Give it Up For Other Worlds
Posted on December 16, 2006
Filed Under What's New |
I got the distinct impression in the virtual world, reading about, venturing there, that a small cadre of frontiersfolk are thinking about such fundamentals as - so how do we police this? Do I actually need privacy? Is avatar sex in public better than real sex? Cross that last one out - I stumbled upon a copulating couple recently in Second Life. Mind you it was in a virtual sex shop. They seemed to be women but with a set of complete organs, enough for a man and a woman. Bizarre world but if you want to explore the edges of sexuality, in relative safety, I guess there are few better ways, though one commenter here has said the fantasies extend to the illegal (which introduces a problem, I’d say, for Linden Labs).
The very fact of people exploring the edge of our own world is particularly poignant given current US military and space policy. Having messed up here, Bush wants to put people on the moon and from there Mars. There have been sightings after all, of drops of water on the hot planet.
Humans have always dreamed and always found the next frontier a draw but… but. There’s always a but. Does anyone share my sense that the attractions of virtual living are the same as outer space - getting away from reality? It’s obvious and yet so obvious you think: no, virtual reality and space are just metaphors for imagination. They are not bolt holes. le the imagination soar.
I see countervailing trends at work. I think there is a cadre of people that will be able to ask important questions in the process of setting up virtual worlds and these may allow us to move our democratic practices on. You might imagine for example that the experience of organising small virtual worlds will lead to a greater demand for a new generation of self-organising local political groups, perhpas around such issues as education. I don’t think it is fanciful either to envisage the emergence of new elites based on their experience of virtual living.
This is the real Star Trek and we can imagine also that the Darmoks might learn to speak English and Chinese or that new langauges and codes will evolve.
On the other hand the moon and Mars strike me as a consequence of frustration. The oval office conversation that goes: What’s your legacy going to be George? Iraq? No. Look around at the Presidents before you and ask youself this question. Can you honestly put hand on heart and say I am an Irqi too? Ich bin Ein Iraqi? It’d be easier to fly to the moon. Which might have been exactly what JFK was thinking hanging around Checkpoint Charlie on a damp day.
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