> ! < on Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:21:03 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> [Augmentology] _A Warcry for Birthing Synthetic Worlds_


// 


    thanx to pighed & second loop for exploring SL

 
> because Second Life is the new Los Angeles.
> specifically, Second Life 2006 = Los Angeles 1929.
 
> people moved into SL for the same reasons people moved into the LA

+ is materialism a specter for SL ? for .. save that nobody 'moves' anywhere
(everyone, in fact, is quite immobile: SL is to Los Angeles as masturbation
is to sex with another).

+ you can't get shot in SL . you can't make love in SL . you can't "do"
*anything* in SL . you can move your hands around on plastic, and type, and
build scripts which result in a screen-based representation that can be
'navigated' and 'modified'. is this materialism missing the point .. ?
    or does SL require a kind of new-media litcrit to appreciate the depth
of its imaginary .. ?

+ i.e. how does skinning an online social 'community' (such as a posting
forum or email list) into 3D suddenly render it in the strongest terms as a
'world' ? 

+ at its most bare, why does an illusionist lightshow suddenly deserve the
term 'world' ? 
    or even the parallel, 'metaphoric' or not, to an actual city .. ?
    -- even metaphorical, but apparently, not really for SL devotees --

 
>> what would happen if John Lennon's assassination were re-enacted in SL
> 
> well, i spent time in a charles manson mansion.  there was great
> attention paid to the blood on the walls.  the tools allowed that
> paintjob and the culture framed the LA-style manson metaphor.

I like this. What does it mean that there was great attention paid to the
blood on the walls ?

I am intrigued when the point arrives when 'real' actors will re-enact
scenes from SL that are themselves re-creations from the real, influenced
themselves by other media imaginaries (such as novels). This double twist of
real / imaginary mediascapes will prompt a more deserving recognition of the
integration of SL into 'world' and vice-versa.

+ point being that the 'metaphor' will only be transcended when a
'synthetic' or 'virtual' event ripples into the real, by way of its doubling
(the synthetic event bearing a trace of the real to begin with, the latter
which itself contains traces of the imaginary) . will this only:

    (1) take place with violence?
    i.e. is the greatest effect so far of 'virtual worlds' the highschool or
college video-game inspired weapon massacre. Columbine, Dawson, etc. (I do
not yet distinguish between SL and a 'game', for the world itself may be
something of a language game, np. Wittgenstein)

    (2) take place with economic and energy effects?
    i.e. that SL requires energy to operate, a technical backbone; as noted
one can make 'money' in SL; of course SL costs money, is corporate, and
generates revenue for its corporate parents; also SL reduces time spent on
other activities, so it has traceable 'economic' affects in this way by
making a large number of bodies immobile, like the noted cases of World of
Warcraft addiction .. point being, will SL only have 'real' effects in this
manner ?

    (3) addiction .
    i.e. will SL, developing point 2, leave its most lasting impression in
the addiction of bodies to screen-based interactions to the point where
one's imaginary is fully translated into a new metaphysics of the digital, a
'world' existing only via electricity and light diodes.

    (4) art  / politics
    i.e. for surely there must be art. and surely SL might (oh, we hope)
raise the specter of the Declaration of Cyberspace (in a decentralized,
FLOSS variant), of the Netizen, etc etc, now that we can wiggle 3D bodies
around and make it seem-so-real. and this might all bleed into the Real,
like we hoped blogging would somehow affect the US election(s) and beat Bush
with the 'tech-arts-blog-savvy' vote. Is this still all too new .. or is it
still all missing the point, and SL serves more as a pt. (3), an ultimate
addiction / distraction that conveniently serves to immobilize bodies+minds
while forces concerned with plundering the planet's resources strip us all
bare while accelerating global theotechnical conflict.

    If there is worldwide ecological meltdown, will it matter for SL ?
    perhaps only for the (1) sustenance of the connected bodies
    & (2) electricity supply .

    _ or will conscientous SL/ers take to rendering SL as barren as the
Real? 

.. or will SL really become that dreamed-of, Hollywood-stylized Matrix..?
    a true escape from the planet's slow failure as it activates its
cleaning system to rid itself of the human virus ?

    -- which will all be much easier if we are sitting targets.. sitting
ducks, so to speak (metaphorically, of course)

<!/g>


> ok; i published a book this spring on my adventures in SL - "I, Avatar,
> The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life..."  \
> http://boar.com/books/avatars
> its got lots of pictures.. portraits, more acurately.
> 
> - mark stephen meadows / pighed
 <...>

.
.
tobias c. van Veen -----------++++ !
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org --
McGill Communication & Philosophy
resistance . through . rhythm .
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