A life without me (day 32)

Let's talk more about bodies in Second Life.  I was watching a talk recorded in SL a few days ago and I eventually had to walk away from the image because the self-intersecting bodies performing strange and repeating 'casual' moves were too distracting.   In that case, and perhaps because it was recorded and not live, I found the whole idea of an avatar presentation in Second Life a little superfluous.  What exactly was gained over an audio broadcast except the visual awareness of audience for the presenter?  If I'd been at that conference in the...ummm...what's the SL equivalent of flesh?  Anyway, if I'd been there,  I couldn't have even walked away from the screen or done email at the same time for fear of my avatar suddenly going zombie like.   Like playing Barbies, you have to be there to strike the poses or it just doesn't work.

Some people say that virtual worlds like SL will be the new browser.   One of the big differences between a browser and SL is privacy.  For the most part, when I'm browsing I don't have crowds looking on.   In SL, if I'm looking at an object or reading a sign or watching a video and someone happens to walk by, they can see what I'm doing.   There are advantages to being seen, primarily meeting like-minded people, but it does break a certain paradigm of the lone surfer which has a lot of advantages too.  For that reason I would advocate for an invisibility mode in SL where you are not seen and you can't see others. Difficulties arise when you effect the world but these difficulties already exist in a web browser when you post on FB for example.   I'm also interested in the possibility of history sliders for portions of the world.  And the possibility of ambient live data rooms where real world data is being piped in and being audio-visualized in real-time.    The two together (a-vis+history slider) would add some insight.

Most fancifully, I'd love to have my avatar develop a separate life.  Why do I need to be there all the time?  Why couldn't she just make friends and develop a personality?  Then I do a 'being John Malkovich' on her and re-enter at will.  She would be like a walking talking recommendation engine.

A song for this post.

A life by any other name (day 31)

I wonder about Second Life.  I feel old when I think that many others wonder why I have to wonder.  There are so many trends to keep track of and one must show discernment.   I've been in Second Life a few times and each time I feel icky and awkward.  The social rules don't apply in the same way and I've been through a few chats that left me feeling a little affronted if not assaulted.   So I decided not to invest much time into it.  The SL headlines wizzed by at dizzying speeds for a while.  The hype couldn't have been more shrill.  Now it's down to a drizzle of headlines and most people have polarized into "i like it, i don't like it".   Maybe it's the disillusionment phase of a new technology where we suddenly see the hard work it'll take to solve the inherent problems.  And the phase where we see that we are still humans fundamentally still looking for the panacea.

In the disillusionment I see realism and I feel better there.  It's like I can have some room to think about what it might mean to carve out a space for myself in that technology.   In the best possible virtual world with the most enlightened avatars, what would happen?  Actually it's the avatar part that I'm not so sure of.  Or rather the humanoid forms that pass for avatars up to now.   Playing the game 'Flower' today made me think of what it might be to navigate information as a petal rather than a human.  I know it's fanciful but it seems a lot closer to the way I feel when I traverse information in a browser for example.   I'm not exactly sure why a body needs to be added.  Sure, the body language is potentially interesting but if it can be faked at the click of a button, what's the point?

I have to sleep.  More on SL tomorrow.

A song for this post.