I have decided to go ahead and create a separate blog for the project I am doing with Public Infinity. There is a link from this blog or you can go to:
http://publicinfinity.blogspot.com/
So, if you are solely interested in that project I would suggest going to that blog.
Update on Public Infinity
Virtual Identity Crisis
From a philosophy magazine: "We have been engaged all of our lives in creating a stable sense of our identity out of whatever is thrown at us. We humans are unique among the animals in having a coherent sense of self, and this begins with our appropriating our own bodies as our own. This is our most fundamental human achievement: that of transforming our pre-personal bodies - blood, snot, etc. - into the ground floor of our personal identity...Existential Intuition the sense 'I am this' our appropriation of our own bodies as persons who participate in a collective culture. The essense of human identity lies in this continuuing self-redefinition."
What would SL look like if it wasn't made by humans with a need for that stable sense of identity?
What does it mean that our SL bodies don't have blood, snot, etc?
Do we get so into SL that we think 'I am this' when we are there as our avatars? What does that do to change our relationship to our physical bodies?
Life's Intrinsic Value
I read recently that, "Human lives are intrinsically valuable." The argument the author was making was that we should do all that we can to maximize reproduction including space colonization as a moral imperative. Maybe he was just a horny philosopher that wanted to get laid. I see the potential for the religious right to get a hold of this argument. Sex might turn into a holy imperative. Fun?!
Anyway, what about the colonization of virtual space? Are the lives of our avatars valuable because they are the internet "face" of a real human? Or are they just valued based on how much you have bought in terms of skin, hair, shape, etc.? If our avatars are intrinsically valuable, than we should want the babies we can buy in second life to be more than just accessories that we basically "wear." We should want them to carry on our virtual genes and ideals right? Maybe we should petition the Lindens? Who do we talk to about getting to really reproduce in SL? I mean enough people are having sex all the time without any consequences. But what if I want to reproduce there without having to buy the baby and just "wear" it?
I love Kathy Acker.
"We are now, in the United States and in England, living in a world in which ownership is becoming more and more set. The rich stay rich, the poor stay dead. Death - in - life. The only social mobility left occurs in terms of appearance: things no longer change hands. But fashion is not purely ornamental, it is political...In such a society as ours the only possible chance for change, for mobility, for political, economic, and moral flow lies in the tactics of guerilla warfare, in the use of fictions, of language." - Kathy Acker
I probably didn't get this quote exactly perfectly quoted but I think one of the mother's of appropriation wouldn't mind. My thoughts are this, what does SL offer in terms of mirroring this ugly truth about our society back at us? Especially since so much about SL appears to me to really come down to economics. Call me a doomsayer or a prophet but I think it's a matter of time before people realize the potential for the tactics of guerilla warfare in SL. My advice, either let go completely or hold on to your inventories and second lives tightly.
Simpson's Did It! (in my best General Disarray voice)
I had planned to attempt to redo at least some of the projects Marina Abramovic did when she did her "seven easy pieces." However, it turns out, 0100101110101101.ORG already have a jump on that project and with help are executing it better than I could too. Oh well. The whole thing made me think about that south park episode where butters keeps coming up with ideas and his sidekick says, "simpson's did it." If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably need to watch more south park and play less second life. But just in case you are attached to your computer you can find a summary at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It
Just another question or two.
1. If there is indeed in the way we experience the world a mind/body split then my body is already in a sense my avatar. So then what is my SL avatar?
2. In a place like SL where you can change gender as often as you want and you spend your own money etc., how does one address concepts like feminism?
3. If our identity is defined as the intersection between our body and our memories and shared cultural memories, than what is our SL identity?
All the Names of SL Mindfreak's
Mindfreak Aero
Mindfreak Anatine
Mindfreak Back
Mindfreak Berzin
Mindfreak Boram
Mindfreak Box
Mindfreak Carter
Mindfreak Congrejo
Mindfreak Dragonash
Mindfreak Dryke
Mindfreak Ferraris
Mindfreak Frossard
Mindfreak Furse
Mindfreak Heckroth
Mindfreak Hyun
Mindfreak Kidd (Me)
Mindfreak Laval
Mindfreak McNally
Mindfreak Oppewall
Mindfreak Raymaker
Mindfreak Robbiani
Mindfreak Sands
Mindfreak Sin
Mindfreak Smashcan
Mindfreak Soderstrom
Mindfreak Straaf
Mindfreak Tomsen
Mindfreak Writer
Mindfreak Ziskey
MindfreakMichele Eel
I wanted to get a picture of all the other Mindfreaks. I searched and found the list but don't know how to tell if they are online or where to find them. So the list was all I could do so far. Maybe I'll get that picture eventually. It could be like the Mindfreak yearbook.
Wordsworth: Pictures make us dumb.
ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS - by William Wordsworth
DISCOURSE was deemed Man's noblest attribute,
And written words the glory of his hand;
Then followed Printing with enlarged command
For thought--dominion vast and absolute
For spreading truth, and making love expand.
Now prose and verse sunk into disrepute
Must lacquey a dumb Art that best can suit
The taste of this once-intellectual Land.
A backward movement surely have we here,
From manhood,--back to childhood; for the age--
Back towards caverned life's first rude career.
Avaunt this vile abuse of pictured page!
Must eyes be all in all, the tongue and ear
Nothing? Heaven keep us from a lower stage!
1846.
In the above poem, Wordsworth is lamenting the infantilism of illustrated newspapers. It is his opinion that the illustrated papers are the first steps towards driving us back into the caves. These illustrated newspapers can also be seen as the first steps towards our multimedia existence and also the beginnings of the information age. Wordsworth apparently felt that an overwhelming and endless influx of news from daily papers would cause extreme restlessness in humanity. In that opinion, he may have been right. However, this restlessness may be caused by many other things in our society and not just the daily influx of information. It makes me wonder what he would think of SL? Turning reality into a pictured pseudo reality? Would he find merit in this experience or be skeptical of it? Would he think it too was making us less intelligent? Why does the addition of the picture make us likened to cavemen?
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