Re: Anders Sandberg in Second Life on converging cognitive enhancement, uvvy island in SL, May 23 2007 10am PST

From: José Raerio (zeraeiro@clix.pt)
Date: Sat May 12 2007 - 10:48:09 MDT


It seems obvious that the cost of making a cybercastle is quite puny
with making a real one. Plus, you can make one out of fun. In the
medieval times, it would be kind of expensive to build a castle, you'd
need laborwork, people, etc. It's a natural consequence of one person
being able to make a big place. That's just cyberspace. Maybe we need
more bots, or cyberversions of oneself.

BillK wrote:
> On 5/12/07, asgromo wrote:
> <snip>
>> The psychological aspects of walking around a big shared mutable 3D
>> landscape are great, but I hesitate to believe they're especially
>> conducive to a lecture or conversation. That Second Life as a piece of
>> software just isn't very good at being a big shared mutable 3D landscape
>> is my larger problem besides.
>>
>
> There are plenty of articles available, both supporting Second Life
> and tearing the experience to pieces.
>
> Boing Boing linked to this one:
> <http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/05/11/second-life-sketches-shipwrecked-and-abandoned/>
>
>
> The wind whistles through the brick canyons of Welles City. You strain
> to pick up more sounds, but there's nothing. Ten-storey buildings with
> no one in them. An empty church. Apartment blocks, one after the
> other, with no sign of life. It reminds you of 1980s documentaries
> about the neutron bomb, that would kill all organic life but leave all
> the buildings standing. Streets with no people.
>
> The lights still burn in Darkside. You can pick out the great vaulted
> arches of its beautiful walkways from their glow. In the sunken
> gardens, pools of water glitter among the polished rocks. There's no
> human life to disturb the scene. You feel like you might be walking
> through a diorama, kept on a high shelf somewhere out of sight.
>
> Spindrift echoes with the sense that you're in an evacuated Russian
> science city, or an abandoned Los Alamos. Spindrift's rocket gantries
> are silent and unattended. You catch yourself looking for a blanket of
> dust on its gorgeous experimental devices and mechanical
> constructions.
>
> But you're in Second Life. There is no dust. Everything is preserved
> in chill digital vacuum, waiting for someone to find it.
>
> As I write this, there are more than forty thousand people inworld.
> And yet, everywhere I go is empty. All the streets I walk down recall
> the opening act of 28 DAYS LATER. I find myself wondering where the
> zombies are.
> ----------------------
>
> Lots of people have had lots to say about the recent hype surrounding
> Second Life, but very few have addressed the basic experience of the
> world — that you're incredibly alone there. You can spend eighty
> percent of your time walking through immense, labyrinthine castles
> that no one lives in. Visit a seemingly endless string of shops with
> no customers.
>
> ----------------------
>
> BillK
>
>
>
>
>



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