Instant Places is a software fiction that creates a networked formed ad hoc to connect dispersed data places. These data places can stretch over multiple computers and also multiple network systems. They are not bound by geography, time and space. Once Instant Places is installed on a computer that is connected to the Internet the software begins to search for peers allowing its inhabitants to travel freely to and from newly discovered places.
Instant Places inhabitants consist of both predator and prey that communicate with each other over the network. When the software is installed for the first time at any given location, each of these inhabitants, predator and prey, must be named and their geographical origination given. When the inhabitants are traveling over the networks viewers are able to see where the inhabitants have originated from. The predators are represented by birds and their prey is represented by mice. Their population can dwindle and/or multiply. Visible on the screen, in addition to the names and origins of the predators, is their current behavior (such as fleeing, attacking, surveying, defending, etc.) and their precise longitude and latitude and altitude within the software generated fictitious world.
Instant Places can not be influenced or altered by any other factors outside of the software fiction itself. The software fiction stories do not repeat themselves but instead all follow similar “social” rules that have been defined by the custom software. The inhabitant’s actions are defined by real time messaging. And at times, when things appear rather peaceful in the story, suddenly something will happen to upset the balance.