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.

VR: Daydreaming, recreation or our way further down the rabbit hole?

What is the true nature of our existence? Human beings have been speculating about this question probably since there were human beings. We have generated myths, religions, and philosophies and maybe now even games and virtual worlds in order to try and get at that answer.

The Hindus proclaim that our lives are "maya," which is a Sanskrit word meaning "illusion." Some have described the Hindu conception of the universe as “God playing hide-and-seek with Himself.”

Buddhism is slightly different from Hinduism in looking at this question. In Buddhist teaching, there is no fundamental reality at any level. So I guess even God playing hide-and-seek is illusion.

There is also a difference between the Eastern and Western religious view of this question. Western thinkers do not generally call into question the reality of the self. We are raised on the notion of the individual. In our case, the universe might be a dream or an illusion, but I the dreamer am real with my own individual soul.

The Gnostics, on the other hand, are said to have believed that Yahweh is in fact not really God but an evil deceiver who created the false reality of the material world within which we are imprisoned. They believe our souls contain sparks of light connecting us to the True God, and by obtaining mystical knowledge ("gnosis") we can transcend this false reality and reunite with Him.

So -- is this "reality" or is this some sort of dream or illusion? And if this isn’t reality then what is virtual reality? Will it help us answer this question?

Like Kathy Acker, I got some of this from another source. To see that for yourself go to: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Urban-Legends-3056/Matrix-movie-1.htm