former land-use, underlying solid and drift geology, other local geomorphological and topographic factors, degree of access to the land, time, money, personnel, and equipment available for the survey.
Depending on how the synthetic world is constructed and what it allows players to do, it can be possible to conduct a variety of remote sensing tasks. For example, in No Man’s Sky, it is possible to orbit planets like a satellite prior to penetrating atmospheric cover for high-altitude overflight, followed by high- or low-speed travel a few meters above the deck, giving the surveyer different kinds of information about what’s on the surface of the landscape, and if there are any patterns to be observed. Once on the ground with the proper tool equipped, one can conduct a rudimentary form of remote sensing, which produces icons showing players where to dig, and occasionally revealing underground caverns and other geologic formations. Each synthetic world has its own rules of engagement, which must be followed by players in order to successfully survey these landscapes. Depending on the hardware and platform used to host these worlds, however, it may be possible to create modifications (mods) of tools and other equipment, which allows for bending the rules of a world in order to conduct aerial imagery or remote sensing. This raises ethical questions about whether modifying a world affects how archaeologists see the world, and how non-human agents operate within that world once it has been changed from its original state. Mods inject an additional level of complexity into a synthetic world, which might have unexpected/unintended results. At the same time, however, the archaeologist might be able to create a more useful digital toolkit for exploring these digital built environments, instead of relying on more traditional methods that might