Saturday, July 28, 2007

Second Life

I had planned to write a description of “Second Life” this morning, but then I discovered that Freyashawk has already posted a wonderful description and discussion . Of course her approach to the “game” is different from mine, but before I write my essay on “Second Life” I recommend that you read the one on "Thoughts from Freyashawk".

MY FIRST CREATION, THE UPSIDE-DOWN PYRAMID WITH OBJECTS ON TOP . . . LIKE MY FIRST DAY AT KINDERGARTEN

Freyashawk and I agree that “Second Life” is not a game. It is another world largely created by its inhabitants (I suppose we should consider the original creators/owners of the game its gods). The inhabitants/members are visually represented there in the form of the “avatars” they choose. The most difficult thing for me to remember when exploring “Second Life” is that every person on the screen -- walking or flying, creating things, dancing, talking via typed chat to other people nearby -- is a real person sitting at a computer somewhere in the real world at that moment.

To me the most remarkable and interesting thing about “Second Life” is not anything in it, but the fact that it exists – that such a fantastically complex and coordinated virtual world can exist, and how it can exist.

8 comments:

  1. had a bittuva play in "Second Life" fer about half an hour. Nice for those with "time" to waste. Am much more interested in trying to organise my first "Real Life" to get overly involved in that sort of thing .. heh.

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  2. So this is Second Life. Read about it in "On The Fast Track" comic strip. Interesting.

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  3. Davo, I'm finding just the opposite: My so-called "real life" is interfering with my second life!

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  4. Wombat, the best thing about it is that it's free to explore, and so like Davo you can spend a little time there without committing yourself. I have mixed feelings about getting really involved, especially since you find as many obnoxious people there as in the real world, but I'm fascinated with learning to create objects and that's keeping me a regular visitor.

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  5. "To me the most remarkable and interesting thing about “Second Life” is not anything in it, but the fact that it exists – that such a fantastically complex and coordinated virtual world can exist, and how it can exist."

    Yes. I've been afraid to even visit it. There is a theory that humanity itself will disappear through this skylight.

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  6. Marc, tell me more . . . about that skylight theory.

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  7. A phone, when used often enough, is taken for granted. It ceases to become technology, but is a mundane part of the world. It effectively disappears. Yet it is a portal to a different plane of existence.

    A virtual world taken for granted becomes real. Our bodies will disappear into that portal, and they will keep on going without us.

    http://www.amazon.com/Disappearing-Through-Skylight-Technology-Twentieth/dp/014011582X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-0907552-7463664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186008003&sr=8-1

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  8. Marc, thank you for the explanation. One of the thoughts that has occurred to me throughout this blog is that we may be, indeed, lost in a virtual game world, no longer aware that it's a game. You've also augmented a recurring theme here -- that for humans the unfamiliar becomes the unnoticed, the magical the mundane, the extraordinary the ordinary. If an entity from a quite different existence suddenly found himself here on Earth he would think he was in a land of miracles. It's amazing that humans so easily fall into the trap of thinking that what they currently take for granted is all that is possible in the universe.

    Thanks again, Marc!

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