[MD] Inorganic, organic, social, intellectual,.... virtual

[Case]

You can step right down inside it
Into streets all paved with gold
Cast spells upon a dragon
Play music and never grow old.
Neither are they male nor are they female
Either one will do
That chick in the string bikini's just
Another boy named Sue.
-Case

-----------------------------------------

Thanks very much Arlo for all that interesting info - that sets me free.

-Peter

2008/9/5 ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>

> [Petert]
> I'm still very new to SL but I found that it's possible to change the
> avatars
> body, skin and clothing in a few clicks which can be confusing for people
> who
> you met previously with a different appearance...
>
> [Arlo]
> Same "IRL"? No? Imagine if you showed up for work each day with different
> colored hair, differently styled, one day dressed like a sheik, the next
in
> lederhosen? "Identity continuity" is a strong factor in negotiating and
> maintaining stable social relationships.
>
> [Peter]
> so already I started to make an avatar that looks close to the RL me
(minus
> some wrinkles)...
>
> [Arlo]
> I notice you are tying your biological appearance to your "identity" here.
> I'd
> argue that this is something engendered and encouraged by our culture, but
> is
> not inherent. We see ourselves in the mirror so often we come to project a
> self
> that is bound to our physical appearance. But, I'd argue that while this
> often
> parallels the biological reality of our corporeal host, it by no means is
> so
> simple. Consider the case of burn victim Jacqui Saburido, who although for
> many, many years has existed in a severely altered body, has said that the
> person she sees in the mirror is how she looked before the crash. As
minute
> as
> this example seems, ask why you associate a physical reality to your
> identity
> with wrinkles and not one of youth as she does? Many overweight people, we
> have
> found, project the identity "IVL" (in virtual life) of someone thin, as it
> gives them the ability to socially navigate relationships without the
> ostracizing that tags along with their "IRL" encounters. Just some
> thoughts.
>
> [Peter]
> ... as I feel uneasy about pretending to be something I am not.
>
> [Arlo]
> What are you? What are you not? This is the crux of the question. We "are"
> many
> things, many selves, sometimes one role, sometimes another. This is not
> dishonest or disingenuous. If in SL you were interacting with a beautiful
> avatar and later found out here "IRL" body was disfigured by burns, would
> you
> feel she was "dishonest" about who she was? Why is her burned body "who
she
> is"? Let me complicate it more, what if you were blind and your
> interactions
> with her were carried out completely by a text/voice reader? You'd never
> have
> seen her avatar. Would she be dishonest then? Would you think her desire
to
> have a social relationship devoid of the unavoidable social marking that
> comes
> with bodily disfigurement is dishonest? My point is that you are reading a
> bit
> too much dishonesty into the presentation of multiple selves. Although
some
> people, admittedly, intend to deliberately deceive others for malicious
> reasons, this happens ,as you say, inIRL as well (the world is abound with
> charlatans and con-men). But the fact that we, as social humans, present
> different selves in different social roles (self, lover, worker, bar mate,
> support group peer, hobbiest, spouse, grandparent, etc.) is not dishonest,
> but
> underscores the plurality of the self.
>
> [Peter]
> SL is a moral world and you have to work in order to enjoy it.
>
> [Arlo]
> I'd say SL is a social world, and like all social worlds, you must
> negotiate
> your place, follow certain social protocols to achieve certain ends, and
> deal
> with those whose only intent is to disrupt.
>
> There is a short, but interesting story, described here by Julian Dibbell
> as "A
> Rape in Cyberspace", which looks at the odd case of Mr. Bungle.
> (http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html). This recounts a true
> story in
> a MOO, where one user "hacks" the system to take control of the avatars of
> others and makes them perform various sexual acts against the will of
> "their
> users". One avatar is made to stick a kitchen knife in her vagina (MOOs
are
> all
> textual. Does that change anything?) The end result of the Bungle Affair
is
> that the IRL people actually felt violated and went through the same
> emotional
> (or proximal emotional) pains as if it "really happened". Did it "really
> happen"? Did they suffer even a minimally similar emotional trauma? Why
did
> they feel as if they did? Again, just some thoughts.
>
>
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